If nothing else, at least I’m finding some brilliant people to read the blogs of which, and to follow on Twitter and all that good stuff.

Like Richard P Grant at the Guardian’s Occam’s corner.

[W]hat is happening now is nothing less than the silencing of voices that should be heard. Voices of people who took issue with what was said in Korea, who highlighted the sexism, and who said that such comments were harmful and should not go unchallenged.

Again, it doesn’t matter whether you agree with those voices, or which side you are on; what matters is that respectable academics still low down on the career ladder are being silenced by those who hold positions of real power.

Yes. Those Nobel laureates, and Dawkins – they’re doing their best to silence people who are trying to fix a very flawed work environment.

These people are not slinging mud to wreck someone’s reputation in the absence of even the slightest hint of truth. They want to make reasoned comments and have an open debate about the issues. But they end up saying things like, “I’m afraid to tweet this”:

Is there not one senior academic, one Nobel Laureate, who will stand up and in unflinching language decry sexism and the support of sexism that we are currently seeing from so many leading figures? This isn’t about Sir Tim anymore. This is about an inability amongst senior scientists to understand and take seriously the responsibilities that their power has bestowed upon them.

I’m betting they don’t agree that they are responsibilities.

It’s not just that we have the usual horde of spotty teenage scuzbuckets threatening violence and rape to any woman who dares to have an opinion – such behaviour is sadly almost de rigeur. No, it’s comments from Nobel laureates, and others who might have some influence over your career, that scares academics into silence.

Nobel laureates – almost the definition of ultimate power in academic science – claim that their liberty is under threat, and that they find the response to their sexist comments to be “frightening”. They claim, in fact, that other people calling them out for stupid remarks in some way threatens their own academic freedom.

Well the whole point of academic freedom is to be able to say sexist shit when it pops into your head over lunch.

But why, as a (female, academic) friend asked earlier, are these Nobel laureates so frightened by “a bunch of girls”? Is it that the world is changing, and casual sexism is no longer acceptable? Is that so much of a threat?

 

Yes. Why? I guess because people who have been used to dominating for a long time find it gross and shocking that anyone would expect them to learn to share.