And now, on today's segment of Postmodern Geometry: The #MeToo Dilemma.
Here's your problem of the day:
A lesbian humanities professor at an elite university sexually harasses a gay (male) student: Who is the victim?
Well, according to the academic community, Avital Ronell, 66, professor of German and Comparative Literature at New York University, is the real victim, even though she (allegedly) sexually harassed a former student.
The New York Times wrote about the whole ordeal in an article titled "What Happens to #MeToo When a Feminist Is the Accused?"
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Ronell has, quite publicly, been accused of sexually harassing Nimrod Reitman, 34, a former graduate student and currently a visiting fellow at Harvard. Of course, Ronell is an academic rock star, or, as a colleague said, "one of the very few philosopher-stars of this world," but the investigation concluded she was "responsible for sexual harassment, both physical and verbal, to the extent that her behavior was 'sufficiently pervasive to alter the terms and conditions of Mr. Reitman's learning environment.'"
She has been suspended for 2018-2019.
The accusations? "Reitman's claims that before the school year in 2012, Ronell invited him to stay with her in Paris for a few days"
"The day he arrived, she asked him to read poetry to her in her bedroom while she took an afternoon nap, he said. "That was already a red flag to me," said Mr. Reitman. "But I also thought, O.K., you're here. Better not make a scene." Then, he said, she pulled him into her bed. "She put my hands onto her breasts, and was pressing herself — her buttocks — onto my crotch," he said. "She was kissing me, kissing my hands, kissing my torso." That evening, a similar scene played out again, he said."
From e-mails:
I woke up with a slight fever and sore throat. I will try very hard not to kiss you — until the throat situation receives security clearance. This is not an easy deferral!
Another:
Time for your midday kiss. my image during meditation: we're on the sofa, your head on my lap, stroking you [sic] forehead, playing softly with yr hair, soothing you, headache gone. Yes?
Most startling, the responsible from over 50 of her colleagues, all educators from around the globe:
Although we have no access to the confidential dossier, we have all worked for many years in close proximity to Professor Ronell and accumulated collectively years of experience to support our view of her capacity as teacher and a scholar, but also as someone who has served as Chair of both the Departments of German and Comparative Literature at New York University. We have all seen her relationship with students, and some of us know the individual who has waged this malicious campaign against her.
Care to guess whether or not she likes President Donald Trump? You guessed it. Here's some of her academic linguistic prowess at work:
I take it as rigorously necessary that Trump's mouthhole be the flapping aperture to funnel floods of radically unleashed aggression, the toxic spill of excrementalized language, part of his recourse to a crucial intersection where Twitterature meets Sh**terature.
Ah. Academia just constantly outdoes itself. Every time an academic talks, it's like poetry. Right? Right?
