There is much to rejoice in how the ‘McGinn affair’ (apologies for the tabloid-like terminology!) unfolded; in particular, this may well be the first time that a ‘big shot’ philosopher was in fact reprimanded for inadequate behavior of this nature towards a graduate student. (And in my opinion, the central administration as well as the department of philosophy at the University of Miami deserve to be praised for taking the complaint seriously and carrying through with the investigation – something that is by no means a given.) But we’ve also heard some people (as it so happens, mostly senior, male academics) voicing the opinion that the reprimand was disproportionate to what McGinn had actually done. After all, he had ‘only’ sent suggestive emails to the student; he hadn’t even attacked her physically or anything like that. In my opinion, these people severely underestimate the impact that even ‘mild’ forms of harassment can have on their victims, so in this post I hope to be able to provide at least a glimpse of ‘what it’s like’ to be at the receiver end of a harassment episode.
I can’t speak much from personal experience, as luckily I’ve never had to experience the kind of harassment in professional circles that creates a situation of discomfort (or worse). (I have though once been sexually harassed during an intercontinental flight, at age 18, and I remember very well how difficult it is even to muster the courage to complain to whoever is in charge or to the harasser himself.) But I’ve heard enough experiences from others to start having an idea of the devastating effects it can have.
I will start with the anecdote that a young, talented female philosopher shared with me in confidence recently. In her area of expertise, there is a young, very charming male ‘star’ who makes lots of waves in the field and (rightly) receives lots of love for his work. Now, whenever they meet at academic events, the male star consistently makes suggestions to the young female philosopher that are clearly well beyond the appropriate, such as that she should visit his hotel room, and others of similar caliber. There is no institutional connection between the young female and the male star, unlike in the McGinn case, but it has come to the point that the young female simply avoids attending the events she knows the male star will be attending, so as to circumvent awkward situations. What choices does she have? If she explicitly refuses his advances, it is not unthinkable that he may retaliate and start ‘badmouthing’ the young female and her work among their peers; given the amount of influence he has in the field, this would be a very bad outcome for her. So she is left with the option of politely negotiating the inappropriate advances of the male star (given that she has no interest in pursuing this particular avenue -- something she has made abundantly clear), which can be quite draining, or else avoiding any form of contact with him, which in turn negatively affects her professional prospects. As ‘innocent’ as such advances may seem, in a professional context they can clearly have adverse consequences for at least one of the parties.
More seriously, last week The Guardian posted a piece by an anonymous female postgraduate (and although this is not made explicitly, it sounds as if it is a philosophy student) which tells the story of the devastating effects first of a rape occurrence when she was an undergraduate, and then of sexual harassment as a postgraduate student. It is important to keep the rape occurrence in mind when reading the piece, as being raped (while sadly an all-too-common event) is often a deeply disturbing experience, leaving life-long scars. True enough, some rape victims manage to rebound and move on relatively unscathed, but this should in no way be held against those who do not. (It is well known that people differ considerably in levels of resilience when faced with grave adversities.)
So I invite all of those who are of the opinion that McGinn’s behavior was merely a mild transgression to reflect on how difficult it is to appreciate the actual impact of deeds such as his in a professional setting. The power dynamics makes it virtually impossible for the weaker end of the relationship (obviously, the graduate student in this case) to reject such advances explicitly, given the damage that this could cause to his/her professional advancement. Any senior faculty who becomes attracted to someone directly under his/her supervision should immediately discontinue the professional relationship. It is only then that romantic/sexual advances will be like in any other case of a person becoming attracted (and being reciprocated or not) to someone else.
We all know of many stories with a happy ending of relationships between faculty and graduate students, but this should not distract us from the many other stories where the weaker side (and this could be both female and male graduate students) suffers considerable damage to his/her career even from ‘mild, innocent’ forms of harassment. This is what I hope those who saw the outcome for McGinn as disproportionate to his actions could appreciate.
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