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Behind the MOOC Harassment Charges That Stunned MIT
An anonymous reader writes: The complainant in a sexual harassment case has come forward and told her story about what happened when she was a student in a MOOC led by a rockstar professor. "It would take almost a year before Harbi, with the help of MIT’s investigators, said she came to understand that Lewin’s interest in her was not motivated by empathy, and that their first conversations included inappropriate language. Shortly after contacting her, Harbi said, Lewin quickly moved their friendship into uncomfortable territory, and she was pushed to participate in online sexual role-playing and send naked pictures and videos of herself."
Tell me more about how women are being oppressed by men and how I, as a man, should be ashamed of myself.
She thought she was sending naked pictures and could maybe win some extra points when grade time came around but it turned out she was just sending naked pictures with no long game payout and that's harassment.
Alright, I'll bite. Was this actually harassment? Was he constantly chatting her up despite her expressed desire not to have contact with him? Was he threatening her in any way to obtain the lewd pics she sent him? Did he continue to be inappropriate after she actually said something about it?
OR
Did she try to score the easy A, get an A- and decide that he was a sexually harassing pig after the fact?
In person it's a little more likely that harassment can happen despite the conditions I outline, it's harder to get away from someone in person, but online??? Come on
WTF! How a 32 years old private English tutor can naively believe sending naked pictures was not involving her into sexual activities? I would consider this as consent, dot period. Perhaps Lewin was infringing the MIT policies, however I would not qualify this as harassment since she, as an adult, decided to go ahead with this from the beginning.
Achille Talon
Hop!
She thought she was sending naked pictures and could maybe win some extra points when grade time came around but it turned out she was just sending naked pictures with no long game payout and that's harassment.
No, wrong wrong wrong wrong. Goddamnit how many illiterate people manage to get this far on Slashdot?! From THE FUCKING ARTICLE:
What may be most difficult to understand, Harbi said, is why anyone would respond to Lewin’s requests. Harbi, who is originally from Algiers, Algeria, is open about having been sexually assaulted in the past, and said she struggles with abandonment issues. The more she tried to distance herself from Lewin, she said, the more he attempted to contact her through email and social media. Ultimately, Harbi said, she felt forced to “obey.”
“We all felt trapped,” Harbi said.
Dziech said Harbi’s history as a victim of sexual assault was relevant.
“That stays with you all of your life,” Dziech, who this quarter teaches a seminar on child and adolescent abuse, said. “You never get beyond it no matter how much therapy. It’s terrifying, and it raises another problem for all institutions: They can never know the background of the student -- in what way the student is vulnerable.”
Slashdot: The place where the most "interesting" and "insightful" comments are completely made up fantasies about what actually happened.
Look ladies, yea I'm a middle aged white male, but why do some of you let these things happen to you?
Now I'm not saying this guy doesn't deserve to be castigated for demeaning women, but shesh ladies, you need to have some self respect. I'm not saying this wasn't harassment, but don't let some scumbag do this kind of thing to you. Where is the outcry for the way this woman was raised? Where is the outcry for the mentalities that lead to a woman who cannot or will not stand up for herself? Who thinks that this kind of behavior is OK? That asking for and expecting racy pictures over the internet is something you can do? Why do we see situations where women are OBVIOUSLY bullied into doing things they wouldn't or didn't really want to do?
I raised my daughter to not be afraid to say no and mean it. To tell these abusers to take a hike, don't be manipulated into doing things you don't want to. If they don't respect you, they are not worth dealing with. Don't suffer fools who disrespect you and above all, respect yourself enough to say "NO WAY scumbag!" and mean it regardless who's asking or what position they hold.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
And they could have stopped it immediately by blocking him on FB and/or just stopped the course they paid a whole $0 for.
In the whole history of people being psychologically manipulated and abused, they *all* could have stopped it simply by saying no, and walking away. Yet they don't. Kinda suggests that doing so is very difficult to do, and that there are things in play that you are not crediting.
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Yeah! They are poor things incapable to be responsible of what they engage into, in particular if they are 32 years old and adults. So, beware!
Achille Talon
Hop!
Or do you have to asssume each time you engage a conversation with someone he/she is not responsible for what he/she says?
There is a big difference between having a conversation with someone that touches on things vs actively seeking out and exploiting those things.
Lewin was an idiot and was framed.
Lewin was an idiot, but if he actively groomed these victims, then he was not framed.
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I actively groomed my wife to marry me through Charm and Seduction. If we had not married would it then be harassment a year later if she had decided she didn't like me for whatever reason?
Yes, maybe in the real world, face to face interaction where you can't click block and they're gone.
And that comes across as a "True Scotsman" logical fallacy, by suggesting that psychological manipulation is erased by distance.
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It's a tricky question. I would say that the dividing line is coercion-- is the professor using some form of threat, or promising good grades?
I think that's where you have to draw the line. I mean a college-aged girl has to get over the fact that older men will be attracted to her, and make advances. Just because she's creeped-out by it, doesn't necessarily mean it's inappropriate. Ultimately gender equality means others have the right to hit on her, and she has the right to tell them to fuck-off. That's what you do as an adult.
And it's not as if women don't use their sex-appeal when it suits them.
This Sig does not Exist.
Why do you need his physical address? Do you want to step up and do more then mere words?
If you want to show how words hurt you can do that right here, in this thread.
So that maybe he can send some threatening or harassing words to the AC's home address, where his family will also see it.
See, the problem isn't that "he sent her some words." People do that all the time online, I close stupid spam IMs every week. What differentiates just regular words from situations like this is when one person does hold some power over another that makes it difficult for the harassee to avoid the harasser. Say, if your boss starts sexually harassing you, and you can't risk jeopardizing your job. Or your teacher starts to harass you, and you can't afford to fail the class. Sexual harassment isn't something you should have to suffer with, as the fault is always with the harasser, and our various harassment laws handle the cases of workplace harassment.
Nobody's ever said harassment didn't exist. It does, as does rape, murder, fraud, and pickpocketing. Usually perpetrated by psychos and disturbed individuals.
Psychos and seriously disturbed people also exist, of course - unfortunately some of them seem to think that there's an enormous epidemic of rape and harassment.
It's a tricky question. I would say that the dividing line is coercion-- is the professor using some form of threat, or promising good grades?
I think that's where you have to draw the line. I mean a college-aged girl has to get over the fact that older men will be attracted to her, and make advances. Just because she's creeped-out by it, doesn't necessarily mean it's inappropriate.
I guess you didn't read the story. Let's ay you were married to one of those hot college aged girls, and one of her professors keeps asking her ot send nude photos and videos of herself. Now you might find that hot as hell yourself, most of us would be a little annoyed. I'd certainy expect my wife ot be annoyed.
Ultimately gender equality means others have the right to hit on her, and she has the right to tell them to fuck-off.
And if he or she doesn't stop? This really isn't about getting the nerve up to ask for a date. This is an almost classic example of a person in a position of power finding a mark to go after. This woman had a few problems of her own - she takes anti-anxiety and anti-depressants. Which some folks do find easy to manipulate. But taking medications is neither a crime, nor an excuse to take advantage of.
And apparently she documented this also after some time when it had progressed too far. This is creepy to most people not just her.
And it's not as if women don't use their sex-appeal when it suits them.
Well sure. But now you're using the "she asked to be raped" stupidity. There is a difference between dressing nicely, flirting, and being your mythical "harassment bait". I enjoy looking at pretty women. I don't ask them to send me naked videos of themselves on the internet.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
A 32 year old woman took a year to recognize that the harassment "started day one", and when she was "pushed" by her PHYSICS professor to participate in online sexual roleplay and send naked pictures (which she did?) she didn't comprehend that his interest in her might be more than academic?
At what age is someone expected to be able to deploy the word "no" on their own behalf?
-Styopa
I think that's where you have to draw the line. I mean a college-aged girl has to get over the fact that older men will be attracted to her, and make advances. Just because she's creeped-out by it, doesn't necessarily mean it's inappropriate.
Just a quick note-- she wasn't a "college-aged girl"-- she was 32.
Ultimately gender equality means others have the right to hit on her, and she has the right to tell them to fuck-off.
And if he or she doesn't stop? This really isn't about getting the nerve up to ask for a date. This is an almost classic example of a person in a position of power finding a mark to go after.
But, uh, he wasn't in a position with any power over her. She was a student in a not for credit, no grade course that he taught. He had no power whatsoever.
And it's not as if women don't use their sex-appeal when it suits them.
Well sure. But now you're using the "she asked to be raped" stupidity.
Warning! Warning! Strawman argument! Warning!
She wasn't raped. She was not raped . She--voluntarily-- send him nude pictures.