I am now asked not to try to change peoples’ ways of communicating and I wonder what this directive means or to what event it refers.
Last year that Blackguard informed me that one of our colleagues was too old and ugly to be raped, but that I was not yet. I said, I beg you not to express yourself in that manner. He said, oh yes, you are an Anglo-Saxon prude, that is right, I will keep it in mind.
Now this Blackguard has informed me that another of our colleagues “does what her cunt hairs dictate to her” (and not what her professional training might). The reason I just raised my eyebrows was that if I say anything, I will merely get another rude response.
But as a theoretical question I also wonder whether objecting would fall under “trying to change people’s ways of communicating.”
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
Egads.
(Came by to thank you for the kind words and to begin to catch up – I have sort of dropped most everything…for good causes but still.)
Hi, Rebel Girl!
The thing about this Blackguard is that he is right in substance, if not in style (I also don’t trust his actual motivations, but his surface ones — which amount to a defense of rationality — are actually needed). It is a real conundrum because he is really upsetting. Yet if I report, I play into the hands of my OWN class enemies. It is exhausting.
Yep. I know what you mean.
Ugh. What a position to be in. Is there a way to circulate his comments without officially reporting it? If he can be shamed/exposed without official intervention it might be more effective and less work.
This is my speculation from one who knows nothing of the politics of the situation, so of course you are doing/should do as you see fit. In hopes of peace and justice!
Well, people know about them. During an earlier episode the department chair told him not to speak in this way. He told the department chair we were lying to damage him, and that he never spoke that way and much less to women. He then came to tell me that he had done this and the department chair had believed him. I think that is entirely possible since he doesn’t speak that way to people he respects, and since the department chairs tend to believe destructive rumors spread about me more than they do those about others (women with MAs and men with PhDs are both better classes of people than I am, said I bitterly).
Meanwhile, he has now used another picturesque expression I enjoyed more; to insult a man. The sentence was: “He is a judge, but he rubs the law on the skin of his balls.” Meaning: he is a judge who does not respect the law. This for some reason I do not find jarring.
Well, men are not shamed for possessing balls. Male genitalia are weaponry, or armor, or some such thing.
Simply possessing a cunt is the problem here, for him. He could have said anything to that effect.
AHA, I get it. 🙂 (God!)