I’m a Catholic and a Libertarian, I not only put that out, but also state very clearly what I do or do not believe, and make no bones about “pulling someone’s card” instead of weaselling and rationalizing “Not Every Catholic thinks alike.”

True to a certain extent. When they deny the Nicene Creed, though I’m not going to call them brother or sister.

While false accusations from a male student might be “rare” (how rare, we don’t know, since nobody’s put up actual numbers for anything), are you going to tell me they NEVER, EVER happen? Or that a false accusation would not devastate a professor’s career? One would think that in an abundance of caution, professors (male and female) would institute doors-open, no-intimate-dinners, etc policies across the board.

Well, you know, one would think that. Apparently, though, the amount of false accusations from male students on female teachers is so small so as to be off the radar as to people worrying about it.

Sorry about that, but it sure seems to be what happens when the rubber meets the road. You play the odds. This is how the odds play out. Gonzo didn’t issue that edict.

There’s a reason for it. You put that reason down to some propeller hatted Great Patriarchal Conspiracy ™.

Reserving them for women only, and using them as excuses to short female students on mentoring, makes it quite clear that what’s going on is not really self-protection. It’s one more excuse seized on by mentors who really would rather hang with the guys.

Long as we got feminists talking about how much men can gain from being falsely accused, and the accompanying silent assent from the peanut gallery….

I got Falsely accused. Thank God I tape my private meetings. Even so, it was hushed up because of the “chilling effect” actually punishing a liar would have on other “victims.” Yeah - I gained something positivge - I learned how this PC crap works in real life as opposed to the BS rationalization about it, and vowed never again.

And say what you want - avoiding the appearance of and the near occasion of sure does WORK. Kind of hard to accuse me of fondling you if I keep our meetings in an open, glass windowed conference room for all to see, ain’t it?

Yeah, I know - “Lumping all women…” I’ll tell you what; you go to that frat party and get staggering drunk, and trust those nice boys to put you to bed and prove how you don’t “lump all men…” then get back with me and tell me how it worked for ya.

(And, while you don’t seem to care much about *actual* harassment, which you apparently believe never, EVER happens,

Bull.

A little due process, some proof - THEN I’ll join you in smearing the SOB’s name. Pardon the hell out of me if joining a witch hunt a la Duke offends my sense of justice. Last I heard in America, we kind of put the whole sentence thing after the trial, not the accusation, and even then only if a conviction results from said Trial.

Or is there a feminist version of “Amerika” I’m not familiar with?

such cautions by professors would also tend to short out real predators.

Gee, fancy that. Imagine - don’t go into a private tete-a-tete, and nobody ever questions what goes on in there. Who’d have thunk? Wow, that’s cray enough to work.

Unless you’re a man protecting yourself, then, of course you’re just a sexist so-and-so whose only motivations are malicious.

It’s a little harder for Professor O’Creepy to shut her door for ‘private talks’ with her male grad students if she knows people will look askance at that shut door.)

And of course, if almost fifty Gonzo goes into a private session with some sweet young thang, nobody will EVER raise an eyebrow.

Give me a break, Myth.

You subscribe to a political philosophy which denies false accusations, or pronounces them to be of such inconsequential percentages as to be not worth worrying about.

In other words, what I actually say or believe doesn’t matter; I’m a feminist, therefore you can simply invent what you think I should say or believe? If I applied that same standard to you, you’d be huffing and puffing.

While false accusations from a male student might be “rare” (how rare, we don’t know, since nobody’s put up actual numbers for anything), are you going to tell me they NEVER, EVER happen? Or that a false accusation would not devastate a professor’s career? One would think that in an abundance of caution, professors (male and female) would institute doors-open, no-intimate-dinners, etc policies across the board.

Reserving them for women only, and using them as excuses to short female students on mentoring, makes it quite clear that what’s going on is not really self-protection. It’s one more excuse seized on by mentors who really would rather hang with the guys.

(And, while you don’t seem to care much about *actual* harassment, which you apparently believe never, EVER happens, such cautions by professors would also tend to short out real predators. It’s a little harder for Professor O’Creepy to shut her door for ‘private talks’ with her male grad students if she knows people will look askance at that shut door.)

Actually, a Freudian slip is when you say one thing but mean your mother.

Where did I say “never happens”? Oh, that’s right–I said exactly the opposite.

You subscribe to a political philosophy which denies false accusations, or pronounces them to be of such inconsequential percentages as to be not worth worrying about.

Apparently, when one gets in the real world, and away from Ivory Towers of Theory, things are a bit different.

It’s not an unintended consequence; it’s a deliberate choice.

As said above, it’s Feminists with Women’s Studies Degrees making those policies. :D I mean, hell, far, far better than to admit that “Hey - there actually are women who do make such false claims as a means of (_____insert reason________)” - no, instead, never admit you might be wrong - make corporate policies that truly do make women outsiders, and receiving of special treatment.

Boyo, there’s a solution. Of course, it’s another way to insure that they still have something to complain about, too, so might be crazy like a fox, eh wot?

Of course, it also avoids the dilemma of having to adopt the knee-jerk, blinkered “Believe your Sister, no matter how patently bogus her claims may be” and still allows you to go after the man for “violating policy” so I guess it does follow.

You’re in a snit because your political stance of “nope, nope, never happens”

Where did I say “never happens”? Oh, that’s right–I said exactly the opposite.

What I am in glee over is not the fact that some women are suffering from it, but that it is an unintended consequence from things we warned long ago would happen.

It’s not an unintended consequence; it’s a deliberate choice.

(The fact that some accusations are true is, I suppose, beyond comprehension.)

No more so than the fact that some are false is beyond compassion from you.

Tsk, yourself. You’re in a snit because your political stance of “nope, nope, never happens” is demonstrated as absurd in the extreme by posing a direct “Yes or No” question, which is why you resent it being asked.

Do some students–male and female–make false accusations of harassment? Indeed they do.

Heh. Be neat to see the percentages of how that breaks down, eh wot?

But what you gents are proposing is not really “take sensible precautions to make sure nobody accuses you of abusing your authority”; you’re jumping up and down with glee at the notion of punishing all female students because some have made accusations of harassment that weren’t true.

Not precisely. What I am in glee over is not the fact that some women are suffering from it, but that it is an unintended consequence from things we warned long ago would happen.

(The fact that some accusations are true is, I suppose, beyond comprehension.)

No more so than the fact that some are true is beyond compassion from you.

Ah, but he wouldn’t have to be gay. He’d just have to say you were. And of course, nowadays we have female professors, so he wouldn’t even have to be worried about picking a man as his target!

But I notice you didn’t have the hair to answer MY questions.

Tsk. When you dodge my questions, you pout and accuse me of trying to make you follow a script. Yet when you pose a have-you-stopped-beating-your-wife question you think you’re a prosecutor on Law & Order.

Do some students–male and female–make false accusations of harassment? Indeed they do. But what you gents are proposing is not really “take sensible precautions to make sure nobody accuses you of abusing your authority”; you’re jumping up and down with glee at the notion of punishing all female students because some have made accusations of harassment that weren’t true. (The fact that some accusations are true is, I suppose, beyond comprehension.)

Ah, but he wouldn’t have to be gay. He’d just have to say you were. And of course, nowadays we have female professors, so he wouldn’t even have to be worried about picking a man as his target!

(And I thought we feminazis were the ones who were all huggin’ on the queers? Not on the Gonz Planet, I guess.)

But I notice you didn’t have the hair to answer MY questions.

Tsk. When you dodge my questions, you pout and accuse me of trying to make you follow a script. Yet when you pose a have-you-stopped-beating-your-wife question you think you’re a prosecutor on Law & Order.

Do some students–male and female–make false accusations of harassment? Indeed they do. But what you gents are proposing is not really “take sensible precautions”. It’s the angry attitude that women either have to be treated like ladies, or treated like trash. The punishment for women daring to complain that they shouldn’t be treated like airheads or fuck-toys is being cut out of the academic loop entirely.

But I guess that, as usual, it’s better to blame the cunts instead of blaming the people who created this atmosphere. That’d be the predators we mentioned earlier. But we can’t have that, because if we think one man has ever been bad we’re all feminazis, aren’t we?

It’s so rare, obviously, that it is not worried about. Of course it doesn’t help that a male student would almost universally be accused of being a closeted homosexual if they did complain, even - nay, ESPECIALLY if true.

Including by feminists.

Do you believe that a professor harassing or assaulting a grad student never, EVER happens

Sure does happen, to male and female students alike by male and female teachers.

and that anyone claiming her professor hit on her is always, ALWAYS lying?

Apparently happens with enough frequency that “appearance of evil” policies are enacted.

Or are you suggesting these things happen in a vacuum, or are a result of some propeller-headed “Great Patriarchal Conspiracy” ™ plot for da man to keep da woman down? (Damn, that’s what I get for missing meetings of the International Brotherhood of He-Man Woman Haters…)

And do you believe that somebody who is maliciously inventing charges of harassment is going to be stopped dead in her tracks because her intended victim leaves his door open during meetings?

Well, in fact I do believe that if I take proper precautions any such charges will be more easily refuted by an exponential order of magnitude.

But I notice you didn’t have the hair to answer MY questions.

A very good argument for not having the student/supervisee/mentee of the opposite sex in the office at all. Were I a professor/supervisor/mentor, that’d certainly be my policy. I also wouldn’t have an openly gay male StuSuMe (if I may coin an abbreviation) in my office either. I suppose it’s still possible a closeted gay male StuSuMe could make an accusation, but if that were the case I’d rely on my status as a widowed former husband, father of two and a guy who is genuinely known to date women to help protect my reputation and boister my defense. You play the odds as best you can in these situations, and in our hypersensitized, litigous times I’m going to err on the side of caution.

I’d feel very bad if a woman or openly gay StuSuMe missed out on something I had to offer as a result. It’d be a shame if a genuinely hard working, eager to learn StuSuMe didn’t get the full benefit of the college experience or work experience or after school program experience because of my need to cover my ass. But then I’d remember my two children I mentioned earlier, whose welfare are always my first priority and who rely on my having a job and a decent reputation. And I’d remember my own welfare, a close second priority. And I’d remember that neither I nor anybody like me created this atmosphere between men and women. Then I’d go home and sleep well at night.