A man and a gender studies professor walk into an elevator...

You are being silly.

The issue is that when this gender studies professor got offended, she hunted down this guy's name and she wrote a letter to his professional organization to shame him into an apology.

What this offended professor did isn't "exactly" like what I have done." It is a silly game you are playing. Give yourself 10 points if you want. I would prefer a serious conversation.

The point that set you off was where I was trying to get you to see the other side of the story. I was asking how you would feel if someone went to your employer to publicly shame you into making an apology. You don't seem to want to consider this.

It would be fair for you to ask me to put myself in the position of the offended person, and I have done exactly that.

I can not imagine going to your employer for a remark that you make in an elevator. I might respond directly to you, but I am not going to be as spiteful as this gender studies professor under any circumstances I can imagine.

Oh, ok. And how is that so different than YOU still being mad about a previous post, and calling me out for a public apology on THIS post? It's not a silly game when YOU are in the hot seat.

You don't want a serious discussion, you want to whine about feminism.

Back up your statements of WHY you decided to call me out specifically.

There is the mind reading again.

Your are missing the point. I was never "mad". I was only asking you to consider the issue from the other perspective. You seem to be very resistant to doing this.

You are the only one whining about feminism here. I have been very patient, explaining my criticism with this incident and with what I see in feminism in general. I have listed my points and my reasoning behind each one.

I have also pointed out areas where I agree with feminism. I think I have been pretty fair.

Any criticism of feminism seems to really upset you.

You seem to be resist to WHY the gender studies professor would seek out an apology to the point of going to the man's superior to get one.

You have not been fair at all.

You don't see the correlation between what you did and the gender studies professor. You have been evasive and call things silly when you get called out on your own behavior.

Yes. That is exactly right. I see no excuse for the behavior of this woman.

I don't the idea that feminism is a religion, where any criticism of it's sacred beliefs are treated as blasphemy. And I don't accept the idea that women are so fragile that any joke about lingerie leads to a vindictive demand of a formal apology under the threat of someone's career.

I accept your right to disagree with me, this issue is a value judgment. But in my opinion what this women did to demand an apology was unjustified and extreme.

And you did the very same thing.

Only it's not called feminism.

You keep saying the same thing. It still doesn't make any sense to me

People can display poor behavior and it has nothing to do with feminism. The gender studies professor was mad and wanted a pound of flesh. It's not any different from YOU still harboring resentment from another post and bringing it here. You choose to seek out my pound of flesh. Again, you could have handled it much different - but you didn't.

Just for your information, the phrase "pound of flesh" is from The Merchant of Venice. The character who is seeking a "pound of flesh" in this play is Shylock; a stereotypical greedy Jewish money lender. Many people find this stereotype to be offensive.

If you are worried about not saying things that might offend people, you might not want to use this particular phrase, especially when attacking someone of Jewish heritage.

I am just telling you this for your information. I am pretty sure you didn't know this or intend this as an ethnic slur. No apology is needed. But for future reference, it is best for you to avoid using this phrase when you are attacking someone.

Again, you've proven a civil discourse with you is futile. You resist any and all attempts to improve your understanding of the world you live in.

Yes, I do know where the phrase comes from. Your deflection into trying to "educate" on Jewish custom without knowing a single thing about me is quite amusing. Maybe if you had known my mother was Jewish you would have not gone that route.

Anyway, since this is a made up scenario where you get to pick and choose the narrative, it's hard to discern fact from fiction. I'm having difficulty seeing your point of view. I've offered a solution to the problem for the man apologizing for a wayward comment but you feel that isn't necessary because it wouldn't be genuine. How you would even know that is beyond me.

I've offered the gender studies professor acted poorly and acted in haste and that doesn't seem to fit your narrative either. Nope, it MUST be a true act of Feminism to make someone angry enough to seek resolution. Even though the human emotion anger is not gender specific, the fault seems to fall on Feminism. That's it, the ONLY reasonable explanation is your go-to stance, Feminism is out of control and needs scaled back.

You say you've been patient. Well, trust me, so have I. And I'll keep on being patient. I would have hoped for a better dialog without digs about apologies in your posts but that just wasn't possible. I would have hoped for a better dialog without being taught about Jewish heritage but that isn't possible either.

I just hoped for a better dialog. Period.

I don't know why you have made this personal. You said something that many people feel is an ethnic slur to make an attack. I am sure it was accidental, and I thought you might want to know that. I wasn't attacking your motives or your character. I was simply explaining that that particular phrase might not be the best one to use in a dialog. That has nothing to do with the discussion. If you don't care, then just drop it.

It sounds like we are mostly in agreement now... at least about the behavior of this gender studies professor. I think we disagree about whether the man had an obligation to apologize. It seems likely to me, based on what she wrote, that in the mind of the gender studies professor at least her actions were about feminism.

I have no problem with you disagreeing with me. I am enjoying this discussion. It doesn't seem like you are enjoying yourself.... you don't have to engage if you this discussion frustrates you. As long as you keep posting things that engage me, I will keep responding. You are a good foil, and you have given me to opportunity to sharpen my points, and you have helped me keep other people reading my posts.

The thing here Max,

As much as you want to rant about anti-feminist view points, this scenario just isn't what you claim it to be. It's humanistic. Escalation occurred because the man couldn't exercise common decency to admit he erred in judgement. He was wrong, won't admit it and it cost him a reprimand. Now if you think the gender studies professor was wrong for escalating it, well, too bad. Maybe next time he'll keep his flippant comments to himself.

You seem to be changing your opinion now. I think you are taking this discussion personally.

- I do not believe that this man did any thing wrong. I don't think he had any obligation to give her an apology. I would not have given this gender studies professor an apology, especially after she went over my head to pressure me for one. You and I seem to disagree on this point.

- I believe that what this gender studies professor did was nasty, vindictive and wrong. She went over his head to pressure him to give an apology by publicly shaming him. You seem to be dithering on this point. On some posts you seem to agree that the behavior of this professor was wrong. On other posts you seem to back track and justify it. It would be interesting for you to state clearly your opinion on this one point.

- It is my opinion that feminism in general, and the MeToo movement specifically, often cross a line into ridiculousness. Both feminism and the MeToo movement start in a reasonable place; I support equality in the workplace, and condemn abuses of power. But these stories show examples where people take major offense at minor slights that have nothing to do with equality, or abuse of power. That is why I posted this story which I believe supports my narrative.

You seem to disagree with me on this opinion.

- You seem to take this very personally. My criticisms of feminism, which I have stated clearly with examples, are not personal attacks against you. You shouldn't be in in a discussion that I started specifically to discuss my criticisms of feminism if you don't enjoy it.

There is nothing you have said here that I take personally. I disagree with you on some things, but if I didn't there would be no reason for this discussion.

- I do not accept that there is anything that is beyond criticism. Once an ideology becomes something that can't be questioned, it becomes dangerous. If you question my beliefs... I might disagree with you, but I won't take it personally.

I don't care either way because it's a made up story to garner responses tailored to your liking.

Again, the man could have ended this civilly but he chose not to. He was rude, nasty and vindictive. It angered her, just like it would anybody else. The professor used the chain of command to get a resolution.

Humanistic. Not feministic.

The rest of it is just garbage.

You are being silly. Obviously, I posted this particular story because I am critical of modern feminism, particularly when it goes to extremes. I felt this story supports my narrative. I am expressing my opinion of feminism. That being said, this is not a "made up" story (it really happened). What's your point?

You disagree with me about this man's obligation to apologize. I am fine with that.

It seems like you are taking this a bit too personally.

No, I'm not changing anything.

It doesn't matter whether you think the man did anything wrong.

It doesn't matter what you feel about a gender studies professor.

We all know your views on feminism.

I'm not taking anything personally.

I don't see why you would take anything personally.

You made up this story.

The End.

You are being silly.

You come to a thread about my views of the excesses of modern feminism. You make post after post on this thread. And then you say that you don't care about the topic. Writing all those posts on a topic you don't care about doesn't make very much sense.

I do appreciate you engaging. I honestly enjoyed interacting with you (or I wouldn't have bothered). And this thread now has hundreds of views, thanks largely to your participation (without you this thread would have died, largely unread, after the first page.).

So thank you.

No where did I say I didn't care about the topic of feminism. Your condescending attitude with calling me silly three times now proves how poorly you can interact with a woman.

Not once have I stooped to that level of conversation that belittles someone. But I'll change that right now.

My original position stands. The man's an ass and got what he deserved.