Days after board members laughed at the exchange, the Washington County Board of Education called the comments “shocking,” saying “no explanation can justify that.”
I was being over the top with the complicity mostly out if anger at the situation. I understand that people respond poorly in stressful situations but we need to start getting better at it.
Yeah I agree with all of that. Part of what was in my mind is that I would perceive a man laughing as very different than a woman laughing. I assume that all women live under potential sexual threat from men at all times, and laughing at an advance is a way to defuse it without getting confrontational. “Haha surely you jest” is actually a deflection, even if it isn’t a head on confrontation. I’m a man and I don’t fear direct confrontations, but I understand women don’t have the same privilege as I do in this regard.
I was being over the top with the complicity mostly out if anger at the situation. I understand that people respond poorly in stressful situations but we need to start getting better at it.
This was a time I think it mattered to speak up.
Yeah I agree with all of that. Part of what was in my mind is that I would perceive a man laughing as very different than a woman laughing. I assume that all women live under potential sexual threat from men at all times, and laughing at an advance is a way to defuse it without getting confrontational. “Haha surely you jest” is actually a deflection, even if it isn’t a head on confrontation. I’m a man and I don’t fear direct confrontations, but I understand women don’t have the same privilege as I do in this regard.