"Incredibly Hot" -- the Michael Gee case

A fourth post for the day! Can you tell it's the lull before the storm of grading summer finals?

The discussion below this post has turned to a technical debate over whether women can climax from having their forearms stroked. Not what I anticipated when I made the original post, but there you go.

There's a related discussion on feminism and male fantasies at Nonpartisan's Our Word blog.  Nonpartisan is a man posting on a feminist forum, and he's troubled by the violent content of many men's sexual fantasies.  He invites discussion on whether these fantasies are rooted in biology or culture, and gets some thoughtful responses.  And someone posts this old Harry Chapin song with some very appropriate lyrics.

I've also followed with interest the case of Michael Gee, the non-tenured journalism professor fired from his teaching job at Boston University after posting on an internet blog site that one of his students was "incredibly hot."  A verbatim quote from Professor Gee on a public blog:

Of my six students, one (the smartest, wouldn't you know it?) is incredibly hot. If you've ever been to Israel, she's got the sloe eyes and bitchin' bod of the true Sabra. It was all I could do to remember the other five students. I sense danger, Will Robinson.

I mean, there's so much wrong there, where do we start?  And who still uses "bitchin'" anymore?  Didn't that go out with the first Reagan Administration?  (I should probably just google it, but aren't Sabras native-born Israelis, or am I confusing the term with something else?)

Gee was promptly fired (he had no tenure protection).   As one who normally defends even the most indefensible of academics (such as Jacques Pluss), I have no problem with Gee's dismissal.  I can only imagine how the "bitchin' bod Sabra" felt when she heard about it; the five other students whom Gee could barely remember can't have been too happy about it either.

In the classroom, I am scrupulous about treating all of my students the same, regardless of gender or perceived attractiveness.  It's much easier to do now than when I was first teaching, and frankly, it's a lot easier to do now that I am fully and completely in love with one woman!   What makes Gee's remarks indefensible is that he managed, in an instant, to make the classroom an unsafe place for every single student -- both the woman whom he called "incredibly hot" and the other students whom he admitted to neglecting.  At least Jacques Pluss, the Nazi from Fairleigh Dickinson, kept his feelings about his actual students to himself!

Do I have favorites as a teacher?  I suppose from time to time, I do.  There's always going to be a special student, male or female, young or old, who shows such enthusiasm and such promise that I can't help but want to give him or her extra attention or encouragement.  These are the guys and gals who come to my office hours over and over again to argue, debate, and talk about life.  I mentor a few of them, I'm honored to say.  I suppose other students might notice that some of their classmates visit me more often than others, and as a result, may end up with more of my attention.  But these "favorites" are not selected because of their looks.  Indeed, one of my most important jobs is to make it clear to any student who comes to see me that my interest in him or her is purely professional. 

The lovely and the homely of both sexes have crosses to bear.  The former often fear that the attention they get is merely superficial; the latter fear being ignored altogether.   As teachers, our job is always, always, to look past the surface of our students.   Sexiness can be a distraction, but it's completely unacceptable for those of us who teach to allow desirability to influence our attention, our grading, or our willingness to offer help to those who need it.

Several years ago, I had two students who were regular visitors to my office.  I'll call them "Jack" and "Jill".  Jack was in my ancient history class.  He was an older fellow (mid-forties), usually unkempt.  He was a heavy smoker and infrequent bather.  When he came into my office to talk, he brought with him an odor of cigarettes and dirty clothes; sometimes, the awful stale stench of alcohol seemed to seep through his pores.  Jack was a bright man -- very thoughtful (if argumentative). I liked him very much, but I confess that his odor was a distraction.  My office-mate at the time would leave whenever Jack came in, and finally asked me to meet with Jack outside, at the little coffee stand near our building.  Was it easy to work with Jack?  Not always.  His body odor was a test for me, but it was a test I overcame.  It wasn't my place to comment on his grooming -- it was my place to do what the rest of the world probably didn't do, which was to pay close attention to him despite his truly unpleasant scent.  I'm happy to say he transferred to Cal State LA, and still keeps in touch.

Jill was the opposite, of course.  She was in my women's history class.  She was young, quite attractive, and she tended to wear much more revealing clothes than her classmates.  She also came to my office regularly, as she was doing a scholar's option research paper.   I don't think she was flirtatious, but she was likely aware of the impact her body had on those around her.  Our conversations were always academic in nature, but at times, frankly, I found her a challenge in much the same way as Jack had been.   Both Jack and Jill had bodies that demanded attention!  With both Jack and Jill, my challenge was to be a thoughtful, attentive, loving mentor who saw them as human beings first and foremost. Jill's exposed flesh and Jack's stench both grabbed attention,and at times, in remarkably similar ways, I had to force myself to stay absolutely focused on what each was saying.   As with Jack, I had to give Jill what I imagine she didn't often get from men: completely non-sexual attention.  I'm not in the business of telling young women how to dress, or telling older men to bathe.  Good teaching means dealing professionally and compassionately with the sexy and the malodorous alike! 

Michael Gee didn't see his "Incredibly hot" student as a person.   He could not do what we who are privileged to work as teachers must do , which is teach without being distracted by either the beauty or repulsiveness of student bodies.   And even when we are challenged by the "Jacks" and "Jills" and "bitchin' bod Sabras" of the world, for heaven's sakes, we ought to keep it to ourselves!

Off for a run in the heat.  Let's hope I don't fall down again today!

Comments

[NYMOM]

Well I have to disagree with you.

People can admire the beauty of someone and think about it. Maybe even write about it presuming the person they're writing about will never see it.

Actually it almost like this Gee was fired for a 'thought' crime as opposed to a real one.

Just thinking (or writing) about someone you admire for their beauty or intellect, whatever it is you admire about them, should NOT constitute a firing offense.

Just my opinion.

[BritGirlSF]

Question - just how public is this blog of his? Because if it's a private blog intended to be seen only by his friends I think this was perhaps a bit unprofessional but not a firing offense. If he were my employee I would have been more inclined to bring him in for a talk to make sure that he wasn't making the hot girl feel uncomfortable and wasn't actually neglecting the other students (if he actually was neglecting the other students then couldn't his department chair intervene and make sure that the behavior was corrected? I'm sure this isn't the first case of a teacher neglecting some of their students in favor of the ones they like best).
I think that we're disagreeing on the thoughts versus actions question again. I think that if he was treating all the students fairly then this really isn't much of an issue, and the teacher has the right to post whatever he wants on his blog even if we find his comments objectionable. If we can assume that both students and other faculty had access to and were reading the blog, and the teacher know that, then we have a very different situation.

[djw]

My understanding is it wasn't so much a blog as a message/discussion board for sportswriters.

[NYMOM]

"My understanding is it wasn't so much a blog as a message/discussion board for sportswriters."

NYMOM said: So he probably had NO idea it would ever get back to this students.

[Lynn Gazis-Sax]

Looking at the articles linked, it seems it was a fairly well-trafficked networking site for sports journalists, that Gee was an experienced journalist, that he was teaching a journalism class, and that he kept talking about the hot student after another commenter had warned him that his comments could easily be Googled by the student or the university at any time.

I understand that we mostly expect our own blogs, and perhaps even more our comments on other blogs, to be under the radar. I'd rather not have some of my comments turn up in the Washington Post. But it seems to me in this particular case that the guy was being pretty dumb to be sure his remarks wouldn't get back to the student.

[djw]

Furthermore, I've been told (haven't actually seen it) that many sportswriters used it as a forum to speak frankly about their jobs, and as such used aliases to post there. Gee couldn't be bothered.

I'm all about more job protection for adjuncts, but I must confess I have a hard mustering up much sympathy for Gee.

[Hugo]

Agreed. If he'd sent an email to a friend, that would be one thing. If he'd posted anonymously, that would be one thing (if he removed all identifiying info about the course). But he didn't care. Perhaps he wanted his bitchin' hot Sabra to know.

NYMOM: If I posted the same sort of thing on this blog, with my name attached, about a gal in one of my classes, would you defend it? (Not that I ever would, of course, for all the reasons I've made so clear. Mind you, I have tenure; but tenure doesn't preclude a harassment law suit, nor shouuld it.)

[NYMOM]

"NYMOM: If I posted the same sort of thing on this blog, with my name attached, about a gal in one of my classes, would you defend it? (Not that I ever would, of course, for all the reasons I've made so clear. Mind you, I have tenure; but tenure doesn't preclude a harassment law suit, nor shouuld it.)"

Believe it or not I would defend you as long as you didn't identify the student by name. I mean I just think people should be allowed to THINK or WRITE about somebody 'hot' or interesting or lovely whatever, without it becoming a crime practically.

I mean Gee's been fired from his job and will he EVER be able to work as a teacher again now with this on his record?

I can see if the administration called him in to discuss it privately and said the students are uncomfortable now with you teaching the class and they allowed him to quietly resign or go on a mandatory leave for a year. But to fire him? I mean they almost labeled the guy as a sex offender now for something that was relatively innane, as he never ACTED upon it.

I don't know, it seems like overkill to me.

So now what is left to do when a teacher REALLY crosses the line into acting on their thoughts as opposed to just writing about them.

[Hugo]

Well, NYMOM, in a class with six people in it, it must have been blatantly obvious who he was talking about -- especially with the unfortunate ethnic reference attached!

If he was a sex offender, he'd be prosecuted. No one is saying the fellow should go to jail -- just that his lack of professionalism means that the university doesn't consider him fit to teach. It was his first teaching job ever, and clearly, he belongs in a different line of work. If you can't see your students as people rather than objects, you don't belong in the classroom.

[NYMOM]

"It was his first teaching job ever, and clearly, he belongs in a different line of work. If you can't see your students as people rather than objects, you don't belong in the classroom."

NYMOM said: Well you're a teacher, I'm not. Thus I'll accept your judgement on him although frankly, it seems a bit harsh, somewhat unlike the Hugo I've come to know on this blog.

[Hugo]

So be it, NYMOM. I'm sure he's a lovely man; that doesn't mean his comments didn't make his teaching position untenable.

[BritGirlSF]

The fact that he should have been aware that this comment might get back to the students puts this in a very different light. Why not just use a pseudonym? After all, that's what a lot of academics do, and for very good reason.
Question - did the department try talking to him and getting him to modify the offending behavior first? Because that would have been my first step (speaking as someone who is accustomed to managing staff). especially given that this is first teaching post.
Don't get me wrong - I absolutely understand why this is a very bad thing for a teacher to do, especially in a small class where favouritism is especially obvious. I just think that there are other disciplinary steps which should be taken first rather than firing someone. I would think that the way this was handled may leave the university open to an unfair dismissal lawsuit.
Wow, that HR/legal training I had to sit through seems to have made more of an impact than I initially realised.

[mythago]

I just think that there are other disciplinary steps which should be taken first rather than firing someone.

Racism, sexism and bag-of-hammers stupidity? I think that's enough for the disciplinary step to be "seeya, pal." He didn't have tenure or an employment contract.

[BritGirlSF]

Two words - paper trail. I think that the possibility for an unfair dismissal lawsuit here is huge. I'm coming from the point of view of having had to fire people and go through the proper steps to cover one's ass legally.

[Sally]

I think the risk of a lawsuit would be just as high if they didn't fire him. He admitted that he was so distracted by his attraction to a student that he was having trouble teaching his students fairly. Any student who disliked his or her grade could argue that his bias came into play.

[BritGirlSF]

Good point, Sally, but I also wonder how much of the "I'm too distracted to teach" was just hyperbole or boasting to his buddies.

[mythago]

Two words - paper trail. I think that the possibility for an unfair dismissal lawsuit here is huge.

Whenever you fire an asshole, no matter how justified the firing, they will probably sue you. Assholes do not gracefully accept that their actions were worthy of the boot. That doesn't mean they're likely to be successful.

[Hugo]

"Whenever you fire an asshole, no matter how justified the firing, they will probably sue you. Assholes do not gracefully accept that their actions were worthy of the boot. That doesn't mean they're likely to be successful."

Nor does it mean the firing was undeserved.