Dueling PCs
By Mitch Berg
On The Frisky, Jessica Wakeman takes umbrage at a question asked in a review of an HBO documentary about a gay middle-schooler who was shot by a classmate whom he’d asked to a school dance.
I understand the article is a review of a documentary, so it may be the film itself that prompted these questions. (I have not yet seen the film.) But what I object to is the phrasing — I’m disgusted by the Times suggestion that Brandon McInerney could have been “bullied” by another boy for simply voicing an attraction to him and for dressing in a way that was not typically “masculine.” That’s not what “bullying” means.
That’s correct. Telling someone you’re attracted to them when they’re not interested is not bullying.
It’s sexual harassment.
It’s a whole ‘nother set of lawyers.
Glad I could help.
No, I’m not making light of the death of the gay student. Merely the various gradations of political correctness our society observes.
October 15th, 2013 at 8:48 am
You are missing the point, Mitch. A society built on victimhood has a distinct pecking order. Some victims are more victimized than others and therefore deserving of more sympathy, media attention and ultimately, your money. You must study the hierarchy to predict the results.
For example, Hilary Clinton was the frontrunner right up until Barak Obama’s name arose, then her campaign died because in Victimville, Black trumps Woman. She never had a chance against him.
Two Black men shooting each other is neutral and therefore not news. A Black man raping a White woman: Black trumps Woman, not news. A White man shooting a Black man? Jesse Jackson, call your office.
The incident you posted about is more serious than ordinary sexual harassment because in victimville, Gay trumps Woman, too.
Victimology quiz: If Evangelical Blacks lynch a Gay Woman, is it news?
October 15th, 2013 at 9:15 am
That is almost a Taoist koan, or a Talmudic riddle at the Yeshiva.
It’s almost as if finding the answer misses the point.
October 15th, 2013 at 9:22 am
Recently, blogress and NARN guest Ann Althouse added a corollary to her rule: “If you do scientific research into the differences between men and women, you must portray whatever you find to be true of women as superior” to include that if its a study into differences between homosexual and heterosexual that whatever you find true of homosexuals as superior.
In this case: If you are heterosexual and a same sex person who is homosexual hits on you over your objections, it’s not harrassment, its that you have a mental disorder called homophobia.
October 15th, 2013 at 10:01 am
It’s sexual harassment.
No, it’s not. Telling them you’re attracted to them after they’ve told you to stop is. As our HR departments are forever telling us, it’s only sexual harassment if you do it after being told to stop.
Of course, back in the day when this stupid, cover-your-ass training got started at IBM we had the pretty, young, and enthusiastic HR flack telling us this at one of our group meetings (they had to surprise us with this crap or we’d all be “too busy” to attend). One of the senior wags in the group heard her spiel about stopping and piped up saying, “You mean I get a free shot at anyone?!” Then he turned to the guy next to you and said, “I love you, man!” We all laughed so hard it wasn’t funny and the HR flack turned red and finished the meeting very quickly after that. They started doing on-line training the next year — we responded with races to see who could get through the training the fastest. The key was not to read the material but just answer the questions at the end.
The latest thing is that California now requires a half hour course, so now they’ve enforced timers for the HR online course, with videos playing between questions. Being engineers, we hacked up a quick tkl-script that pops up reminders of when you have to switch back to the course and answer the questions so that you can “play” the stupid training videos in the background with the sound off while you do work, then when the reminder pops up go and enter the answer. Since we had to do the timer, we also put up the answers.
Yes, HR and engineering battle about the usefulness of this training.
October 15th, 2013 at 10:13 am
Joe Doakes wrote:
“Victimology quiz: If Evangelical Blacks lynch a Gay Woman, is it news?”
Yes. Christianity is the Reverse Wild Card and is trumped by everything. In the case of an offender, it makes news automatically regardless of skin color.
Such a crime would also automatically qualify as homophobia, the ultimate crime in the liberal pantheon, ahead of even murder.
October 15th, 2013 at 11:50 am
nerd, we must be working at the same company!
October 15th, 2013 at 12:06 pm
Bullying and Sexual Harassment are just subdivisions of Hate Crime legislation, and we all know how that seems to be working out, as well as how and for whom it is supposed to work.
Those in favor of bullying law are gleefully expanding it’s definitions and application, but no one (who counts) is bothering to determine what bullying isn’t.
Any well-written law should clearly explain its exclusions as well as its inclusions. Right now, anything that displeases another can be called bullying, particularly if the bullied is part of a flavor of the day protected group. If s/he’s not part of that group, the laws lose effectiveness (and the interest of the enforcers), unless they are part of the bullying group.
This is just one more layer of false security we are covering kids (and ourselves) with. Without some well-deserved “bullying,” one overweight, obnoxious, smart-mouthed middle schooler I used to know may not have learned good manners and when to keep his mouth shut. There is an inevitable, natural pecking order that doesn’t grade on a curve or give points for participation. This doesn’t justify true bad behaviors, physical assault, or other already lawfully prohibited behaviors. However, those led to believe that they are “special” will really crash when they find out the truth.
Perhaps if more parents raised their own kids insteading kenneling them after their company-mandated six week parental leave (until Gov. Dayton’s all-day kindergarten takes over), they wouldn’t have to delegate such realities and behavioral training to others.
October 15th, 2013 at 11:54 pm
JPA, just be glad you’re not a manager. That’s the 2 hour version. Good grief, the 30 minute version was filled with stupidity and inane statements, but the 2 hour version was by far worse. And while the script for the 30 minute course spread like wildfire through engineering, I don’t think there was a management version.