University speech instructor allegedly calls student ‘cute’ for ‘mansplaining’

Submitted by Mastodon on Tue, 2016-02-23 20:10

Article here. Excerpt:

'An “Introduction to Linguistics” instructor at the University of Maryland allegedly accused a male student of “mansplaining” after he questioned her claim about sexism in job titles.

“Look, it’s really cute that you, as a white male, would tell me what I’m not allowed to be offended by, as a minority female,” the instructor tells the unidentified student in an audio recording posted on Reddit over the weekend. “Thank you so much for doing that; that’s called ‘mansplaining,’ so stop.”

The rebuke was prompted by the student’s attempt to understand her assertion that the suffixes “–ette” and “–ess” are “diminutive,” and therefore “infantilizing,” which was made in relation to the term “poetess.” The student says he understands that “-ette” has a diminutive root in French, but questions whether the same is true of the other suffix.

“The point is: same job, same title,” the instructor replies. “If she’s writing those poems with her cunt, then it’s a difference, but she’s not; she’s writing poems based on the fact that she has fought in two wars, which is more than her fiancée has ever done.”

“But you shouldn’t have a problem, I guess, with two different, like, titles, because—” the student attempts to respond, only to be cut off and accused of “mansplaining” before he could articulate his point.

The student gamely continues, saying, “I’m curious as to why you take offense.”

“I think I just told you,” she says. “I think I just told you that you’re choosing not to agree with me, and through that, you’re choosing to explain why I should agree with you, coming from a position of privilege, having never experienced what I’ve experienced.

“That right there: excellent example of privilege,” she concludes.

The student points out that she still hasn’t answered his question, to which the instructor says simply, “I’ve explained it to you, and you’re choosing not to accept. We’re going to move on now.”'

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Comments

... the person in the position of privilege is the instructor. She seems to have all the POWER and CONTROL in the relationship between herself and the student.

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Submitted by Matt on Wed, 2016-02-24 00:44

What the hell is a "minority female"? How can females be a minority if we make up 50% of the population?

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Submitted by Kris on Wed, 2016-02-24 00:56

. . . appears to be the art of twisting other people's words around, if this so-called professor's (I use the term very loosely here) actions are any indication.

Matt made a very good point. I wonder if she is at all aware that the experiences of her students are different from her own, and that simply disagreeing with her is not an affront. One would have to think the world revolves around them to think a disagreement is an attack.

I must say, one aspect of university I despised were the times I had to listen to a female professor, in much much much better financial state than me tell me that I am more privileged than them, and have only have feelz and completely arbitrary classifications of adjectives as masculine and feminine to back up their statement.

Any disagreement with the professor in this class made her visibly angry. She even went on to give me two completely undeserved failing grades. I challenged her on the first. She responded to the email, like I had verbally assaulted her, simply for stating I disagreed with the mark. The only time she was willing to meet to discuss it was one hour before the final exam for the class, and only under the condition I don't criticize her like I did in the email. It also seemed like she had waited to respond, until that was the only possible time left to meet.

Realizing how unproductive it would to speak with someone so unreasonable, who was clearly at this point trying mess with my mental state and make me fail the final, I declined. She went on to give me a completely undeserved F on the final as well. Thankfully, my final grade was still enough to pass. I considered appealing my final grade, but I was just so relieved to be done dealing with her, and just didn't want to deal with such a piece of work again. I also realized that another faculty member from the same department would likely share the same worldview, and would likely give me just as bad a grade, if not worse as punishment for not kowtowing their line.

Honestly though, besides being immature, how unprofessional! I don't know how instructors who act in such an embarrassing fashion keep their jobs.

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Submitted by xtrnl on Wed, 2016-02-24 05:51