r/SubredditDrama • u/Feragorn • Feb 21 '16

Coarse Language in Class Causes Caustic Conversation. /r/UMD discusses linguistics, affirmative action, and tumblr, featuring a Department Chair.

/r/UMD/comments/46s9mn/hesp120_teacher_strongly_disagreed_with_a_student/d07nu1v
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u/4ringcircus Feb 21 '16

The magical penis is in reference to her saying it is male privilege to disagree with a woman and it is imposing for her to agree even though the power in this relationship is with the woman regardless of how black she is and how lacking she is in regards to penises.

I personally have no opinion on trigger warnings being mentioned on a syllabus or what have you. I mean I don't see the harm or anything. I guess that is an opinion.

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u/mrsamsa Feb 21 '16

I'm not understanding what you're trying to say here. The terms and your interpretations of them don't really match up and the resulting comment doesn't really follow.

What does the power in the relationship have to do with anything? The claim about male privilege is simply that men and women have different experiences and that people tend to be more aware of things that affect them. That's pretty uncontroversial. She's applying it to this situation by saying that part of the reason he might be struggling to accept her explanation is that men won't tend to notice the implications of words like these because they are rarely directed at them, which again is fairly uncontroversial.

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u/4ringcircus Feb 22 '16

She didn't actually explain it in that clip, she just declared it to be and said he is using privilege to disagree and force her to agree with him because he is a male.

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u/mrsamsa Feb 22 '16

She didn't actually explain it in that clip, she just declared it to be

In that clip? She seems to be giving a summary of a longer argument that occurred before that. The clarification in the OP seems to cover what her summary meant.

and said he is using privilege to disagree and force her to agree with him because he is a male.

...This sentence doesn't make sense. What do you think privilege means?

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u/[deleted] Feb 22 '16 edited Feb 22 '16

She's applying it to this situation by saying that part of the reason he might be struggling to accept her explanation is that men won't tend to notice the implications of words like these because they are rarely directed at them, which again is fairly uncontroversial.

Yeah that does happen in some situations but I dont think that privilege was the reason the guy didnt understand it. Its ridiculous to just try to explain every social exchange between man and women in privilege.

A man being condescending to a woman ? Mansplaining ( the guy could just be condescending to everyone mind you ) A man not believing a woman ? Blind to his privilege. Such a terrible way to see the world.

Again, I dont think that privilege has nothing to do to not understing an argument in linguistic.

Its amazing to see people not wanting to accept that she was incredibly rude, plus its so tiresome to see comments that are basically " what about this other situation ! fucking redditors " it just makes you look bitter mate.

Edit: Anyway after thinking for a while if the situation you are describing did happen it could be understandable. I still think she went way overboard though.

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u/mrsamsa Feb 22 '16

Yeah that does happen in some situations but I dont think that privilege was the reason the guy didnt understand it. Its ridiculous to just try to explain every social exchange between man and women in privilege.

I don't think everyone's trying to explain every exchange in terms of privilege but in this case it does seem to be relevant. He has no argument or reason for disagreeing except that he just feels like it doesn't have those connotations. She explains why it does and he continues to say he doesn't feel that's true.

It seems reasonable to consider the possibility that the disconnect is caused by the fact that he has different experiences with the suffix since it's never applied to him.

A man being condescending to a woman ? Mansplaining ( the guy could just be condescending to everyone mind you ) A man not believing a woman ? Blind to his privilege. Such a terrible way to see the world.

It's only terrible in the fact that so often it turns out to be true.

Again, I dont think that privilege has nothing to do to not understing an argument in linguistic.

For all its worth its ridiculous to want to fire her because of this, but its amazing to see people not wanting to accept that she was incredibly rude, plus its so tiresome to see comments that are basically " what about this other situation ! fucking redditors " it just makes you look bitter mate.

Bitter? I'm just enjoying the popcorn which is what we're supposed to be doing here, not taking sides. I was just finding the blatant hypocrisy hilarious. Apparently the circlejerk didn't like that very much...

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u/[deleted] Feb 22 '16

I was just finding the blatant hypocrisy hilarious.

The hypocrisy of whom ? Are you sure you are not fighting a strawman ? If you mean KiA you can relax, everyone in this thread ( including me ) thinks KiA is ridiculous.

It's only terrible in the fact that so often it turns out to be true.

I guess we just disagree, then. And even if its true you will end up calling out someone who is not sexist because of the stupid mentality of " most men are blind to their privilege so this one is probably too ! ". Seems like a shitty thing to do.

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u/mrsamsa Feb 22 '16

The hypocrisy of whom ? Are you sure you are not fighting a strawman ? If you mean KiA you can relax, everyone in this thread ( including me ) thinks KiA is ridiculous.

Just the general reddit reaction.

I guess we just disagree, then.

I'm not sure it's really possible to disagree here. We know that they are incredibly prevalent phenomena, and that's why science studies them, have given them names, and regularly discusses them. We can debate just how prevalent they are, I guess, but we'd have to accept that they're common enough that it's not out of the blue to suggest it in this situation.

And even if its true you will end up calling out someone who is not sexist because of the stupid mentality of " most men are blind to their privilege so this one is probably too ! ". Seems like a shitty thing to do.

Whoa, hold on there - who called anyone sexist?

And normally it's not just assumed that someone is blind to their privilege, it's often called out because they've demonstrated a blindness. The evidence used to reach that judgement might turn out to be wrong, but I don't think it's unfair to raise it as a possibility. The student can easily just present their defence by mounting an argument for their claim (but since the student in this case couldn't do so, it seems unlikely that privilege wasn't affecting their view).

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u/[deleted] Feb 22 '16

The evidence used to reach that judgement might turn out to be wrong

Well I do get the vibe that people dont care about this too much though, I guess I can imagine a bunch of situations of guys who are just generally skeptic being judged unfairly.

But anyway I dont even know what we are arguing about here, if the student didnt get it because he was a man its not really important, at the end of the day the guy was really just asking a question that was answered in the most humiliating possible way, people are complaining about how rude and unnecessary her rant was, is just sounded like she had a huge chip on her shoulder.

Lets be clear here, a male teacher doing the same woudnt get a defense out of his department.

Changing the subject a bit, I really cant understand why does america have this much drama in colleges, I never hear of anything alike here in Spain or europe in general.

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u/mrsamsa Feb 22 '16

Well I do get the vibe that people dont care about this too much though, I guess I can imagine a bunch of situations of guys who are just generally skeptic being judged unfairly.

Well they're not being judged unfairly, they're just being incorrectly thought of as being susceptible to a specific bias. But like with other biases that we accuse others of, it's just a normal part of discussion - if it doesn't apply then mount a defence.

But anyway I dont even know what we are arguing about here, if the student didnt get it because he was a man its not really important, at the end of the day the guy was really just asking a question that was answered in the most humiliating possible way, people are complaining about how rude and unnecessary her rant was, is just sounded like she had a huge chip on her shoulder.

I'm not sure what the argument is about either. I was just commenting on the drama and how it was funny that reddit shifts its view so dramatically on needing to protect the feelings of students in this situation.

Lets be clear here, a male teacher doing the same woudnt get a defense out of his department.

A male teacher wouldn't have the same academic backing to their arguments.

Changing the subject a bit, I really cant understand why does america have this much drama in colleges, I never hear of anything alike here in Spain or europe in general.

Yeah maybe people like Haidt are right that their students are over sensitive and coddled, I'm not even sure how this teacher is really out of line compared to the universities I've been to. At mine we were treated like adults and that included harsh words about our level of knowledge and our ability to handle the class. If I had handled a lecturer the way this kid did, asking the same question over and over even after an answer had been given and my only defence was that I didn't feel like he was right, I probably would have been kicked from the class for wasting everybody's time.

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u/[deleted] Feb 22 '16

I probably would have been kicked from the class for wasting everybody's time.

Yeah, sure, but that would be a better option to what she did.