tiberio (02/02/83)
I keep a picture of a scantily clad female on the back of my office door. Its my office and the picture faces the wall when the door is open, which is most of the time. Occasionally I close the door when I need some inspiration... like now Ty
trb (02/03/83)
By gully. I got back from Usenix three days ago and have been plowing thru the netnews backlog on and off ever since. I just had the pleasure of reading thru the entire doors/harassment serial, all at once. I'm sure you're all anxious to hear what I have to say about this vital question. The treatment of AA/EEO and sexism always seems to bother me, because the solutions always seem to be based on that cornerstone of the Moron's System of Justice: "Two wrongs make a right." The Powers that Be don't seem to realize that the problem isn't sexual harassment, it's not racial harassment, it's not religious harassment, it's just harassment. A person who's harassed because she's a woman or because she's Black or because he has an Hispanic surname (!) is no more entitled to protection than a person who's harassed because he's fat, ugly, stupid, or has bad breath. Try telling THAT to your friendly neighborhood office of AA/EEO. It's a shame that it's not possible to fight these people in my lifetime. Here's a story about AA/EEO which you might enjoy... One summer, about eight years ago, I went to the local Burroughs plant in a desperate attempt to earn some money. I filled out their application and noticed that it said that Burroughs was an Equal Opportunity Employer M/F and all that. When I handed it in, the secretary scrawled in the margin a notation that indicated I was a white male. Oh well. Another thing that bothers me about this sexual harassment is that determination of the crime is in the mind of the beholder. In other words, I have to live up to a "conservative" person's morals and she doesn't have to live up to my (just as valid) morals. Many people have voiced their opinions that the door-opening episode was not (in their eyes) an example of sexual harassment, but a few people said it was, and those "victims" can cause a great deal of grief for their chosen enemies. That's very disconcerting. As a matter of fact, for the two of you out there who are interested, I don't enjoy magazine-style nude pictures in offices. I enjoy them somewhat more when they're bound in magazines, but not enough to ever go out of my way to pick one up. The pictures always seem to be similar, and uninteresting in any but a primitive and exploitative sexual way. I have seen photography and paintings of nude people that I do feel would be at home in an office, and I've seen ballet performed without clothing which I feel was well suited for all audiences. I don't get the impression that the bureaucrats who deal with sexual harassment cases have the ability to deal with such distinctions. Andy Tannenbaum Bell Labs Whippany, NJ (201) 386-6491