When is sexual harassment not sexual harassment? When it pertains to the rights of an academic to discuss the sex life of fruit bats with a colleague. Add a cry for understanding, a wail of academic censorship and a quick online petition and the academic community is up in metaphorical arms.
This is the tale of Dylan Evans and his online fight to prove himself innocent of sexual harassment and to place himself as the victim of a politically correct university regime determined to undermine his academic freedom. In a presumably desperate act, he transmitted his story to the HuffingtonPost who obligingly printed his point of view, started a petition about his academic persecution and began to stir up what was to become #fruitbatgate.
His fight was undermined, however, by his publication of the relevant correspondence allowing all denizens of the internet to judge for themselves, and more recently by his lack of respect for the confidentiality of the disciplinary proceedings. In fact, it has all blown up in his face.
The online affair began as a simple claim that Evans’ academic freedom was being limited because he was unable to discuss the sex life of fruit bats with a colleague without being accused of sexual harassment. Plenty of academics all over the world enthusiastically signed the petition, probably without reading the details. As Evans’ said
If we cannot discuss scientific articles about topics directly related to our own research, published in leading peer-reviewed international journals with colleagues in the same department, this bodes very ill for informed inquiry and debate.
What Evans fails to add is that he is an evolutionary psychologist and the woman he harassed is an expert nutritionist. Fellatio in fruit bats would not seem to be a topic directly related to the research of either party.
Evans seems to have a couple of major gripes. Firstly, he did not mean to offend her. Secondly, she did not tell him she was offended. Thirdly, he wants to be allowed to discuss fellatio with anyone is chooses.
Not meaning to offend someone is neither here nor there. An offender does not get to justify hir offense. An offender gets to apologise and to not repeat the words. Instead, Evans has created the biggest “I didn’t mean to” cry by casting his plea all over the internet. If he truly did not mean to offend, then he needs to learn what can cause offence and the university-imposed monitoring and counselling can only aid with his understanding.
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