Return to Gender 101

[The Lone Ranger]

As it happens, right after April left, I went downstairs to check on a different student. I happened to pass by Professor Groper's lab, and he beckoned me in.

I really didn't want to go in, but he was regaling the students with some kind of story, and he apparently wanted me to hear it too.

I should point out that though I've heard many students complain about Professor Groper's habit of telling very dirty jokes in class, commenting on female students' bodies in class, and so forth -- he doesn't seem to do that sort of thing in front of me. Perhaps he has figured out that I wouldn't approve. Or perhaps he just wants to act "professional" in front of a colleague but doesn't feel the need to do so in front of the students.


Anyway, having just spent over an hour listening to April tell me how he's constantly commenting on students' bodies, asking them for sexually-explicit pictures, etc., I was not wanting to see Professor Groper.

But I could scarcely refuse to go in and see what he wanted. He was telling a story, and [jokingly, I think] calling one of the [male] students an "asshole." But at least he was on relatively good behavior.

When I walked in, Jennifer was sitting in the front row. Interestingly, she put her hand up to shield her face while I was there, like she didn't want me to see her. (Of course, she couldn't possibly think I didn't know it was her.)

Laura suggested afterward that perhaps Jennifer was afraid Professor Groper would say something really nasty while I was there, and that she would be embarrassed if I saw her in that situation.

And honestly, if he had, I'm not sure that, at the moment, I would have been able to resist saying something in response -- something that might well have gotten me fired. So I left as soon as I could.

If he'd said something nasty to Jennifer while I was standing there ... yeah, I don't think I would have responded well.


ETA: April also told me that Professor Groper has hinted that if she'd agree to sleep with him, she'd be sure to get an 'A' in his class. (She said that she'd under no circumstances consider doing such a thing. But she did say that she has no doubt whatsoever that if she hinted that she'd be willing to consider trading sex for a good grade, he'd take her up on the "offer" immediately.) Note that Professor Groper has a wife and a college-age daughter; he'd surely be furious if anyone treated his daughter the way he treats our female students.