Posted on 11/17/2018 11:11:52 AM PST by billorites
When former Dartmouth Professor of Government Ned LeBow cracked a joke on a San Francisco elevator, nobody could have foreseen the international firestorm it would spark. The resulting story of p.c. overreaction and academic idiocy left everyone except the 76-year-old professor looking ridiculous.
But not, apparently, quite ridiculous enough. The p.c. pinheads have censured the professor…again.
The story began at an academic conference in San Francisco when Professor Lebow, currently of King’s College London found himself on the same elevator as Simona Sharoni, a professor of women’s and gender studies at Merrimack College in Massachusetts. When Professor Sharoni courteously asked her fellow riders what floor they needed, Lebow joked “Ladies lingerie, please.”
And that’s where the “courtesy” ended.
Sharoni claims she was offended by the joke, as well as the laughter of the “white, middle-aged men” on the elevator. In her formal complaint to the International Studies Association, the organization hosting the conference, Sharoni said: “After they walked out, the woman standing next to me turned to me and said, ‘I wonder if we should have told them that it is no longer acceptable to make these jokes!'”
The ISA responded to Lebow’s lame joke, not with an eye roll, but with a rebuke. They ordered him to apologize for his “offensive and inappropriate” remark. When he refused, they formally censured him.
Now the story has taken another turn, as recounted by Professor Lebow in the Valley News:
“I discovered that she [Professor Sharoni] had not grown up in either the U.S. or U.K. — where saying “ladies’ lingerie” in an elevator is a well-known gag line — so I explained in the same email the meaning of my remark and how it was in no way directed against women.
"I further suggested that I considered a complaint of the kind she made damaging to efforts of women to combat serious and unacceptable mistreatment.
"She complained to the ISA, this time about my having contacted her, and I was censured a second time."
Comedy is in the eye of the beholder and it may be that Professor Sharoni simply didn’t like Lebow’s attempt at humor. But why complain over an attempt by the gentleman to explain the comment and clear up any confusion over its offensiveness? Complaining the first time was embarrassing enough. Why complain again?
And–a more significant question–why would an (allegedly) serious academic institution like the ISA pile on with a second censure? Professor Lebow has a theory:
“What ISA officials want is not an apology but a capitulation….giving in to their demands would further chill free speech among younger colleagues and students who are far more vulnerable than I am to sanction by their professional organization.”
Somebody in this story is getting bullied. How many people believe it’s the gender-studies professor from Massachusetts?
“Are You Being Served”
One of the funniest! (and pretty rude)
Richard Ned Lebow should be hired as a “secret shopper” used to out those in the education system that need to be removed.
Unwillingness to learn is a sign of ignorance.
(A good initial response would have been: Oh, I see.)
If Prof. Lebow entered the elevator and Prof. Sharoni asked, “going down?” to which Prof. Lebow responded, “not without dinner and a movie” - I might see a problem. This…no.
Is there anyone here on FR who remembers that at one time, during the “Jurrasic age” elevators had operators who controlled the UP and DOwn of the elevator?
You could tell he/she the FLOOR you wanted and the journey stopped to let you off.
OR, you could tell the operator what you were looking for and the operator, as part of the job,knew where everything in the huge store was located.
There were ALWAYS good natured jokes at these announcements. If the operator announced “Ladies Longerie”, half the men muttered, “That’s my floor”. If it was “Sporting Goods” there was normally a woman to say , “OK, guys, but don’t let you wife see what you bought so she’ll think you are at work.”
Really a different, but much BETTER time.
Wrong.
I think it is an 'old' joke from the days when elevators had human operators who would announce the floors rather than 'do it yourself' push buttons. The British professor is old - so that would make sense.
[Intro:Catherine Epps]
2nd floor...hardware, children's wear, lady's lingerie
Oh, good morning Mr. Tyler, going... down?
Probably the most recent usage of the line.
Back in the radio days of Jack Benny, the elevator operator was usually voiced by Mel Blanc. It’s the voice I hear in my head when reading these posts by those unaware of the cultural background of the professor’s comment.
Exactly. Some of us make a federal case out of the most innocuous remark.
Yeah.
Seems like a Jack Benny type thing.
it used to be in at least one bugs bunny cartoon, It harken back to the old days where an elevator operator in a nice department store would announce the departmentss housed on said floors, in an elevator full 9f guys, it would generally get a passing snicker. I’m almost 50, and I remember at least one department store that did this when I was a kiddo, because little kids clothing was on the same floor as unmentionables.
I get it now.
But I think for the 50’s it was a bit risqué. That’s what made it funnier than saying “hardware”.
Also, how will I be able to tell someone that I'm going to Victoria's Secret to buy something for the old lady?
Hmmmm... Guess I’d better change my ways. I have frequently used that phrase. When bringing a patient into the hospital from the ambulance, the elevator (it only goes half a floor) has a button marked M (for main). I would often press the button and say, “Mezzanine, ladies lingerie” and would often get a smile from the patient.
I get it now.
I’m a bit younger, in my 50’s, and didn’t grow up in an urban environment where there were a lot of elevators.
Department stores had escalators.
i get that part. It’s just not funny, to me, at least. Obviously there are folks here that thinks it’s a hoot.
( the lady that complained over reacted. But the guy should not have pursued the issue with an email)
Our VP Pence has this covered. If a lady is in an elevator alone, he doesn’t enter. If he’s alone in an elevator and a lady enters, he immediately leaves before the doors close.
Who under 50 even remembers that there used to be people who worked as elevator operators?
Let alone that they would announce what was sold on each floor in a department store?
If the guy was a big lumbering tranny the useless feminazi professor would have thought it was a hoot.
[there used to be people who worked as elevator operators]
Well, the job had its ups and downs.
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