There’s a lot of kerfuffle this week about a female professor—a feminist professor—accused of a Title IX violation (sexual harassment or malfeasance), and how feminists and other authoritarian Leftists are defending her in a way that they presumably wouldn’t defend a male professor. Much of the tale is laid out in the Chronicle of Higher Education article below (click on screenshot):
All we know about the “violation” is that Avital Ronell, a very famous professor of Germanic Languages and Literature and comparative literature at New York University (NYU), and also a feminist philosopher, was apparently accused of a Title IX violation. The details are murky, though if you read the addenda of the Leiter report (link below) you can get a hazy idea of what might have happened. Naturally, and as is proper, NYU is not giving details, but that didn’t stop a group of Ronell’s supporters, including 9 NYU professors, from writing a letter to the President and the Provost of NYU defending Ronell (again, they know nothing about the nature of the investigation), urging her to be exculpated, and saying that because she is famous and accomplished, as well as having “grace, keen wit, and intellectual commitment”, she should be accorded “the dignity rightly deserved by someone of her international standing and reputation.” Whether Joe Schmo or some other non-famous defendant should be given extra special consideration is apparently not on the table.
The letter was apparently composed by Judith Butler of Berkeley, a scholar and obscurantist I have no use for (I’ve written about her before), and then sent around to various people for their signature. Brian Leiter got a copy of the letter, apparently really angering Butler, who denies on flimsy grounds that it’s the right letter. You can see the letter here from Leiter’s link: Download BUTLER letter for Avital Ronell. It will download to your computer.
Further, without any knowledge of what happened, the signatories are plumping for Ronell’s exculpation. My Chicago colleague Brian Leiter takes apart the letter on his website in a post called “Blaming the victim is apparently OK when the accused in a Title IX proceeding is a feminist literary theorist“, and adds some useful updates.
Indeed, the victim is blamed right at the outset of the letter, which says this:
We have all seen [Ronell’s] relationship with students, and some of us know the individual who has waged this malicious campaign against her. We wish to communicate first in the clearest terms our profound an enduring admiration for Professor Ronell whose mentorship of students has been no less than remarkable over many years. We deplore the damage that this legal proceeding causes her, and seek to register in clear terms our objection to any judgment against her. We hold that the allegations against her do not constitute actual evidence, but rather support the view that malicious intention has animated and sustained this legal nightmare.
Yep, that’s victim-blaming. The astounding hypocrisy and mendacity of this group of scholars must be seen to be believed: just read the letter. (Leiter also notes that if Ronell had anything to do with the letter, or even if she didn’t, the presence of nine NYU faculty signing it could constitute legal grounds for a suit asserting retaliation against the complainant.) Leiter winds up in high dudgeon, and I agree with him:
Imagine that such a letter had been sent on behalf of Peter Ludlow, Colin McGinn, John Searle, Thomas Pogge or anyone other than a feminist literary theorist: there would be howls of protest and indignation at such a public assault on a complainant in a Title IX case. The signatories collectively malign the complainant as motivated by “malice” (i.e., a liar), even though they admit to knowing nothing about the findings of the Title IX proceedings–and despite that they also demand that their friend be acquitted, given her past “mentorship of students”. (I imagine many faculty members found guilty, correctly, in a Title IX proceeding have also mentored lots of students, chaired a department, and produced notable scholarship.) If Professor Ronell had any role in soliciting this letter, it looks to me like a clear case of retaliation against the complainant that will compound her and the university’s problems.
But you get a real sense of the hypocrisy and entitlement of these precious “theorists” in the concluding paragraph of the letter addressed to the NYU President and Provost:
We testify to the grace, the keen wit, and the intellectual commitment of Professor Ronell and ask that she be accorded the dignity rightly deserved by someone of her international standing and reputation. If she were to be terminated or relieved of her duties, the injustice would be widely recognized and opposed.
We may put to one side that Professor Ronell’s “grace,” “keen wit” and “intellectual commitment” are irrelevant in a Title IX proceeding. What is truly shocking is the idea that she is entitled to proceedings that treat her with “the dignity rightly deserved by someone of her international standing and reputation.” Apparently in the view of these “theory” illuminati dignity in Title IX proceedings is to be doled out according to one’s “international standing and reputation.” So while Professor Ronell “deserves a fair hearing, one that expresses respect, dignity, and human solicitude,” other “lesser” accused can be subject, without international outcry, to whatever star chamber proceedings the university wants. Moreover, only one outcome of the process is acceptable, regardless of the findings: acquittal. Any other result “would be widely recognized and opposed,” I guess because grace, wit and intellectual commitment are a defense against sexual misconduct and harassment.
This is one of the problems of Title IX violations being judged by universities: men are assumed to be more guilty than women, and if the accused is a famous feminist woman, she’s assumed to be innocent from the get-go and deserving of special, kid-glove treatment—indeed, complete vindication.
If these things are adjudicated by universities rather than courts (and I prefer courts), it is at least fair to treat all people the same, regardless of their gender or their fame. Butler and her minions are trying to short-circuit whatever justice can come from such proceedings by writing directly to the higher authorities—and not knowing anything about the case. They are trying to get differential treatment for one of their friends and ideological compadres. That stinks.
h/t: j.j.
