Feynman, Harassment, and the Culture of Science

It's really interesting to read the letters near the end of the article. It's tempting to let Feynman off easy with "Well, those were less enlightened times".

Which they were. It's uncomfortable to read the more conspicuously sexist and even misogynist bits of Feynman's books, but you can kinda knuckle through them and hope that people will put them in context.

Still, those letters show that by the 70s, it had been pointed out to him. His four-word reply is genuinely insufficient. Even if he didn't want to change the works, he at least owed her a civil reply, if not an explanation. That's disappointing.

And it sets up why you know that some people won't read the more problematic parts of his books with context. Consciously or not we'll emulate our heros, and there's a lot about Feynman worth emulating. You can't directly connect the inappropriate behavior Behmard experiences with what people read from Feynman, but the "less enlightened times" are today. Both Feynman and the modern harassers have been told about it and dismiss it, and people take that as a sign that it must be OK -- so it continues.