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The professor who tweeted that is from my own Alma Mater, which to be fair, is not exactly a bastion of cultural "wokeness" compared to other schools. That's a good thing in my book, but things that fly at NC State may not fly at UC Berkeley or even UNC. I have no idea how European sensitivities compare either, though I had thought that you all were less sensitive than most.

Still, I'm a woman and I see absolutely nothing wrong with using that meme in that context. The teacher who shared that meme, who is also a woman, also saw nothing wrong. The student who created the meme, who is also a woman, also saw nothing wrong.

It's an amusing and memorable way to teach a concept, which is great.

I wonder if the "women's representative" on the hiring committee just felt like she had to find something to say to justify her presence there.

Did you give a source citation on that meme? It's not guaranteed, but I do wonder if you would have been left alone if it had been readily apparent that this meme was created and shared by women scholars.

based on the fact that you're even writing about it and really reflecting so deeply makes me think that you're probably NOT that kind of person. and that is why all of this crap is so dangerous. actual decent people are collateral damage and anyone is up for dismantling.

my question to those who read this comment is: given all that has happened regarding canceling disgusting people (i.e weinstein) and potentially more controversial ones that maybe didn't deserve it (e.g aziz ansari) is it a net negative or a positive for society?

It wouldn’t bother me personally, but it’a a little crude and objectifying. Whether it’s funny or offensive depends on the audience. I think you got a clear signal that at least someone found it offensive, which means others probably did as well, so I’d recalibrate my behavior based on that feedback.

Also, keep in mind that context is important. That meme may come off very differently coming from a popular, well-established female professor who is passing along a student creation after class than dropped into a formal lecture, especially if they don’t know you well yet.

I think that's one of those things where "wrong" becomes rather subjective.

If you've been strongly sensitized to feelings of actual or potential distress due to unwanted sexual attraction, or the sexualization of the (in this case) female body, or whatever the problem might have been, it's probably seen as wrong or at least problematic. The sensitization might have happened due to personal experiences, or due to hearing a lot about such experiences from other people, or, well... *looks around on the Internet*.

If you haven't been strongly sensitized that way, there probably isn't anything particularly wrong with that. Most people would probably have some kind of a middle ground perspective where e.g. physical attraction, and its expression (and humour about it) is part of normal human experience. The same people might see it as lewd or inappropriate in other contexts, or if expressed in other ways, or when it's too much. It might sometimes feel uncomfortable, and the extent to which people tolerate (and want to tolerate) that varies, as does the line where people begin to deem it "not right".

Which part of the spectrum is right or wrong is not an objective question. Right now lots of people (at least in social media) seem to be rather preoccupied with the former, perhaps because legitimate problems have often been overlooked. Some people who are in the former end of the spectrum are being rather aggressive. The anger is often understandable, although that doesn't mean they're objectively right or that you're wrong if you don't follow the same line.

With that said, people who were already sensitive about not causing ill feelings were probably not the actual problem in the first place.

This is just my random view, of course.

I don't think you should have apologized. She was clearly being unreasonable.

In a situation like that it's fair to ask what in particular was a problem. If they can't give a reasonable response you should ignore them.

Using memes in a lecture is risky, but was the women's representative herself outraged or outraged on behalf of the students?

>I have been thinking about this incident for several days now, as I really can't make up my mind if I did something wrong or not by including the meme. If anyone want to add his/her opinion I'd be grateful therefore.

As others have said, you did absolutely nothing wrong.

Feel free to point the hiring commission to The New York Times (<https://twitter.com/AlecMacGillis/status/1133724550871560192>).

Seems fine to me, but without actually having someone's objection explained it's difficult to say. The problem with these situations is that actually I've definitely witnessed situations in the past where I've seen something problematic/racist and even after explaining to the person what's wrong they still come out saying "I still don't see the problem". I'm not saying you're in the wrong in this particularly case- just mentioning that that's also a thing.

on one hand I can see why would somebody think it's not the nicest thing to show

but on the other hand - holy **, you better get thick skin quick enough, because life's gonna be way harsher than this.

I would recommend not saying sorry as a default, unless you are sure there is something you are sorry for.

Maybe sorry that you mistakenly upset her. But be careful about apologizing for something when you didn't do anything wrong.