Volokh quoting the Iowa policy:
For example:
- Talking about their sexual experiences.
- Asking you to talk about yours.
- Telling sexual jokes, innuendoes, and stories, or comments (about your clothes or body, or someone else’s)....
Still not seeing Volokh's point. Saying such things to someone who does not welcome such talk seems harassing to me. More from the Iowa policy:
Sexual Harassers
Sexual harassers can include (but aren’t limited to) professors, teaching assistants, research assistants, supervisors, co-workers, classmates, other students, acquaintances, friends, partners, dates, and strangers....
What makes someone a sexual harasser isn’t based on what they do for a living, their status as a high profile person, or where they hang out. What makes someone a sexual harasser is behavior, (including words and actions) that uses sex to be disrespectful, hurtful, embarrassing, humiliating, intimidating or frightening to you or another person....
Still don't see what is wrong or confusing in this. Here is Volokh's complaint:
It's not clear whether the last quoted sentence modifies the definition that I quote at the outset, but even if it does, consider how strikingly broad this rule is, both from its text and from the examples given:
Examples Red Flags / Harassing Behavior ...
- Somebody puts up sexually graphic posters, magazines, screensavers, web pages, and/or emails where you can see them....
I see Volokh's point here. This is not well written. However I think what is intended is pretty clear - do not impose sex talk on people who do not want it, using these mediums. This does not mean you have to have a non-sex talk web page but rather, I think, you should not use sex talk in a public forum, such as a web space intended for university use. This is not about My Space.
This leads Volokh to a misunderstanding imo:
So (as is usual) sexual harassment is not defined to include solely behavior targeted at the complainant.
Not correct. It is expressly limited to behavior targetted at complainants, to wit, people who do not want the sex talk in the university space. In private or in interactions with consenting others, do what you feel. But when someone does not want it, STOP. How hard is that? Apparently too hard in Volokh's world.
Then Volokh cheats a bit:
Nor is it limited to behavior in class or in university workplaces (where of course the professor and the supervisors may rightly constrain speech).
Of course it isn't. It also regulates student to student behavior which means it must necessarily include studet dorms and student public spaces. This is disingenuous of Volokh. Consider this:
Rather, it deliberately covers any place and context in the university. If someone puts up a sexually themed cartoon on his dorm room door (either "sexually graphic" or presumably including "sexual joke[s]," from the first quote), that's a "red flag[] / harassing behavior."
I think this is too simple to make me not suspect the Professor of deliberate obtuseness. Clearly the university is well within its rights to make sure sexual talk is not imposed on unwilling students in university housing. As a matter of policy, my view is inside your dorm room, I think you should be allowed to express yourself, but I could see why a university would not want to take the chance. But it is not clear what this policy says on that point.
Volokh's next example is even weaker:
Likewise, when someone tells a sexual joke in a cafeteria to his friends at your table (even if the last sentence of the first quote is part of the definition, assume the sexual joke is disrespectful to its subject, say Britney Spears), and you hear it but you don't want to hear it, that's sexual harassment, and apparently a university disciplinary matter. Likewise if he talks about his sexual experiences in a way that's embarrassing to some other person, and you overhear (again, assume you're sitting at the table with the people he's talking to). And this at a university, where 18-to-21-year-olds live, socialize, and have sex with each other. Oy.
Oy is right. What kind of rude offensive boorishness does Volokh want to countenance here? Is he saying a rule that says don't tell dirty jokes or dirty stories in PUBLIC SPACES in a university is too much to ask? For crissakes, go somewhere with a little privacy to brag about your conquests or tell your stupid dirty jokes.
This is the great threat to speech in Volokh's mind? My gawd. It takes quite a juvenile mindset to worry about this kind of stuff. You gotta wonder about Volokh sometimes. Reading the thread is rather depressing too. Are those men really that obtuse?
