#metoo

I’ve been hesitating to write this post because nothing bad actually happened to me, which makes me way luckier than so many other people currently using this hashtag.  Abuse of power is abuse of power, though, and there was an incident back in grad school that still infuriates me to this day.

My graduate program had a retreat every year, at which we would present our own research and  listen to a keynote speech by a leading national scientist. One of those years, the program head asked me and a few other students to pick up our keynote speaker from the airport.  He was and is famous, and until that day I respected him immensely.  The group of us had a lovely conversation all the way to the venue from the airport. He told us all about his wife, his kids, his research...in short, he came across as a really nice guy.

Unfortunately for my opinion of him, later that night, he tried to get me into the elevator to go to his hotel room with him.  He told me it was lonely up there all by himself.   I was so naïve at the time that I was absolutely stunned. I couldn’t believe that anybody would really talk so openly to me about his wife and children only a few hours before and then expect me to sleep with him.  I told him to piss off, turned around and walked away. If he said anything back, I didn’t hear it.

I didn’t report him to anybody. I didn’t think they’d believe me if I did. To this day, I wish that I had tried.  I have no idea if he would’ve tried to sabotage my career in retaliation, but as it happened I went into a different branch of science after I earned my doctorate, in which I was entirely safe from him regardless.

Wonder how many other times he got away with it.