Apropos of the notion that #metoo paints women as fragile as snowflakes, I read an article in WSJ focusing upon sexual harassment in academia and which included a report of allegations by a Ms. Samantha Ainsley who ostensibly dropped out of a PhD program at MIT because of the following circumstances:

According to the article, Ms. Ainsley attended a conference in Singapore, which also was attended by a noted Berkeley professor in her field. She later had dinner with this professor along with some other students where she hoped to talk about her conference presentation. I guess dinner conversation was not satisfactory so she accompanied him alone to a nightclub for drinks. She claims that when she asked the professor what he thought about her presentation he replied he didn’t really listen to it as he was distracted by thoughts of how she would look out of her dress. He then placed his hand on her thigh and asked if she would like to go back to his room with him. She declined the invitation, disallowed further groping and left the bar alone.

That’s about it. A Berkeley professor at an educational conference went with a MIT PhD candidate to a bar, had some drinks, made a clumsy pass and was summarily rebuked. (Note: the accused professor denies the entirety of Ms. Ainsley’s accusation and claims to have a post conference email from Ms. Ainsley thanking him for a different conference recommendation).

Nevertheless, Assuming the picture is precisely as Ms. Ainsely paints it, in the past the professor may have had his hand and/or face slapped for his trouble and the ingenue would depart somewhat wiser for the experience. But not this time. According to the article, the pain of the professor’s alleged boorish behavior was so great that it caused Ms. Ainsely to drop out of a PhD program at a prestigious university. REALLY? How weak in the knees do you have to be to let a little thing like that derail a lifetime dream?!

I think there are three possible answers: (1) women of today, in general, are delicate greenhouse orchids incapable of navigating the panoply of quasi-objectionable people and circumstances one is naturally likely to encounter in the day-to-day grind of the real world; (2) Ms. Ainsely is unique among her sisters in her inability to tolerate such behavior; or (3) Ms. Ainsley dropped out of MIT for reasons other than the alleged incident with the professor and #metoo offers a convenient scapegoat for her decision to abandon what other’s more than likely thought was an opportunity of a lifetime and she was embarrassed to reveal that she quit either because the work was too hard or she just wasn’t up to the pressure.

Just my opinion, but I lean towards №3.