Is this acceptable in a school?

Nonsense HB.
I see a lot of women who are full of an ill advised sense of importance who think they are dissecting the issue intelligently but are just talking shite.

'Go and read some feminism' from Seth.

Jesus.

Nobody's suggested that finding people attractive is offensive Moondog and you are too intelligent to get away with pretending that you think that's what this thread's about.

And I had to give a wry smile when he said that the first time he'd heard the term shrill used, was by a woman.

So er, that makes it OK then? ... and he knows much more about feminism than we do!

Imperator makes some very good points.

It's madness to suggest that appreciating attractive people is offensive.
We'll all be in bloody burkhas next.

seth this is in the feminism topic though - i don't know what the reaction would be in chat or AIBU or somewhere where women who don't wear dungarees hang out ----

And it's very interesting that his reaction to his behaviour being dissected, was to tell us what a lot of shrill bleating we were doing.

It shows utter contempt for women. This is the feminist board of what is acknowledged to be the "intelligent" parenting site in the UK. Almost universally, his behaviour was condemned but instead of having a bit of humility and questioning himself, he simply dug in and told us all loftily that our arguments were weak, he knew more feminist theory than we did, didn't properly engage and then pissed off when it was obvious that we weren't convinced.

It's just glorified trolling really.

i would think the teacher didn't in a million years think his reaction would be dissecrted by a load of women on the internet.

that's very true sethstarkadder - it is encouraging that he was so roundly challenged

DP has just finished his NQT year and works in a boys' school and he would never have done that

Gosh, just got back and realised that the teacher himself joined us!

Wow, is my main reaction to this thread. I can think of male teachers in my (almost all-boy) school (in the nineties) who would have taught this man a thing or two about feminism.

Here's the thing, Imp: You say yourself that you wouldn't have done it if there had been a female pupil in the room, because of courtesy (you implicitly acknowledge that they would have been made uncomfortable). They would: they would have been uncomfortable to see their peers assessing young women for their attractiveness, because it would have made THEM feel like they are assessed for their attractiveness - reduced to how they look, and yes, the word is 'objectified'. You would not have done this in front of female pupils, because it would have made them feel bad. You insist they would have been WRONG to feel bad, but you still wouldn't have liked it to happen. . Okay.
So this kind of behaviour makes women feel bad, but you were willing to encourage this kind of behaviour in your male pupils. Why?

"No, you seem to be poor at debate. You need to show that I reinforced something to make your case, as simply asserting it is not enough."

And his statement that no harm was done was based on what exactly.........ahh....yes...it was an assertion... (but by a man so that clearly carrys more weight....

I too am not depressed by it, because we know there are people like him out there so it's no surprise, but I was expecting far more MNers to be jumping in saying 'oh it's all just harmless fun' and it's been encouraging how much agreement there is.

Do you react so defensively to your pupils if they challenge you?

I find it depressing that a someone in charge of educating children should resort to such cheap point-scoring.

You say the boys 'just laughed' when you replayed the clip.

Why do you think they did that?

I don't think it's depressing in that it's actually what I expect from an average teacher tbh.

I have come across and heard about so many instances of casual sexism in schools and been so outraged by the fact that sexism is not treated with the same degree of seriousness that racism is, that I'm not surprised that this sort of attitude is on display here. I imagine it's quite common. Only really switched on teachers seem to be aware of these issues.

I think that's why we really need to put pressure on schools to treat sexism as seriously as they do racism. Currently, the less enlightened teachers may not understand why they are not allowed to do xyz with regards to racism, but at least they do understand that they are not allowed to do it. Whereas with sexism, they're about 20 years behind.

god this is really really depressing

It's interesting that consent has come into this.

The comments of imperator show nicely the attitude that is causing such problems in society in general and with rape cases specifically.

This idea that women are in a permanent state of consent.

In this case, simply by going to a sporting fixture which is televised, a woman apparently is consenting to being leered over by gangs of teenaged boys.

Interesting to see that "women always consenting" idea in action.

LOL proles, I expect he explains about racism to ethnic minorities as well.

just cos it got to the point where he was digging himself deeper into a hole and it was funny, I think.

re: ImSoNotTellin
"Um, you keep saying that it was harmless fun and no harm done. Thus you believe that the action of replaying the clip exists in a vacuum, ie it does not reinforce any sexist ideas about women that the boys may have. Now you are arguing that actions like this do not exist in a vacuum?

You seem a little confused."

No, you seem to be poor at debate. You need to show that I reinforced something to make your case, as simply asserting it is not enough.