View Single Post
Old 11-17-2008, 09:17 PM   #53
Buck
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 950
United_States
Offline
Re: Another harassment question

Tom28, from all we discussed I can't really see that she is being a victim. More like at worse at this point she is being mildly annoyed by a Sensei who is trying to pick up on her like a bad 70's movie. If an instructor of a martial art or exercise class says or does something that truly offends me I leave the class A.S.A.P. and don't come back. No matter how much I like the activity. If I am victimized I don't stay to be further victimize. Even if she is shy, being shy doesn't mean you can't stop going to the class.

Therefore, really this isn't a women being victimized by a evil sexist sensei. I don't think the energy should be on that issue. I have a feeling the women isn't as weak, helpless, shy, down-truly and vulnerable oppressed1950's house wife screaming for help as some see her. That is an injustice when a situation is turned into some things more then it is. It is a cry wolf situation. That is my concern. I am about keeping the situation in perspective. Women today our very different from those oppressed stereotypes of the housewives, Brontes, and Dickensons of yore.

There is nothing like stirring up a mob into a hysteria out for blood.

If you join a Aikido class and pay around $90.00 a class, and you are going to have an interpersonal relationship with a teacher; where you have one on one personal attention like that of a personal trainer, etc. you're not going to stay with it if you don't get along with that person. Essentially, you fire them, that is your right and choice. They don't hire you, you hire them. Shy or not, firing them is as easy as not coming back. This applies to everyone in that dojo.

Will this situation being discussed on the net of the sensei picking up on a second women will stop the sensei's behavior, will it embarrass him, or get him to change? No. At worse he will be disliked more by people who already dislike him, and those who are easily persuaded who read the thread will dislike him too. But, none of those people are or will be his students. And that is the whole point.

Now if he starts hitting on a minor that is a whole different story.

Ya know, it is funny how many of the same people in the Clint George thread where quick not to convict him of his crime of molesting a child. Yet there are people here who read a about a situation with an adult women discribed as being harrassed by her sensei condemning him to the gallows. There are many similarities in both situations where people shouldn't be quick to convict, but they are very quick to convict based on almost nothing but a third party account. Clint George was well known and once respected in the Aikido community, his actions against a child was a crime, yet many people had his back. Maybe fame has it's privileges. The crime this sensei is guilty of is no being famous.

Last edited by Buck : 11-17-2008 at 09:32 PM.