No Apology For Joke That Offended Merrimack College Professor

NORTH ANDOVER, MA -- King's College London professor Richard Ned Lebow is refusing to apologize for a joke he made in an elevator at a San Francisco conference last month that offended Simona Sharoni, a gender studies professor at Merrimack College in North Andover. According to a complaint filed with the International Studies Association, the conference sponsor, Lebow replied "ladies' lingerie" when Sharoni asked him what floor he was going to.

Lebow maintains it was a stupid joke — a "standard gag line" — and Sharoni's complaint is "frivolous." Sharoni, meanwhile, says she cannot "remain silent when misogyny is at play," according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. An attempt to clarify his intentions with an email to Sharoni only got Lebow in more trouble.

"Like you, I am strongly opposed to the exploitation, coercion, or humiliation of women," Lebow wrote. "As such evils continue, it seems to me to make sense to direct our attention to real offenses, not those that are imagined or marginal. By making a complaint to ISA that I consider frivolous — and I expect, will be judged this way by the ethics committee — you may be directing time and effort away from the real offenses that trouble us both."

ISA didn't see it the way Lebow expected. His sorry-not sorry email to Sharoni had the committee ordering him to offer an "unequivocal apology." So far he has refused to do so, and the committee may take more disciplinary action. Lebow told the Chronicle "the episode is 'a horrifying and chilling example of political correctness' that 'encourages others to censor their remarks for fear of retribution'."

For more on this story, see the Chronicle of Higher Education. Subscribe to North Andover Patch for more local news and real-time alerts.

Photo by Merrimack College.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).