Professor: I was pinned to wall and groped by academics
A University professor has told how she had her breasts fondled and bottom pinched due to a ‘hidden epidemic’ of sexual misconduct in the academic world.
Susan Bassnett said professors, well-known writers and even ‘a handful of vicechancellors’ had subjected her to unwanted attention throughout her career.
The comments by the professor of comparative literature at the university of glasgow come amid a string of allegations in Westminster and Hollywood over inappropriate behaviour by men in power.
Professor Bassnett, 72, a widow, was also pro vice-chancellor at the university of Warwick for ten years and has written a book on poet Ted Hughes.
She said that during her career many men had over- stepped the mark but that she has never complained and does not intend to release their names. There is no suggestion that any of those involved work at glasgow or Warwick universities.
She told Times Higher education: ‘i have been pinned to walls, groped at parties, had my bottom pinched, breasts foni Propositioned: Susan Bassnett dled, skirt lifted – sometimes with joviality, other times with the intensity of lust, fuelled by alcohol. One man was so infamous for his behaviour that when he crossed the room at drinks receptions, i, like the other women present, would strategically hold a plate and a handbag so as to employ jutting elbows as a defence.’
She told the magazine she would not identify those who harassed and assaulted her because she was a ‘child of the generation that took this kind of behaviour as par for the course and learnt how to deal with it’. She also claimed she ‘never felt in any danger’ and added: ‘i have used cutting remarks, the odd slap and the technique of grinding sharp nails across an offending hand. have also on occasion bluntly told sex pests to ‘‘**** off’’.’
Professor Bassnett has been at glasgow for three years in a part-time role, and it is understood the incidents she refers to are historical.
She has written candidly before about her generation’s attitudes towards sex on campus. last year, she wrote an article for the same magazine about the myth of ‘free love’ at universities in the 1960s. She wrote she would probably have ‘claimed sexual assault or even date rape’ over many incidents had they happened today.
She added: ‘There was a lot of what we now call sexual harassment: lecturers who propositioned or groped you; officers of the law who manhandled female protesters more often than they did men; fellow students who made you feel uncool if you didn’t agree to have sex.
‘A swift slap or kick, an oath or sharp verbal put-down seemed to work as a deterrent most times. i find myself astonished by some of the cases that go all the way to court today.’
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