Conference steamed over ‘sexist’ remark
No context for joke about ‘misspeaks’
WINNIPEG • Canada’s annual gathering of top Arctic scientists has been roiled by an open letter from researchers protesting what they call a sexist joke at the conference’s gala banquet.
The joke was made Wednesday during a t ribute to Martin Fortier, retiring head of ArcticNet, which coordinates northern research in Canada.
“Basically, it was a roast of his contributions to the network,” said David Barber, a Canada Research Chair at the University of Manitoba, speaking on behalf of the ArcticNet board. “The idea was to poke fun at some misspeaks that Martin has made over the years.” Fortier is a francophone. “( The speaker) made a statement about a misspeak that Martin had made several years ago at one of the Arctic science meetings we were holding,” said Barber.
“He was speaking at the end of t he banquet and making a few comments about the meal and he said he went and sampled some of the vegetarian women to make sure they were happy with the food they had received.”
Fortier had meant “surveyed” and not “sampled.”
Barber said the speaker stated the bare bones of the word mix- up without explaining that it was another in a series of Fortier’s innocent linguistic mistakes.
On Thursday, an open letter began circulating at the conference and was released online with 26 signatories, mostly graduate and postgraduate students from universities across Canada.
“We were stunned and offended by the statements,” the letter reads. “Comments that frame women as ‘ a buffet’ to sample are deeply offensive.”
The l etter also says a speaker two days earlier used a photo of men making “inappropriate and sexually explicit” gestures.
“The trivialization of these behaviours at a professional event illustrates the deeply embedded sexist culture that exists in this field and this organization,” the letter says.
Frank Tester, an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of British Columbia, heard the “sampled” comment and signed the letter after speaking to some female researchers.
“Some of them were on the verge of tears,” he said.
“That one joke was bad enough to trigger a whole bunch of people, including myself and some of the people I walked out with, (to take action).”
Barber said the ArcticNet board has apologized. A second apology was delivered at a conference plenary session Friday.
“We’re apologizing for the fact there was no context provided for the statement that ( the speaker) made about the statement Martin Fortier made,” Barber said.
“We’re using this as a teaching opportunity to get them to understand the complexities of these things ... It is perfectly fine that people feel this was an inappropriate thing to say. They should have brought that up with the board. To take it and make it available to the media is inappropriate.”
Tester said Arctic science isn’t any more sexist than any other part of society — but it isn’t any less, either. He called the apologies a good start. , but wonders whose teachable moment it really is.
“I think it’s a teaching opportunity for young female scientists to teach their older male peers.”