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In the past, there were fewer prohibitions against college professors dating students. While some student-teacher relationships may have been problematic, other

In the past, there were fewer prohibitions against college professors dating students. While some student-teacher relationships may have been problematic, others were not. That's how some people got married and started families. Now, the rules have changed, yet the writer insists we should judge Feynman through a modern lens, as if all the rules and taboos of 2021 were in place 40 years ago. Now, in every conversation Feynman is mentioned, we are supposed to include the word 'sexist' or 'misogynist' because someone took offense? This rewriting of history is sickening.

solosoyokaze 5y ago
It's not a rewriting of history though. It's all stuff that actually happened. It's just a more complete telling of history. The purpose of pointing this stuff out is so that it doesn't get duplicated. There should be no cult of personality. We can absorb someone's intellectual output without lionizing the individual. The entire concept of celebrity is toxic and best left in the past.
anon_tor_12345 5y ago
>modern lens the drawing displayed in the article is from 1975. i'm sure there are plenty of people on this very forum born well before 1975. we're not talking about judging someone from ancient mesopotamia here... i think the dude was socially and politically average for his generation but his generation is still around (though petering out). >This rewriting of history is sickening. really? did you throw up after reading the article? this is hyperbolic and reactionary. what's happening here is a reexamination of things up until recently taken for granted (boys will be boys). i don't see anything wrong with revisiting things and reassessing. in this case especially because feynman's strip club antics are very often trotted out as some kind of wonderful thing he did that made him more relatable than other science luminaries.
geofft 5y ago
The article specifically mentions that Feynman pretended to be a student to sleep with students.
- dorchadas 5y ago
  And that he used some of his students as nude models. Talk about a power dynamic issue there. What if they refused? Did they even feel like they could refuse?
DaveExeter 5y ago
>In the past, there were fewer prohibitions against college professors dating students. That's quite an understatement! It used to be expected that a college professor would end up marrying one of his students.

solosoyokaze 5y ago

It's not a rewriting of history though. It's all stuff that actually happened. It's just a more complete telling of history. The purpose of pointing this stuff out is so that it doesn't get duplicated. There should be no cult of personality. We can absorb someone's intellectual output without lionizing the individual. The entire concept of celebrity is toxic and best left in the past.

anon_tor_12345 5y ago

>modern lens the drawing displayed in the article is from 1975. i'm sure there are plenty of people on this very forum born well before 1975. we're not talking about judging someone from ancient mesopotamia here... i think the dude was socially and politically average for his generation but his generation is still around (though petering out). >This rewriting of history is sickening. really? did you throw up after reading the article? this is hyperbolic and reactionary. what's happening here is a reexamination of things up until recently taken for granted (boys will be boys). i don't see anything wrong with revisiting things and reassessing. in this case especially because feynman's strip club antics are very often trotted out as some kind of wonderful thing he did that made him more relatable than other science luminaries.

geofft 5y ago

The article specifically mentions that Feynman pretended to be a student to sleep with students.

dorchadas 5y ago
And that he used some of his students as nude models. Talk about a power dynamic issue there. What if they refused? Did they even feel like they could refuse?

DaveExeter 5y ago

>In the past, there were fewer prohibitions against college professors dating students. That's quite an understatement! It used to be expected that a college professor would end up marrying one of his students.