Here's One for the Closeted Sadists

I must have higher standards than the New York Times, but I will refrain from regaling you with graphic descriptions of the horrors that male prisoners visit on female prison guards. The Times has no such compunctions and no such standards of journalistic propriety.

One suspects that the Times was going for the porn effect. One also suspects that Times editors imagined that the world would be outraged at the bad treatment male prisoners in federal prisons visit on female guards. And that this would ramp up their lust for social justice.

And yet, the overwhelming reaction to the flashy expose was noted by several commentators on the Times site. Whoever had the idea to assign female prison guards to male prisons? Can you get any more stupid? (OK, don't answer that?) Does the ideologically driven left really believe that gender is just another social construction, and thus, that gender does not matter? Did they believe that it makes no difference to inmates-- the worst of the worst, the most brutal, degenerate, immoral beasts-- that their female prison guards are not wearing enticing dresses?

It is the height of human ignorance and human arrogance to pretend that male prisoners would naturally show proper deference and respect to female guards. Or perhaps the brilliant bureaucrats who conjured up this policy were closet sadists who liked to hear stories of women being harassed and raped. Or perhaps Times readers needed to get in touch with their inner sadists. Does the Times suspect that such stories will appeal to their readers?

One hopes that the Times is not promoting the story as further evidence of toxic masculinity. One also hopes that they do not believe that these men just need more sensitivity training.

Anyway, in the absence of detail, here is a quick plot summary. Read the rest at your peril:

For women who work in federal prisons, where they are vastly outnumbered by male colleagues and male inmates, concealing every trace of their femininity is both necessary and, ultimately, futile. “They never even see what you are wearing,” said Octavia Brown, a supervisor in Victorville, Calif., of the inmates she oversees. “They see straight through it.”

Some inmates do not stop at stares. They also grope, threaten and expose themselves. But what is worse, according to testimony, court documents, and interviews with female prison workers, male colleagues can and do encourage such behavior, undermining the authority of female officers and jeopardizing their safety. Other male employees join in the harassment themselves.