Note: A shorter version of this essay was published in the Chronicle of Higher Education Review on September 15, 2021.
Many years ago, as a social psychologist specializing in gender equity, I was invited to attend a weekend workshop at the Air Force Academy, designed to suggest ways to reduce prejudice against women, who were inching up to the 10% level. At one of our first sessions, the topic of sexist humor arose. A senior officer grumbled that he always asked his junior officers if it was OK with them if he told them a joke, and they invariably said yes.