Male professor won’t apologize over lingerie ‘joke’

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A male political theory professor is being asked to apologize to a female gender studies professor for a joke about “ladies’ lingerie” he made in a crowded elevator.

The public spat comes amid heightened sensitivity to sexual misconduct propelled by the #MeToo movement.

Professor Simona Sharoni, a professor of women’s and gender studies at Merrimack College in Massachusetts, says she offered to press the buttons in the elevator at a San Francisco hotel.

She says Professor Ned Lebow, with a smile on his face, asked for “women’s lingerie,” eliciting a laugh from the other men in the elevator.

Lebow, who teaches political theory at King’s College London, has refused to apologize, despite a finding by the International Studies Association. He says he did nothing wrong and calls the complaint “frivolous.”