Join Hoofers; Don't get killed

This past week, HSC sailing instructor Ken Jewel got the "Funky Monkey" award for sending two of his students to the hospital. Har har. That's pretty funny, er, funky.

"That which does not kill us only makes us stronger" wrote a fellow instructor. Um, yeah... it's not gonna kill you; it's the 500 or so general club members who need to worry. Meanwhile, the instructors are all smiles (see photo) as they go recklessly about their business, get paid for it, plus get free memberships, weekly private parties, obnoxious posters proclaiming that "we're better than you" and so on. They are definitely better at causing injuries, I'll give 'em that.

Word has it that Ken is a great party boy, though, so his job isn't at risk. You can read more here.

"We don't harass women in Hoofers"

In a recent study, 84% of men whose actions matched the legal definition of rape said that what they did was definitely not rape[1]. Similar results have been obtained in other studies for other sex-related crimes.

Many people—men and women alike—consider "sexual harassment" to be a bunch of bull (no pun intended). It's so easy to make up a story, file a complaint, even get somebody, normally a male, charged with sexual harassment or sexual assault, even if they didn't do anything wrong. Well guess what?

At least two of the past eight HSC commodores, both of whom are men in their 30s or 40s, have been formally charged with sex-related violations (and we're betting it's more than two). You can download the most recent investigation here.

The question is: does becoming commodore make it more or less likely that an individual will become sexually aggressive..?

We suspect it's the former, given the commodore's sweeping authority within HSC. But if it's the latter (or if it makes no difference), that would suggest that sexual harassment (and possibly assault) are widespread in Hoofers.

But hey, two out of eight still means that three out of four commodores are not engaging in sexual harassment of female club members. Them's pretty good odds, eh? So c'mon, girls! Join up!

Predators and Prey.

*Predators and Prey is an ongoing series focusing on Hoofer Sailing Instructors and other club "leaders". If you would like to be featured, please contact us, or just screw up!
[1] Koss, M. P. 1998. Hidden rape: incident, prevalance, and descriptive characteristics of sexual aggression and victimization in a national sample of college students.