I hope this exchange helps those who don't grok the distinction to get it, including Matt. This is one of those areas where social identity really does produce differential experience, and the best way for those who don't share the identity is to just listen. https://twitter.com/saurabhvashist_/status/1262726315561672707

So, unlike @kroenig , I'm never gonna get a on Rate my Professor (didn't win that genetic lottery!) .

But a student in my Western Civ course once described me as having a "Napoleonic Complex" in the course of a positive evaluation (I'm 5'3").

It didn't bother me – I even found it amusing – but that's because I have the luxury to ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯.

Yes, there's evidence that male attractiveness is associated with higher earnings, higher estimation, and (in fact) better course evaluations (same with height, tbh)

But this is, I have come to understand, a very different matter than living in en environment that repeatedly sends signals that your value is *primarily* a function of your appearance.

As an able-bodied white male academic I do not live in a society where even positive comments on my appearance are a routine way of asserting dominance.

I do not live in a society where even positive comments on my appearance are a routine way of asserting dominance.

And while I think course evaluations are pretty useless, I don't open them every year dreading what even students who like my course might say.

/end