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IDK if Sheldon Borenstein is still a figure drawing professor at SJSU and, if he is, if he& #39;s still giving out his personal cellphone number to his students, but if he is, he needs to cut that shit out, and if he won& #39;t, the Animation/Illustration program needs to tell him to stop.
I get that he thinks he& #39;s being helpful or whatever but it& #39;s not appropriate, and it& #39;s not okay.
He was an authority figure in my life telling me that I could trust him with any problem, so I did. I talked to him about personal shit that, looking back as an adult, I never should have brought up - but I didn& #39;t realize that bc I was 19, depressed, and felt alone as fuck.
He was one of the first professors I tried to talk to about my gender identity, about how I thought that maybe I was trans. He responded by telling me that I didn& #39;t have to be a guy. He asked me why I couldn& #39;t just be a lesbian.
I never reported him to anyone in the program because I was ashamed that I& #39;d ever trusted him and because I recognized that his words could easily be dismissed as something mildly inappropriate, or that, bc his heart was in the "right place", he& #39;d receive the lightest slap on the
wrist while I would have to expose myself as the idiot who opened up to him in the first place. I did the math and decided it wasn& #39;t worth it. Even now, as I& #39;m talking about this, there& #39;s a voice in the back of my head telling me that this is so, so much tamer than anything
I& #39;ve read other people go through over the last few days - and it& #39;s true. This professor never tried to sexually assault me or even harassed me in any way. He simply said some dumb, hurtful shit and gained my trust from a position of power.
But I& #39;m telling this story because I want people to understand that the only reason I feel comfortable talking about this now is because I know (hope?) that he can& #39;t touch me. That his circle of influence doesn& #39;t stretch to where I currently am. But there& #39;s still a whisper of
fear that, because he& #39;s been around for so long, because he& #39;s taught figure drawing to so many artists who don& #39;t see him as a problem, artists who are in the industry now who might hear from him or see this thread and think that I& #39;m a crazy, over-reactive, ungrateful bitch,
that there will be consequences to my career that I won& #39;t see coming because I& #39;m an impulsive dumbass who can& #39;t think 10 steps into the future.
And this is with an extremely mild example of the kind of shit that happens in the industry! This professor is so far removed from me
And this is with an extremely mild example of the kind of shit that happens in the industry! This professor is so far removed from me
and my current job! So just fucking imagine for even five seconds how terrifying and nerve-wracking it is for people to come forward with their own stories when their shit is happening way, way closer to home, with assholes who hold way more power/influence than this professor.
