Science magazine retracted an online post from one of its websites because the post wasn’t properly harsh toward men’s behavior.

The post was by Alice Huang, a senior biologist at Cal Tech — and former president of the AAAS! — who writes a regular advice column on the Science Careers website. A young female scientist had written that her supervisory scientist always “looked down her shirt” when they were together. What should she do?

Huang considered the question carefully, and especially whether that action rose to the level of legal sexual harassment. She decided that it didn’t, and concluded that such things sometimes happen in the workplace and perhaps she should just let it go.

I don’t mean to suggest that leering is appropriate workplace behavior — it isn’t — but it is human and up to a point, I think, forgivable. Certainly there are worse things, including the unlawful behaviors described by the [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission].

Inside Higher Ed, which covered the story (from which this quote is taken), also has a link to the cached original version.

As Inside Higher Ed explains, the post touched off such an uproar that Science removed it and then formally retracted it, with a stuffy statement that the advice was “inconsistent with our extensive institutional efforts to promote the role of women in science and had not been reviewed by experts knowledgeable about laws regarding sexual harassment in the workplace.”

Talk about censorship! A famed scientist can’t even express an opinion without being whisked off-stage by nervous Nellie editors.

What if Huang had said, “Perhaps you should dress more conservatively”? In that case, I would worry for her safety.