His sex talk has the quality of a compulsion (which is not to excuse him or to suggest anyone feel sorry for him). But because it sounds prescriptive, a self-arousal for him to go through this script, I suspect he delivered it to many more women than have so far come forward.

Those he chose for mentoring may have been chosen more because he could imagine himself delivering the script to them without their confronting him or walking away. It makes sense if you picture his having delivered it many, many times. He may have had an informed sense of who would listen.

As a graduate student I experienced a professor who told a story very similar to the one recounted by Bora in the email Kathleen shared. It turned out that he systematically approached women with a similar story with sexual content. When some told him to stop, he would act innocent and wounded and call them unsympathetic, and then they would not be invited to social gatherings or to go out for a drink with a group of faculty and grad students at a conference or after a class.

What was almost equally disturbing, other professors knew about it, and remarked that he was “very democratic” in his tastes, approaching an older department secretary as well as young women. Also, it happened that his wife, who was one of those who knew, was a star in another department, and when she was recruited by the university it was a package deal.

The dean of the grad school was confronted with this report and as many as 20 women attested to having been approached in this way. His response? Crocodile tears: the accused must be confronted by his accusers, and none of the students wanted to come forward, because it would have been impossible to remain in one of several departments if they had done so. It became clear that this couple had had to leave a university on another continent owing to this behavior.