"Hunt you down"

[Thursday's_Child]

Anybody who would complain about that is just looking for things to be upset about and is, almost certainly, a huge pain in the ass in a variety of other ways.

The faculty member who complained has been teaching here for less than a semester and the faculty member that they complained about was on their hiring committee.

No good deed goes unpunished?

[Biblioeclectica]

Let me provide an alternative perspective. Yes, this person may come across as overly sensitive. However, there are people who have good reasons to not be comfortable with this phrasing.

Some have already mentioned the mass shooting angle. Another is stalking, which is a much more likely trigger. A former colleague of mine who has been the victim of stalking multiple times was uneasy when a colleague said something similar to them.

It doesn't hurt to be mindful of how we phrase things.

[Juvenal]

Perhaps if the phrase had been, "Hunt you down like a dog," there might been a tad more grounds for unease.  But even so...

[writingprof]

Some have already mentioned the mass shooting angle. Another is stalking, which is a much more likely trigger.

Right, but "triggering" is just a rhetorical trope to help progressives police speech. Let's not pretend it's a real phenomenon. The person who made this complaint is either crazy or laying the groundwork for some career-enhancing "victim"hood. My guess is the latter. OP, tread carefully.

[mahagonny]

Some have already mentioned the mass shooting angle. Another is stalking, which is a much more likely trigger.

Right, but "triggering" is just a rhetorical trope to help progressives police speech. Let's not pretend it's a real phenomenon. The person who made this complaint is either crazy or laying the groundwork for some career-enhancing "victim"hood. My guess is the latter. OP, tread carefully.

So your answer is 'yes' to both:

Is this a phrase that should be avoided, or is the faculty member who complained being overly sensitive?

[marshwiggle]

Perhaps if the phrase had been, "Hunt you down like a dog," there might been a tad more grounds for unease.  But even so...

Given that the message was

• sent to a bunch of colleagues
• specifically related to getting grades for a course

unless a person had serious PTSD* it shouldn't be a problem.

(If Katniss Everdeen is a colleague, then she would probably qualify.)

[mamselle]

Some have already mentioned the mass shooting angle. Another is stalking, which is a much more likely trigger.

Right, but "triggering" is just a rhetorical trope to help progressives police speech. Let's not pretend it's a real phenomenon. The person who made this complaint is either crazy or laying the groundwork for some career-enhancing "victim"hood. My guess is the latter. OP, tread carefully.

Excuse me.

I left my abusive spouse in 1980.

I still startle when someone bangs loudly on my front door, or comes up behind me and starts talking loudly.

Some responses never go away.

Please consider that your privileged experience which did not apparently include any of these things does not define everyone's experience and please stop trying to mansplain it away.

It's real, it's not being made up, and yes, if someone said a phrase like that to me, I might indeed have an involuntary, anxious reaction.

Get woke.

M.

[Hegemony]

I think insisting on one's right to use a phrase like this is beside the point.  Sure, you have a right to use it.  But it is not unreasonable that it calls to mind things that are a bit too close to home for those of us on college campuses.  So, maybe don't use the phrase on college campuses.  That's all there is to it.

[clean]

I believe that my Southern upbringing would require the "Bless your heart" first response.

My former department chair (of my pre PhD job) would have replied to the compliant with his pat response, "I bet you'd bitch if I hung you with a new rope." 

These days, that would generate secondary complaints about threats of lynching. 

So I end by quoting Rodney King, "Cant we all just get along?"

[Aster]

I suppose that the common everyday phrase "put a gun to my/your head" is also not going to go over well in today's America.

Or really any phrase that has "gun" or "shoot" in it.

I look forward to see what's placed into our next sensitivity training workshop. Our last one was mostly Title IX related, although I dimly recall something about blackface being inserted also.

It makes sense that the next workshop would cover the trigger words related to gun-violence and/or domestic terrorism. This is something that today's students very much talk about, may have directly or indirectly experienced, and left a permanent emotional impression on. We had a mass shooting near us recently and lots of students know people who were there. I very nearly almost attacked somebody with a piece of furniture during a lockdown a few years back. It looked like he had a gun and the police sweep teams weren't yet to our side of the campus.

Social media seems to be accelerating the pace of sensitivity training modules. I'm glad that we're providing steady employment to the people that make training videos.

[Kron3007]

This is definitely being over sensitive and only feeds into the university stereotype.  PC principal would not approve...

Hunting can mean many things, we have treasure hunts, scavenger hunts, etc.  If someone saying they are going to hunt you down for grades offends you, you should seek counseling because you will not be able to function in the world.  If I had a colleague complain about this, I would do everything I could to avoid working closely with them as this is only the tip of the iceburg (sorry if this metaphor is insensitive to the very real climate change issue).

What about defending a thesis?  Would that not be even worse since it implies you are being attacked? 

     

[marshwiggle]

This is definitely being over sensitive and only feeds into the university stereotype.  PC principal would not approve...

In the perfect PC world, everyone will sound like Spock or Data. Language devoid of any metaphor, simile, or colloquialisms will be acceptable to all.

"A rosa by any other nomenclature would be potentially confusing or harmful."

[mahagonny]

This is definitely being over sensitive and only feeds into the university stereotype.  PC principal would not approve...

Hunting can mean many things, we have treasure hunts, scavenger hunts, etc.  If someone saying they are going to hunt you down for grades offends you, you should seek counseling because you will not be able to function in the world.  If I had a colleague complain about this, I would do everything I could to avoid working closely with them as this is only the tip of the iceburg (sorry if this metaphor is insensitive to the very real climate change issue).

What about defending a thesis?  Would that not be even worse since it implies you are being attacked? 

     

No, that's valid language.

[FishProf]

I was attacked in my thesis defense.  That was the point.

[dr_codex]

Helpful suggestions for avoiding hunting language ... https://www.peta.org/teachkind/lesson-plans-activities/animal-friendly-idioms/