Law Schools

The ‘Manel’ Excuse Form

Absent this list, there is no excuse for a manel.  Ever.

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Of late, I have been discussing the ways in which legal academia has embedded in it serious institutional biases based upon race, class, gender, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation.

It should come as no surprise then, that I would be fundamentally opposed to “manels.”  Over the course of putting together my own events, I’ve found that the reasons for having a manel are pretty much indefensible.

Nonetheless, in an effort to be more open minded, I’ve come up with a few reasons for a panel organizer to have a manel (circle all that apply):

  1. Every female academic in your subject area has decided to go to a separate conference to which you weren’t invited the same day as yours. They plan on creating female-only panels, or “#femels” so they can’t be on your panel because they are too busy talking in a group about how tired they are of your manel B.S.
  2. You’re in such a specialized area that the only people who deal with the subject are you and your coauthor. And, after the time you spent on the deserted island together coming up with the topic, you feel you kind of owe it to him after you had to resort to cannibalism to survive and ate his arm.   Just know this isn’t really a panel.  It’s just a paper presentation with coauthors.
  3. You really want the negative attention that Twitter will give your panel as they show pictures of you with the hashtag #manel and completely ignoring the potentially interesting things you are saying on the panel.
  4. You and your friends on the manel like to be on the same panels together over and over, saying the same things repeatedly, but you can’t figure out how to just record that and put it on YouTube. In this case, maybe ask for some help so you can stop this horrific Groundhog Day
  5. You were mistaken about what diversity meant and now you have a bunch of white guys of different heights on the panel. But you now know what diversity means and you’ll get it right next time.  The one panelist you put on stilts will be relieved, too.
  6. You like to put your panelists in awkward positions, forcing them to choose because the subject they love and the intense feelings of discomfort they may have being on a manel.  This, of course, makes you a sadist.
  7. You are a Luddite or don’t know what the Internet is, and have to resort to a 1950 version of the directory of law teachers for panelists and only found men. By the way, this isn’t really an excuse.  You just didn’t look carefully enough.
  8. The manel in question is an Indie rock band called “Manel” and they are actually performing.
  9. Your manel is members of your old fraternity, and you all have rods, reels, and a boat. In this case, there will be no audience.  You are on a fishing trip.
  10. You are at an all-male retreat, and you’re planning on thumping your chest and lighting stuff on fire after the manel, perhaps burning yourself in the process.

Absent this list, there is no excuse for a manel.  Ever.

I think that diversity in our profession is too much of an afterthought.  Yes, in a few rare academic arenas getting a really diverse panel really is difficult. But that is rare, and speaks volumes about institutional biases that are in sore need of correction.  Outside of those rare arenas, in the bulk of instances, panels are way too imbalanced, with plenty of white males from certain schools.  The rest of academia appears relegated to that “one diverse panel member” slot.  That’s not a way to run an intellectual endeavor.  It’s not a way to run anything, really.

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LawProfBlawg is an anonymous professor at a top 100 law school. You can see more of his musings here.  He is way funnier on social media, he claims.  Please follow him on Twitter (@lawprofblawg) or Facebook. Email him at lawprofblawg@gmail.com.

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