Witch Izzit In Your Workplace? Free Speech, Cultural Boundaries— or Something Else?

Playing a witch today was fun but more complicated than last year—and far more complicated than my custom in the past to wear a pumpkin outfit.

Does your workplace have a speech code, or at least guidelines that mark off a boundary for out-of-bounds topics—say, jokes about race or sex?

Does your workplace have some ideas about diversity and inclusion—say, groups for working moms, LGBTQ support, and similar?

Playing a witch surfaced these issues for me.

Academia is a place for free speech. But there are implicit boundaries, beginning with the basic idea that no one—especially an instructor— should make a student feel uncomfortable because of their race, gender, ethnicity, national origin, or other personal attribute.

The gender issue was a concern for me as I played Witch Izzit. The idea was to provide a visual representation of a non-conforming male precisely because my students will manage some males who wear make-up or otherwise express feminine traits. We have had a case on that very topic.

Why not use the innocent pretext of Halloween to provide an experience in observing and interacting with a male dressed as a (very unattractive) female witch?

But I recognized potential pitfalls. Would I be perceived to be mocking a transgender person?

Would this seem like a PC experiment run amok?

If I wore breasts or makeup, would I be crossing a boundary? (I concluded yes, and came as a poorly disguised male.)

For people who equate Halloween with religious connotations, would my costume be a problem?

My students were gracious in accepting me-- corny outfit, terrible witch-accent, broken character, trace of stubble, and other imperfections. But I left class with a gut feeling that we raised more issues than we settled. This disquieting reflection is indicative of how polarized we are in our everyday lives.