The power of social media

Until the internet, sex workers lived under the protection of pimps, who beat them up and swallowed their earnings

Social media has had some regressive effects on social norms. Swimming, for example, is a pleasant pastime and excellent exercise. There are 1850s photographs of Victorian ladies in swimwear in family albums. An Instagram account is the 21st century digital equivalent. Sacking a college professor for (a) swimming (b) putting pictures of herself in a swimsuit on her Insta account harks back to the medieval.

There’s a disconnect. At one level, the complainant and the vice chancellor who sacked the professor are living in some dim distant past. At another level, they are savvy enough to access social media, a cutting-edge