When form and protocol generally take precedent over and is valued more than substance, a society struggles to make social, economic, and political progress. One such form and protocol is showing respect for and/or deferring to old men. In this blog post I demonstrate how two old men use the guise of lack respect for old men as a pretext for silencing young adult women of similar academic and professional stature as them for no other reason than the fact that they are female.