"I’m talking about porn . . . in the curriculum"
 

October 18, 2005

Salacious U

Eric Scheske

It used to be confined to the frat houses. Heck, it was often excluded from campus altogether. But now it has become acceptable.

I’m not talking about excess drinking, drugs, or soccer.

I’m talking about porn . . . in the curriculum.

A course at Arizona State, “Sexuality and the Media,” doesn’t restrict itself to studies of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue or pictures of tight-suited TV weather women. It requires students to watch Deep Throat, Insatiable, and other X-rated films. A Northwestern University professor shows her student’s “fat porn” and “transvestite porn” (but apparently not midget porn, which I used to think was just a joke, but not any more). Wesleyan University requires students to make their own pornography, which can take the form of video, essay, or live performance.

It’s disgusting, yes. And people are noticing it and complaining. Some legislators have threatened to reduce funding for such institutions.

But why are porn courses wrong? Taxpayer dollars subsidizing salaciousness? Yes. Promoting unhealthy sexual life styles? Affirmative. Degrading the sex act and women? Yup.

But I’m not sure any of those criticisms strike to the root of the problem. To get there, we need to acknowledge how such studies might indeed be valid.

Pornography, after all, is a major component of our society. Porn viewers spend billions of dollars annually on video tapes and DVDs. That doesn’t include the movies, live shows, and nearly 100,000 pornographic internet sites.

Given its huge position in society, I don’t think it’s proper to sweep pornography under the cultural rug. You can do that with the stray pervert, but when millions of people accept it, it needs to be addressed.

By way of comparison, consider crime. Colleges have long offered courses in criminology. I think crime is a legitimate area of study, at least for today’s colleges and universities that resemble trade schools more than institutions of the liberal arts. Crime is a major issue in society, so it makes sense that our better minds would grapple with it at the university level.

How is porn any different? It’s a major issue in society, so the better minds ought to grapple with it.

The problem, of course, rests with the moral relativism found at the colleges. The porn professors aren’t presenting pornography as something that needs to be stopped, either after the fact or by understanding its root causes so it can be torn out.

Far from it, based on what I read, every college that offers studies in porn celebrates it, usually as a perfectly-legitimate art form. I have never heard of such a course condemning pornography, like courses in criminology presumably condemn crime. Maybe a stray feminist course from the 1970s and 1980s (back when feminism still frowned on porn) studied porn in order to castigate it, but I haven’t heard of any.

So the answer is quite simple. Offer porn classes from the perspective that criminology professors teach about crime: from a stance of condemnation.

Quixotic, you say?

I’m afraid you’re right. In order to condemn porn, we’d need the colleges and universities to take a moral stance against it and that, quite frankly, won’t happen. They are bastions of moral relativism.

So what do we do about the porn courses?

I say, “nothing.” The porn courses are merely a minor symptom of the overall problem with public universities. You can attack the courses, like you might hack off the head of a dandelion, but it’ll either grow back or something similar will take its place.

The universities themselves must be attacked, either by cutting off their funding or insisting that they regain their proper mission as institutions designed to teach young adults about the higher things in life, of civilization, of the great freedom of a mind loosed from passion.

You might say I’m getting quixotic again.

But it’s no more quixotic than legislators and parents who hope to change campuses by attacking a stray symptom like pro-pornography courses.

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Eric Scheske is a writer and editor with a special interest in the unconventional aspects of religion and philosophy's relationship to popular culture. He is the former editor of Gilbert Magazine and has written hundreds of articles, columns, and short stories for dozens of publications, including The Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News, Columbia, Vocabula Review, Touchstone, Our Sunday Visitor, and National Catholic Register. He also publishes a humorous blog of religion and social commentary, The Daily Eudemon.

Not really new... at least here at UofT

Heck one student residence held co-ed naked porn screenings of Behind the Green Door when it came out decades ago -> As for classes discussion pronography within Human Sexuality, Sexual Philosohpy, Women's Issues, Gender History, etc... that has been pretty much standard since the mid-70's here as well - in Roman History & Art History erotic art has been taught at the graduate level since the turn of the last century. Heck Oxford and Cambridge had courses dealing with Oriental Eroticism (Kama Sutra and more) back in the early 1800's...

So I don't see what the hubbubs all about - sex has always been a part of human culture and society - so why ignore it? I mean come on; if the uptight Victorians could handle it I'm sure modern students can as well.

That's actually why I never could sit through a women's studies course after the first semester. The course turned out to be a sin.

I shuold have applied to Wesleyan.

There was a course like that in my old school. It was bloody hard to get in because it was so popular.

what is "fat porn"? does that invole three hundred pounders having sex or something?

"Wesleyan University requires students to make their own pornography, which can take the form of video, essay, or live performance. "


-thats only if they take the class, which is totally up to them... I say right on, there should be education on making porn, Im sick of poor shots and silly plot lines!!!

Don't forget the cheesy music!

Thats been the curse of the 80s and 90s... back in to 70s Pink Floyd (and other bands) sued a French porn maker for sampling their music in his films.

You'll need the wah wah pedal for the guitar.