Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Higher Education

Thanks to Instapundit for linking this classic example of ivory tower academia:

From the Dept of Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies

Seriously? In Iowa they have such a department in the University? They actually have full professors that get paid real money to teach serious courses in such things? Might it be possible that the graduates of programs offered by that department will have trouble finding gainful employment in this economy?


Can a university professor really accuse someone of "appropriating the language of the LGBT right movement"? Did she miss that part about the First Amendment freedom of speech when she went to the sixth grade civics class? Because her pet cause uses a phrase does that now remove it from the public lexicon?  Does she seriously express outrage at this: "And the “Animal Rights BBQ” is extremely insensitive to those who consider animal rights an important cause."


She tells a student to "F**k Off!" in her best professorial demeanor and then takes offense that she is referred to by her first name rather than "Professor." When people use that sort of language toward me, I usually believe we have now established a more intimate relationship that no longer requires formal titles in our communications. 


I think this woman lives in some sort of alternative universe in which civil dialogue between groups with different political viewpoints is not tolerated. That is neither academic freedom or intellectual discourse. 

2 comments:

Scott McCray said...

Seems the LGBT movement has done just a bit of "appropriating" themselves.I for one can remember when "gay" meant someone was lighthearted and happy - and when a rainbow was something you looked forward to seeing after a rainstorm.

Hmmm...guess it just depends on one's perspective.

Randall said...

When I was in college in the early 90's the "gender studies" class was a part of the English department. The instructor was a 7 foot Amazon who from head to toe fit the image of exactly what you expect a "gender studies" professor to look like. However, she turned out to be one of the best TEACHERS I actually had while I was there. I disagreed with her soundly in many of my papers, and yet I was never chastised for it in any way, and was always graded as fairly as anyone else. Who'da thunk it?