Posted on 11/03/2010 8:21:54 AM PDT by Academiadotorg
When academics venture off campus, they may take a little longer to notice things than the rest of us. Colgate sociologist Meika Loe seems to have had several such epiphanies.
“For her senior thesis, she decided to get a job at Bazoom’s, a restaurant in San Diego whose concept was based on women’s sex appeal,” Jenn Howard wrote in The Observer at Boston College on October 19, 2010. “The restaurant’s motto was ‘Delightfully tacky, yet unrefined.’”
“She took the job to immerse herself in this culture, conducting interviews and doing research along the way.” Most casual observers would have been immersed enough by the name and tagline.
“Loe found that the restaurant normalized sexual harassment in a policalized environment,” Howard wrote. “A high value was placed on women’s sexual work, causing a stigma to be attached to the business.” Such can be the value of a college education: She caught the political part.
Loe had come to BC to discuss her book, The Rise of Viagra: How The Little Blue Pill Changed Sex in America. “During her lecture, she noted the fact that although men are generally very uncomfortable talking about Viagra, their discomfort doesn’t stop them from using it,” Howard reported.
Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia.
If you would like to comment on this article, e-mail mal.kline@academia.org
Sociology is not a science.
It is not an academic endeavor.
It is the “global warming” of human studies - fit for those D students who are too stupid even for politics.
She thinks she can find “reality” in a restaurant called Bazoom’s
I can’t find a definition for the word “policalize”. I guess it’s not a real word.
Too harsh. Soc WAS a science, brushing up against cultural anthropology (yet quite distinct from the REAL science of physical anthropology). Both SOC and ANTHRO were firebombed in the 70s and 80s by stereotypical, right out of central casting, screeching, hairy, really ugly female hatemongers who roared into college SOC and ANTHRO departments, eliminated all men except for one or two “pet” eunichs, and launched into a hate-fueled carpet-bombing of the formerly scholarly subjects. Schools like UMASS simply eliminated Anthropology and created the School of Feminist Anthropology, in which men were cast as Klingons but with even poorer bathroom and eating habits. It has taken this long for ANTHRO/SOC to recover in part. Part of the destruction of once fine schools like UMass, which, believe it or not, retired undefeated from the GE College Bowl in 1963 (one of only 10 schools to do so in ten years).
That letter begins with the words:
"Dear Miss Rand: I am a graduate student in sociology at Northern Illinois University and a student of Objectivism .... Actually, what I want to discuss with you is [sic] your writings on the New Left. I have read them all and, in my opinion, they offer the best critical analysis that has ever been written on this movement."
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