Posted on 02/09/2010 3:54:23 AM PST by Kaslin
Some time ago, I recommended Texas A&M University as a good place to get an education. Now that it has added a course in the English Department called “Gay and Lesbian Literature” I need to reconsider. Generally, when a school dedicates entire courses to homosexuality its days are numbered as a university to be taken seriously.
Dr. Krista May now offers a course that “surveys the historical and social constructions of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender identities, primarily as they are expressed in the literature of British and American writers.”
That sounds innocent enough. But why spend a semester studying such a narrow aspect of literary works of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries? The syllabus continues: “The course also investigates earlier literary periods in order to contextualize relatively recent notions of sexual identity by situating them within cultural and historical frameworks.”
Interesting, isn’t it? The issues covered in the class include “literary expressions of homo-social behaviors in ancient Greece and Rome; development of homosexual subcultures in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; construction of female ‘romantic friendship’; the influence of late nineteenth-century sexologists and of Freud; intersections of racial, class, and sexual identities; and postmodern interrogations of identity.”
The stated purpose of the course is to provide students with “a starting point for understanding historical concepts that inform contemporary notions of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender identities …” This is done in order to challenge students to “think critically about strategies deployed in literary expressions of sexual identity.”
There is so much more to the reading in “Gay and Lesbian Literature” than the obvious Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Students also get to read The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature as well as The Testosterone Files: My Hormonal and Social Transformation from Female to Male. Now that’s intellectual progress! Who said the Aggies were a bunch of backward hicks?
Despite my distaste for the subject matter of her class, Dr. Krista May impresses me with one portion of her syllabus. She says something similar to what I say to all of my classes the first day of each semester:
“Everyone is expected to respect his or her classmates and the instructor. During this course, we will be reading about and discussing topics that might make us uncomfortable. It is almost certain that the students and instructor will be offended at some point during the course by something that we read or discuss in class ... This does not mean that we should avoid discussing these topics...”
Good show, so far. But, usually, when a professor of Gay Literature hasn’t said something stupid it just means she isn’t finished talking. Consider the following:
“Intolerance of others’ viewpoints will not be tolerated in the classroom…”
If intolerance will not be tolerated then perhaps it is time to develop a new class at Texas A&M University. The course, taught in the general “university studies” program, could be called “Homosexuality and Other Bad Lifestyle Choices.” This would be preferable to spending a whole semester on homosexuality alone and would help fulfill the need for “diverse voices” – a need mentioned specifically in Dr. May’s syllabus.
“Homosexuality and Other Bad Lifestyle Choices” could feature several of the following lectures:
1. Why sodomy always has been the principal cause of AIDS transmission and why homosexuals try to deny it.
2. Why homosexuals have a shorter lifespan than heterosexuals and why it is hate speech to deny it.
3. How homosexuals burden the health care system and why the Democrats don’t talk about it.
Then, the course could move on to talk about other issues like heterosexual promiscuity, drug abuse, and the drinking culture on college campuses.
During “Homosexuality and Other Bad Lifestyle Choices” students would read about and discuss topics that might make them uncomfortable. It is almost certain that the students and instructor will be offended at some point during the course by something that they read or discuss in class. But this does not mean that we should avoid discussing these topics.
“Homosexuality and Other Bad Lifestyle Choices” can help Texas A&M regain its reputation as a serious public university. At the same time, it will likely offend some homosexual Aggies who have been regrettably dubbed as “Faggies” by their less sensitive fellow students.
Of course, it is permissible to talk about the downside of homosexuality and to call it a choice, not a genetic predisposition. Remember that intolerance of others’ viewpoints will not be tolerated in the classroom.
Please add me or keep me on your ping list.
As disgusting as things get ... I need to be informed.
We all know that many schools allow these ridiculous choices; the answer isn't to protest the course or make like of it, but to IGNORE it.
We sound like MSNBC looking down their noses at Palin when we critique a college course. I wouldn't be interested in this course, but it is a kind of reverse elitism to put down a course offering.
If no students sign up for them the universities will eventually have to drop the offerings.
As for putting up with it, if the curriculum or brochure states this, JUST SAY NO to taking it. Empower our children to make SMART decisions, by teaching them our values before they get to college.
That is the most effective way to deal with these situations.
Let the narrow minded alone in their hate-filled world, eventually it has its own way of playing out; when they are ALONE later in life because no one wants to be around them.
This new development is probably a continuation of changes put in play while that pompous ass, Robert Gates, was president of Texas A&M.
Done :)
I believe the problem started at A&M when they began admitting women back in 1972. A&M was an excellent military school with strong traditions and regimentation. More officers went into the US Army from A&M than West Point. Since that time, the university has focused upon Title 9 and PC.
Believe me, the Aggies who attend and alumni DO NOT agree.
Right on, read my mind! A book could be written on the likes of Gates and “Colon” Powell-who are these people, where is their core, do they just have perverted minds, etc.? One thing, I would be inclined to say is that their sort is the sort that gave us the Himmlers, Goerings, Hess’, and Goebbels’ of history.
The end of an era.
My son was considering A&M. Thankfully it is now about number 5 or 6 on his list. Nice school, nice campus, (grin, I got to walk on the field in their stadium during a tour) but if they’re going to promote courses like this with no real value...
ping for later reading
rut-roh!
LOLOL. I just love this man. He's our home grown Mark Steyn.
Note that it’s always “gay” first. Everyone else to the “back door”.
No, they’ll expand the meaning of “minority studies” or someone will endow the course.
Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. It's still easy to avoid rot like this at A&M, even in the English department.
Have you scoured the curriculum at the universities that are higher on your son's list? Unless he's considering a (truly) Christian university or someplace like Hillsdale, you're pretty much guaranteed to find something offensive at every school.
I just wrote my Aggie son and told him his daddy would always love him.
I did ask him if ‘gig ‘em’ had any gay connotations though.
Nail, meet hammer.
I don’t think you should judge the entire university by just one course.
“Some time ago, I recommended Texas A&M University as a good place to get an education.”
Lost all credibility with me right there.
I’m sure most Colleges and Universities have similar things. Actually A&M is 5 or 6 just based on other factors. That wasn’t intended as a put-down of A&M. I spent a couple of days there poking around with my son, getting the official tour, etc. Seems like a great school. Close, but just not quite an exact match for him.
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