Libido 101

The president of Northwestern University said Thursday that he was “troubled and disappointed” by a psychology professor’s decision to present his students last week with a demonstration outside class that featured a couple engaging in a live sex act using a prop.

The demonstration had been arranged by J. Michael Bailey, whose Human Sexuality class has an enrollment of nearly 600. On Feb. 21, after concluding a lecture at a university auditorium about sexual arousal, Professor Bailey brought onto the stage a man whom he had invited to participate in a discussion of “kinky people.” …..[T]he man, Ken Melvoin-Berg, the co-owner of a business called Weird Chicago Tours, “asked…whether it would be O.K. if one of the women with him demonstrated female ejaculation using equipment they had brought with them.”

After receiving what the professor called “explicit” warnings of what they were about to see, about 100 students watched as the woman was penetrated by the device. – NYTimes

Do I understand this correctly?  Told they were going to see a live demonstration of dildo-generated female squirt, 500 students actually left?  What’s the matter with kids today?

I wonder if prior to the demonstration, people in the front few rows were offered water-repellent raingear, like at Gallagher performances.

Professor Bailey has since apologized for upsetting people and drawing negative attention to the university, and the equally courageous administration is mulling over the limits of academic freedom while they investigate.  No doubt they will want to speak personally to the, um, demonstrator herself, and view the videos which are certain to emerge.

During my 7 years in academia, nothing like this was ever offered – not for credit, anyway.  Dammit.  Of course, I majored in philosophy (eyeing a career in advanced unemployability), and the closest we ever got to discussing sex was dissecting the meaning of Wittgenstein’s duck-rabbit.  Which, as illustrated here, ain’t too close.

My bet is this blows over.  After all, it’s a class about human sexuality – wouldn’t one walk in anticipating graphic material, explicit language, films, demonstrations, and field trips?  Don’t we want to expose students to experts in the field and experienced authorities?  Maybe there’s a lot you can do with hand puppets, but we’re trying to prepare the next generation for real life, you know.  In case the computers and cell phones break down.

Reports are that after this penetrating class, students repaired to the campus masturbatory for coffee.