CULTURE NEWS: Pol wants sex classes axed

[The Straight Story]

CULTURE NEWS: Pol wants sex classes axed

Posted on Mar 6, 2009 | by Erin Roach

ATLANTA (BP)--Charlice Byrd, a Georgia state representative, is leading a charge to stop public universities from using taxpayer funds to teach students about sexual perversions, The Christian Index state Baptist newspaper has reported.

Byrd, a Republican and a member of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, wrote an open letter asking Georgia Baptists to contact the board of regents at the University of Georgia as well as their legislators, urging the discontinuation of funding for courses and faculty who focus on immoral behaviors.

At UGA, one course in question is called "Queer Theory," which the university says studies "the representation of homosexuals in literature and the world" and "is a respected course of study throughout the nation."

Calvin Hill, another Republican representative from Cherokee County, has joined Byrd in calling for an end to the misuse of taxpayer dollars. Hill found in a media guide for Georgia State University entries for one professor listed as an expert on male prostitution and another credited with an academic expertise in oral sex.

The latter professor, according to the GSU website, teaches sexuality and society, including the social meaning of oral sex and how it is defined in American culture.

http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=30021

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Yeah, the better option is being a knocked-up, stupid college graduate.

Sex in literature induces students to be tolerant to those who are different from their sensibilities. And these courses aren't mandatory, are they?

[Lost in CT]

4. Your kidding right? Did you read the courses involved? nt

[tangent90]

2. Ha ha...from the "baptist press", an organ of those who don't fuck standing up

lest it lead to dancing.\
:puke:

[Lost in CT]

3. "including the social meaning of oral sex and how it is defined in American culture."

I know I should defend this professor and his blowjob class. But honestly WTF... sounds like the football player electives every college seems to come up with.... not to mention an expert on male prostitution? Is that an honorary degree they give Republican Senators?

Charlice Byrd and Calvin Hill sound like a complete tools.... but honestly someone gave these Georgia reps some very low hanging fruit.

[seabeyond]

6. as expensive as college is, if i found my boys spending my money on these courses

they would be in a world of hurt.

[enlightenment]

8. The important word is 'including' -

many of these courses are rigorous academic explorations that require considerable critical thought. The sociology and history of sex and sexuality are hardly new - it's just the growing American neo-Puritanism that's causing these knee-jerk reactions and making them 'dirty'.

That class was probably a special studies section - it isn't listed in the course descriptions for undergrads or graduate students - and I'm sure it involved more than just talking about blow jobs . . . the word 'including' tells me that.

There are a number of sociologists who qualify as 'experts' in prostitution (female/male and both) - if someone is puerile enough to read that with a dirty snicker, that's their problem, not the university's. Those politicians need to grow up.

[Lost in CT]

11. See below apparently it was a cunnilingus study...

"Key questions include how people view cunnilingus and how individual and public conceptualizations of cunnilingus are mitigated by race, gender, class, and sexual orientation."

http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwsoc/4327.html

[enlightenment]

18. And the entire quotation reads -

"Her latest research project involves unraveling the power dynamic embedded in the practices of oral sex, particularly cunnilingus, and connecting conceptualizations of cunnilingus to public discourse (particularly messages about oral sex sent through music and other media). Key questions include how people view cunnilingus and how individual and public conceptualizations of cunnilingus are mitigated by race, gender, class, and sexual orientation."

You can't just take snips and use them as evidence. This quotation from Prof. Stombler's web page isn't a course description; it is a description of her latest research project.

You're free to be offended, but if this research is what her class was based upon, there's nothing prurient about it.

[Lost in CT]

19. I'm hardly offended.. I would take a class like that presuming I could get credit hours

for previous fieldwork.

As I suggested below perhaps using a more scientific and obtuse description would avoid giving low hanging fruit to the morons.

[fishwax]

9. "this professor and his blowjob class" -- guess you've bought the fundy spin

[Lost in CT]

10. No... but I think providing low hanging fruit to fundies is unwise.

I think the problem isn't the classes themselves... as much as the media guide descriptions... sometimes less is more in these cases.

Not that the professor helps her own cause. "Mindy Stombler teaches sexuality and society. One area of research: the social meaning of oral sex. As in, how oral sex is defined in our culture.

Stombler says, "I would argue that ever since the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, it's been unclear what actually counts as sex anymore for a lot of americans.""

http://www.newschannel9.com/news/georgia_975790___article.html/reported_dollars.html

She is currently writing up the results of a second three-year study of Gay Fraternities. In this project (along with former graduate students King-To Yeung and Renee Wharton) she focuses on how men in gay fraternities negotiate the dual identities of being Gay and being Greek (results published in Social Problems). She is also examining how men in gay fraternities reproduce hegemonic masculinity.

Her latest research project involves unraveling the power dynamic embedded in the practices of oral sex, particularly cunnilingus, and connecting conceptualizations of cunnilingus to public discourse (particularly messages about oral sex sent through music and other media). Key questions include how people view cunnilingus and how individual and public conceptualizations of cunnilingus are mitigated by race, gender, class, and sexual orientation.

http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwsoc/4327.html

I stand corrected it's not a blowjob class... It's a cunnilingus class..

[fishwax]

12. I don't think it's low hanging fruit

well, it's low hanging fruit in the sense that tools like Calvin Hill and the Baptist Press can easily distort what's going on in the class and foment a sex panic among the simple minded.

But it's not low hanging fruit in that it's not an absurd area of study. I don't see what's wrong with studying how gay men in fraternities negotiate their identity or how representations of oral sex influence attitudes and behavior in the populace.

Here's what she had to say when she had to testify in front of the Georgia State Senate:

"One in four teen girls has an STI nationally, and nearly every STI can be transmitted via oral sex (syphilis, PID, HPV, gonorrhea, etc.). Georgia has one of the highest STI rates in the country, with high rates among teens and young adults. In 2007, Georgia ranked #3 behind LA and AL in syphilis (and syphilis is easily transmitted via oral sex). I study the messages that kids receive about oral sex from the culture, whether it is a former President, TV shows, or explicit rap/hip hop and R & B music lyrics. I feel that no education programs will be entirely effective unless we understand the counter messages that young people receive from the culture (in opposition to what they receive from school, family and communities of faith). I am trying to determine what oral sex "means" to young people today. If we can't figure out how they are processing the conflicting messages around them we will not be able to be able to educate them effectively."

http://www.alternet.org/sex/129872/dirty_south:_the_georgia_sex_panic_builds_/

[Lost in CT]

14. I think we agree. The courses and studies themselves are probably fine.

But the media guide descriptions clearly create an oppurtunity for neandrathals like these Georgia reps.

Perhaps a little more latin might be in order in the course descriptions. It could be worse it could be a course on famous thesbians.

[fishwax]

16. yes, it seems we do

Course descriptions are a challenging genre, though, since the prof wants to attract students, and latin would be a definite turnoff to most :D

[msongs]

5. bibles don't belong in public schools - rape, incest, bestiality, genocide, adultery. Is this guy

gonna put a stop to all this perversion being offered to kiddies?

Msongs

[fishwax]

7. What Idiots

keep these people away from university curricula!

[madrchsod]

13. he can huff and puff but he can`t do nothing about it.....

http://www.newschannel9.com/news/georgia_975790___article.html/reported_dollars.html

http://www.southernvoice.com/2009/2-20/news/localnews/9799.cfm


that bpnews article sucks....

[Bleacher Creature]

15. I have not read one word of your post (honest).

And I am predicting that he or she has an "R" next to their name.

On edit -- I should have put money on it.

[Botany]

17. I have an idea ...

.... if you don't like the class don't take the class.