Moon, my ass
I have a student in 101 who is "morally offended" by our inclusion of "immoral" shows in our popular culture class, shows such as Sex and the City, Chappelle's Show, and My Name is Earl.
MY NAME IS FUCKING EARL!?!?
I mean, come on. There has been absolute, full disclosure of the texts and topics we would cover during the quarter, so I have little sympathy, and I feel I've done my part to be flexible with his moral comfort level.
This student is a "Moonie," or a member of the Unification Church (something he wrote about in his personal narrative). They are vehemently anti-Queer, and this makes me deeply uncomfortable. He wanted to walk out of My Name is Earl today because there was a gay character. No nudity, no violence, no language, just a guy coming out of the closet and Earl trying to help him, and this is "offensive." Argh. These are moments when my "flexibility" and my investment in being "open and sensitive to other's value systems" starts to snap back on itself. Really, I just want to tell him to get the fuck out, that his religious politics offend ME, that we are at a secular, PUBLIC fucking institution, and that he should go to George Fox U in Oregon or something....
Hmph.
posted by Miss Carousel | 17:20
4 Comments:
Jesus loves you, well maybe not you, or you, or that guy in the back, certainly not those two girls. Actually, that black couple looks suspicious and those Hispanics are probably Catholic, so they are out too. The rest of you look alright though, although those two guys are sitting awfully close together. I guess Jesus only loves me. That is fine though, more room on the gold paved streets in heaven for me.
/sarcasm
lololol fucking hilarious Shane
-m-
In his defense, but not really....
I remind myself when my students try to take some similar principled position that they are just children who often times don't understand their own beliefs. They are just doing their best to execute the incomplete programs their parents have put in their heads. It might be different if he had thought all of this through himself, and could explain it all. But I bet he can't.
Ask him if reality offends him. There are gay people in the world. Does this offend him? There may be gay people in his class. Does that offend him? Gay people eat in his favorite restaurant. Does that offend him? Will he continue to eat there?
Ask him if he has ever stayed in a hotel. Does he realize that unmarried people most likely have had sex in that room? On that bed? Perhaps even gay people! Isn't he complicit in their sinfulness by staying in that room? By giving his money to that hotel?
I would try to get at this whole notion of "being offended." When is it legitimate to claim "being offended"? When you see things that you disagree with? Or when you see your own group depicted or treated disrespectfully?
His most workable option, if he wishes to maintain this ability to be offended by everything, is live in a Moonie commune, surrounded entirely by his own values and beliefs 24/7.
Scott
What they all said.
Plus, I'm happy with the get-the-fuck-out approach too. We live in a world where religious people think they have rights that are so sacred that the rest of us have to stop sodomizing each other.
Geeshhh.
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