Greece “Solidarity Protest” in Loop Turns Violent…

I find this odd on so many levels. First of all, I don’t know when we started caring what happens in Greece (don’t we have enough ill-concieved home-grown martyrs?), but apparently we have a critical mass of domestic pseudo-anarchists who can whip themselves up about whatever strikes their fancy. Secondly, why exactly does a “solidarity protest” have to involve blocking traffic, and apparently cursing and assaulting police officers? (Is anyone else reminded of that short Wendell Berry poem which consists entirely of: “Stop killing / or I’ll kill you / you god-damned murderer!”)

Of course, KTVI only interviews the po-pos, so who knows if this was an incident of police brutality itself or not–certainly the protestors get pretty rough treatment in the video. But it seems likely enough that this whole incident can be chalked up to an outbreak of  soixante-huitard “propaganda of the deed.”

Eighth Issue of Pornographic Magazine Released on Campus

X Magazine, a publication of the Student Forum on Sexuality, which recently paid some $10,000 to bring sex columnist Dan Savage to campus, has just released its eighth issue. The issue includes graphic illustrations of sex, including masturbation and oral sex. The issue includes articles on the recent STL Naked Bike Ride (an event of the infamous FBC) as well as a consideration of “facials” in pornography from the standpoint of Kantian ethics. Surprisingly, the author, John Torrey, has qualms: “Nevertheless, a woman’s face is not somewhere for sperm to be placed all willy-nilly.” A truly decorous sentiment, John.

Further prurient interest can be satisfied by contacting: washusexuality@gmail.com

Nothing Says “Christ Child” like an Abortion under the Christmas Tree

I think it’s fair to say the the secularization of Christmas is complete.

Graduate Seminar at Vanderbilt University

Ran across this description of a seminar at Vanderbilt University, once home to John Crowe Ransom and the Fugitive Poets:

ENGL 310-01 Seminar in Shakespeare
Topic: Shakespeare and Sexual Ideologies
Kathryn Schwarz
(Tuesdays, 3:30-6:00 p.m.)
The works of Shakespeare have often provided a symptomatic focus for theories of gender and sexuality. From the rise of academic feminism, through the debates between feminists and new historicists, to the evolution of psychoanalytic, queer and performativity theories, Shakespearean criticism both reflects and contributes to the emergence of new methodologies in literary critical discourse. Assumptions concerning the canonicity of Shakespeare and the Shakespearean work as a kind of Trojan horse, authorizing approaches that might, at least initially, be resisted as marginal, “too political,” [Don't worry: the classics will have a place in academe as long as they can be coopted to sneak ideologies into academic "research."] or otherwise threatening to disciplinary conventions. [Is that a Freudian slip, or are those conventions livelier than I thought?] [...] How do the “transgressions” of feminine characters, ranging from transvestism to illicit sexuality to inappropriate authority to acts of political and domestic violence, authorize feminist readings that challenge misogyny on its own grounds? [...] In what ways do responses to the Sonnets reveal both intersections and conflicts between gay studies and queer theory? [And here I was, not even knowing the difference. I feel awfully silly.]