Things appear to have changed a bit since I attended Northwestern. Prof. John Michael Bailey gave his students an optional demonstration as part of his “Human Sexuality” class with a naked couple having sex in his class.
Over 100 students watched as a man used a sex toy on a woman in the class. The woman told reporters that she agreed to speak with the students as a member of the “fetish community” but was happy to serve as the focus of a demonstration in the aptly named Ryan Family Auditorium.
If there is any consistency in students, I hope at least one student ask “is this going to be on the test?”
It might also be a good idea for faculty to try not to follow Professor Bailey on the schedule for the classroom.
In fairness to the professor, he has roughly 600 students and did not require attendance at the demonstration. Moreover, Professor Bailey did not originate the idea.
However, a student was quoted as saying that “We were told we were going to have some people talk to us about the fetish world and kink.”
The University stood by its professor as a matter of academic freedom. Alan K. Cubbage, vice president for University Relations, stated “Northwestern University faculty members engage in teaching and research on a wide variety of topics, some of them controversial and at the leading edge of their respective disciplines. The University supports the efforts of its faculty to further the advancement of knowledge.”
The class was narrated by Ken Melvoin-Berg, who was paid $300 to $500 for his appearance. Payments for such displays could raise legal issues, particularly if the woman was paid. There is no indication that Faith Knoll, 25, was paid. Indeed the change to a live demonstration was not unwelcomed by Knoll or her partner Jim Marcus, 45: Knoll’s particular fetish is “being in front of people, having the attention and being used.” She used the live demonstration to prove that female orgasm is real — a point that one would think could be accepted without a live demonstration.
Bailey insists that his students are not “fragile children” but grown ups studying sexuality.
For my part, I just feel entirely deflated. I have been nervous about introducing new handouts in class on legal doctrines in tort. Now I feel much less of a rebel.
Source: Sun-Times
Jonathan Turley
“Next week: sex fetishes including defecating in front of the students with finger-painting quiz.”
It is interesting that of all the fetishes there are to choose from as an example, you chose this one. I wonder why? Is it that it excites you?
“The guy is sick and anyone who defends him is as well.”
The professor may indeed be sick, but then so are you and the Fundamentalist ignoramuses, like you, that would establish a Taliban Theocracy in our country. When it comes to American sexual sickness, there is nothing that beats the Fundamentalist right. The only “sins” you get horrified about are the ones of the flesh. You condemn abortion as murder, yet have no qualms about the “Death Penalty,” murdering civilians in unneeded wars, killing people through inadequate health care and allowing people to be shelterless and starve in our rich country.
Hypocrisy thy name is tootie and her friends.
How’s your abstinence movement working out? Your side wars against birth control and sex education? Your lame defense of the values of marriage? Not going very well with STD’s and unwanted pregnancies running rampant through the Bible Belt and a divorce rate higher then in more liberal states. I know, because you used it before, you blame it on the black people, but the facts show it is as high or higher among the white bible Belt population. You all talk a good game, but there is only emptiness behind the curtain.
Perhaps if you Know Nothings had some sex education and a respect for the autonomy of women, you wouldn’t have so much trouble in bed. The desire of the Southern husband is a “man cave” where he can guzzle beer with his buddies, watch football and NASCAR and keep away from his woman and children. When his urges do overcome him it is ‘wham, bam, thankyou maam” and then to sleep in his drunken stupor. Leaving a wife unsatisfied emotionally and sexually. Now this might well be stereotypical, but that is only payback for the incorrect and stupid stereotypes of others you display here.
“Hey. There’s an idea. Take the kiddies to an abortion clinic and show a real life experience of an infant born alive and left to die.”
I’ve a better idea than that which would actually be more helpful. Take them to the underfunded orphanages that provide lousy care for the children born of your stupidity. Let them see foster care in action as it creates angry, antisocial children, whom the seemingly
concerned anti-abortionists and the politicians they elect, care nothing about. Finally, observe the household of an 18 year old single mother as she struggles to support her child, while despairing at a future that holds little promise. Now in the latter case are there women who have overcome this? Yes of course and have done very well in their lives, I’ve known many.
Most, however, are overwhelmed by poverty at ages when they should be creating a life for themselves.
The shame is because of people like you, tender of feelings for the fetus yet murderous in thought when they are born, who would ban sex education (except for the stupidity known as abstinence)birth control information and birth control itself, the abortion rate has risen. That is you fault morally tootie and the fault of those you support. It’s highly possible that your afterlife might not be as you see it, for the sins you all are committing now, might haunt you on Judgment Day.
Another great update Elaine!
From Huffington Post (3/5/2011)
J. Michael Bailey, Northwestern University Professor, Apologizes For Sex-Toy Demonstration
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/05/northwestern-professor-apologizes-sex-toy-demonstration_n_831885.html
CHICAGO — A Northwestern University professor apologized Saturday for letting a couple demonstrate the use of a sex toy after one of his classes, but he said he still sees “absolutely no harm” in what happened.
Psychology professor J. Michael Bailey said he regrets hurting Northwestern’s reputation and “upsetting so many people in this particular manner. I apologize.”
The incident took place Feb. 21. After a class on human sexuality, Bailey invited students to stay for a discussion of sexual fetishes. He repeatedly warned that it would be graphic.
The discussion included a woman who stripped and allowed her partner to use a sex toy on her.
In a statement, Bailey said he had never before allowed something like that and would never allow it again.
“During a time of financial crisis, war, and global warming, this story has been a top news story for more than two days,” Bailey said. “That this is so reveals a stark difference of opinion between people like me, who see absolutely no harm in what happened, and those who believe that it was profoundly wrong.”
Initially, Northwestern defended the demonstration. Then President Morton Schapiro said he was troubled and disappointed by the incident and promised an investigation.
Many alumni and parents have also condemned it.
Bailey said critics have not made a compelling case. He said he would give them an “F” if he were grading their arguments.
Offense and anger are not arguments,” he wrote. “But I remain open to hearing and reading good arguments.”
About 100 students attended the after-class, optional seminar on fetishes.
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It sounds like a non-apology apology to me.
Listen, if I wanted to see people engaging in sexual activity….it SURE wouldn’t be THIS couple, I can tell you that! Ugh
“And there is NO such things as academic freedom in government run schools.”
Wrong again Tootie, Northwestern U. is a privately run school and a damn good one.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/videobeta/?watchId=16e1f5b1-ec3f-4ed9-aeb8-0e66f9dd48dc Woman involved in sex video speaks out.
Pardon Me?
That would be under the syllabus title…..How Hard Gets You Going…. Viagra and other miracle remedies…. How not to sweet the small stuff…. What not to do a case study of The Life and Times of Charlie Sheen….
No, pardon me?
That would be his esteemed colleague Prof. I.B. Rubbinstuffe.
Does he teach foreplay?
Next week: sex fetishes including defecating in front of the students with finger-painting quiz.
The guy is demented.
And there is NO such things as academic freedom in government run schools. That is a fraud and deception or both. Every college or university that takes federal dollars is owned by the government and incapable of any kind of freedom, academic or not. This is government sponsored obscenity. Natch.
The guy is sick and anyone who defends him is as well.
Next month: field trip to Babylon demonstrating burning of live infants on Molech’s brazen altar. The squeamish need not attend. Real babies! Leftovers from Democratic Party sponsored abortion clinics. Make your reservations now!
Hey. There’s an idea. Take the kiddies to an abortion clinic and show a real life experience of an infant born alive and left to die.
What fun! What academic freedom! What boldness!
wonder how long the waiting list is for one of this professor’s courses
tomdarch:
“of his book “The Man Who Would Be Queen,” which explores male femininity and autogynephilia, a sexual fixation in which a man is sexually excited by the thought or image of himself as a female.”
That must be one heavy read.
Bob,Esq
Thank you for the impromptu and spot on psychological analysis. Where’s my bill? 🙂
tom,
Much of that information was included in the article that professor Turley used as a source.
From the Sun-Times article:
“The optional, non-credit demo followed psychology Prof. John Michael Bailey’s sexuality class. Nearly 600 students are in Bailey’s class this quarter, and most didn’t stick around for the after-class show, which featured four members of Chicago’s fetish community describing “BDSM,” or bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism.
“I didn’t expect to see a live sex show,” said Justin Smith, 21, a senior economics and political science major who was in the after-class session. “We were told we were going to have some people talk to us about the fetish world and kink.”
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So watching the live sex show was an educational experience for the students? Then I’d guess that a teacher who taught a course on eating disorders could consider having students watch an individual binge and purge in front of them an educational experience too.
Tomdarch,
Thank you for the link which clarifies matters greatly.
EC,
Where has my sock puppet in turley been……
tomdarch,
thanks for the link!
The Northwestern U/Medill School of Journalism’s paper presents this in a much, much different light:
http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/campus/class-sex-toy-demonstration-causes-controversy-1.2501746
Not surprisingly, the probably better informed on-campus journalists present a far less sensationalistic report on the events than the for-profit commercial papers. This report makes it clear that this event was separate from class, not part of the grade or tests, that the people in the audience were repeatedly cautioned that there would be unusual content, and that about 20 people left before the demonstration.