Academia, Bizarre, Politics

Professor “Defends” Sandra Fluke As Mere Extortionist or Prostitute Not Slut; Students React Creatively

 By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

Seems the far Right just can’t stay out of  – or quit throwing – the muck. The Huffington Post reports that  University of Rochester econ professor, Steve Landsburg, has launched his own attack on Georgetown law school student, Sandra Fluke, who had the temerity to speak her mind to a congressional committee discussing contraceptive services.  Landsburg apparently dabbles in English grammar when his dismal graphs and computer models become tiresome. In his off-hours, he seems quite content to edit Rush Limbaugh’s right-wing attack pieces, adding some of his own insights. On his blog he felt compelled to share:

[Limbaugh] wants to brand Ms. Fluke a “slut” because, he says, she’s demanding to be paid for sex. There are two things wrong here. First, the word “slut” connotes (to me at least) precisely the sort of joyous enthusiasm that would render payment superfluous. A far better word might have been “prostitute” (or a five-letter synonym therefor), but that’s still wrong because Ms. Fluke is not in fact demanding to be paid for sex. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) She will, as I understand it, be having sex whether she gets paid or not. Her demand is to be paid. The right word for that is something much closer to “extortionist”. Or better yet, “extortionist with an overweening sense of entitlement.” Is there a single word for that?

But whether or not he chose the right word, what I just don’t get is why the pro-respect crowd is aiming all its fire at Rush. Which is more disrespectful — his harsh language or Sandra Fluke’s attempt to pick your pocket?

Seems he may be on to something etymologically speaking but he fails

Steve Landsburg

miserably in the free speech/separation of church-state class. I’d think he’s also getting a “D-” for comprehension in my class. Fluke made no claim on the public funds and instead merely advocated that private insurance cover contraceptive services to further women’s health rather than cater to religious convictions of a particular sect.

While Professor Landsburg doesn’t get it, the University’s students did. Thirty of them dressed in black and made a rather dramatic entry into his classroom passing out summaries of the professor’s musings and then opted to stand between him and his charges staging a pedagogical wall of separation between scorn and student.

Landsburg called security to disband the protest, but the students left of their own accord making their point for both civility and free speech. “We are appalled by how often women and their bodies have been used for political theatrics, and we refuse to remain passive on this issue,” Kelly Rickert, a Rochester student who was a part of the protest, told The Huffington Post. “To do so would be to condone the actions of Professor Landsburg.”

University of Rochester President Joel Seligman acknowledged his employee’s right to the academic freedom to express unpopular opinions but added:

“I am outraged that any professor would demean a student in this fashion,” Seligman said in a statement. “To openly ridicule, mock, or jeer a student in this way is about the most offensive thing a professor can do. We are here to educate, to nurture, to inspire, not to engage in character assassination.”

Well, Dr. Segilman some of you are. On the other hand, seems some in the ivory tower like to attack from the comfort of their office. Landsburg was undeterred, “[Fluke] deserves only to be ridiculed, mocked and jeered,” and “Rush stepped in to provide the requisite mockery” with a “spot-on analogy.” And in one of the most ironic statements I’ve heard from the academe in a long time said of the protestors, “in their contempt for the free exchange of ideas, they appear to be comrades-in-arms of Sandra Fluke.” 

Comrades-in-arms by personal ridicule and thus chilling the free speech of another? In Rochester, it seems it takes one to know one.

In keeping with our academic theme, in a hundred words or less, pick the victim(s) and defend your answer:

a. Sandra Fluke

b. Professor Steve Landsburg

c. The University of Rochester

d. First Amendment

e. Academic Freedom

Source: Huffington Post

~Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

244 thoughts on “Professor “Defends” Sandra Fluke As Mere Extortionist or Prostitute Not Slut; Students React Creatively”

  1. I am so damn glad women are finally waking up to reality.

    BTW … I wonder if there is going to be a backlash against Catholics running for public office. I’m not saying there is or should be … I’m just wondering if there will be.

  2. I saw that Woosty. Too bad hardly anyone paid attention when he got the invasive sonogram bill passed last year.

  4. Hope y’all come back after supper, cuz here’s a Santorum warmer.
    Santorum has no thread at present, so hope this will do.

    From Alan Grayson, who defined the Republican health plan.
    He lists some of the things Santorum is against, and ends effedtively each with a version of the below which finishes it all off.————————-

    “What I’m basically trying to say to Rick Santorum, and everyone like Rick Santorum, is this: mind your own business.

    Courage,
    Alan Grayson

    “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you.” 1 Thessalonians 4:11 (Paul of Tarsus, quoting Jesus)

  5. And I keep saying, on another thread:
    “They are competing to see which governor comes up with the best cranking of civil rights law. We won’t get to see the award ceremony. Only on CCTV for exclusive group. Top one percent”

    Just change “civil” to “women’s”. ALEC has done the job for the ones with poorer minds.

    Elaine M.
    Isn’t there a central reporting center? Should be a whole section at AP..

  7. Elaine, I had just copied that and was getting ready to post it. lol

  8. One More Story in the GOP War on Women Series:

    Chuck Winder, Idaho Lawmaker, Suggests Women Use Rape As Excuse For Abortions
    03/20/2012
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/20/chuck-winder-rape-abortions_n_1366994.html

    Excerpt:
    The sponsor of an Idaho mandatory ultrasound bill, state Sen. Chuck Winder, made some highly controversial comments Monday during his closing arguments, suggesting women might falsely use rape as an excuse to obtain an abortion.

    Just before the Idaho’s Senate passed the bill, which requires woman to have an ultrasound prior to obtaining an abortion, opponents of the bill pointed out that it makes no exception for rape victims, incest victims or women in medical emergencies.

    Winder, a Republican from Boise, responded to those concerns by raising the question of whether women understand when they have been raped.

    “Rape and incest was used as a reason to oppose this,” Winder said on the Senate floor. “I would hope that when a woman goes in to a physician with a rape issue, that physician will indeed ask her about perhaps her marriage, was this pregnancy caused by normal relations in a marriage or was it truly caused by a rape. I assume that’s part of the counseling that goes on.”

    Women reported 84,767 “forcible rapes” in the United States in 2010, according to the FBI’s most recent Uniform Crime Report; the figure does not include statutory rape, incest or any other kind of rape that falls outside the FBI’s narrow definition of the crime.

    If Winder’s mandatory ultrasound bill becomes law, a victim of rape or incest or a woman with a medical emergency who is seeking an abortion must obtain an ultrasound first and the state will provide a list of providers. Nearly every provider of free ultrasounds in Idaho is a “crisis pregnancy center,” which aims to dissuade women from having an abortion. The woman would also have to obtain from a doctor a second ultrasound, which would involve an invasive transvaginal procedure if she is in her first trimester of pregnancy. Even if she averts her eyes from the ultrasound image and refuses to listen to the fetal heartbeat, she would have to hear the doctor describe the fetus in detail.

    Proponents of the bill describe it as one more way to protect “unborn children,” with the assumption that the ultrasound procedure and anti-abortion counseling might sway women against having an abortion. Opponents argue that it forces doctors to perform medically unnecessary procedures and contributes to the emotional anguish of women who have already made a very difficult decision.

  10. SwM
    Lovely shot of R. before starting the video. Look at his eyes only.
    They remind me of mental retards of non-mongol type. Is this guy sharp.
    A previous shot of him standing behind his wife (she felt like an ordinary person, she said). mades him look like an anxious poodle.
    Again, how sharp is he?

    Blouise, well Henry the Eighth regarded all priests as diplomats,,,enemy ones. they were of course. another story.
    Shall we discuss if social and political meddling is an acceptable practice of catholicism and of evangelicism???

    Of course my worship of Bacchus makes me drink and dance, so guess will have to give them a pass for now.

  12. Observers say the local bishops’ focus on Komen and other social issues reflects a larger conservative shift within the American church since New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan became chairman of the Conference in November 2010.

    Under Dolan’s leadership, the conference last year set up a new ad hoc committee on religious liberty to oppose government policies that conflict with church teachings on abortion, contraception and gay marriage.

    That move coincided with the rise of social conservatives in Congress and state legislatures during the 2010 elections and has gathered pace during the 2012 presidential campaign.

    “It’s an ideal time for them to push both Democrats and Republicans to acquiesce to their demands, because nobody wants to be seen as disrespecting religion,” said Jon O’Brien of the advocacy group, Catholics for Choice, which opposes the Vatican on matters related to sex, marriage and family life. Reuters

  13. What is it with the Catholic Church? I understand that they may tell their parishioners what to do and that those same parishioners may choose to follow the dictates or not.

    What I don’t understand is why the Catholic hierarchy thinks they can tell the rest of us or use the government to enforce Catholic dogma on the entire country.

    I’m beginning to think that all these American Bishops and Cardinals should register as foreign agents/diplomats representing the interests of Vatican City, the smallest independent state in the world.

  17. Two bombs in a row, Elaine M.
    Particularly felt warm feelings for MM.
    that Komen is despcable goes with further need of words.

    And once reading about Mary and his brothers coming to take him home when he was nearby preaching—as they said he was crazy— have always wondered why she became a Saint. Of course the church needed her as a model of chastity, and duriful wife, having produced several sons.

  18. When he visited the United States four years ago, Pope Benedict XVI blessed a box of silver ribbon-shaped pins for breast cancer charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure and sent them to its founder, Nancy Brinker.

    Brinker was touched by the gesture and thanked the pontiff in person on the day of his departure.

    “He took my hands and blessed me for my work. I couldn’t help myself. I burst into tears,” she recalls in her memoir, “Promise Me: How a Sister’s Love Launched the Global Movement to End Breast Cancer.”

    Pope Benedict’s blessings marked a high point in the Komen charity’s relationship with the Catholic church. But even before the papal jetliner touched down at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington in 2008, American church leaders had already begun to emerge as critics of Komen’s longstanding ties to Planned Parenthood, the women’s health organization whose services include birth control and abortion.

    Internal Komen documents reviewed by Reuters reveal the complicated relationship between the Komen Foundation and the Catholic church, which simultaneously contributes to the breast cancer charity and receives grants from it. In recent years, Komen has allocated at least $17.6 million of the donations it receives to U.S. Catholic universities, hospitals and charities. Source: Reuters

  19. Off Topic:

    Komen Relationship with Catholic Church Revealed
    3/19
    http://www.msmagazine.com/news/uswirestory.asp?ID=13530

    Excerpt:
    Reuter’s recent review of the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s internal documents reveals a close and complicated relationship between the US Catholic Church and the Komen Foundation, which both receives funding from the Catholic Church and has allocated over $17.6 million to US Catholic universities, hospitals, and charities.

    Reuters reports that such intense financial pressure from the Catholic Church significantly contributed to the Komen Foundation’s January decision to end its partnership with Planned Parenthood. Since 2005, the Catholic Church has vocally objected to the Komen Foundation’s relationship with Planned Parenthood and has limited donations to the Foundation in many states, including Arizona, Florida, Indiana, and Missouri.

    The Catholic Church’s opposition to the Komen Foundation’s link to Planned Parenthood mounted in 2011 once Cardinal Timothy Dolan became the President of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. That year, Ohio bishops announced they would end statewide donations to the Komen Foundation. Although Planned Parenthood clinics in Ohio were not recipients of Komen money, the Bishops expressed concerns that Church money would be sent to the Komen headquarters in Dallas and ultimately be given to Planned Parenthood. Bishops in North Dakota then followed suite in denying money to the Komen Foundation or participating in fundraisers.

  20. Sadly, It Seems Sandra Fluke Wasn’t The First Woman Falsely Accused of Being a Prostitute by an Intimidated Man.
    Sarah O’Leary
    03/16/2012
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-oleary/sadly-sandra-fluke-wasnt-_b_1340484.html

    Excerpt:
    Recently, while google-ing and wiki-ing and yahoo-ing the use of the word “prostitute” in history, I stumbled upon some information that blew my every-Sunday-in-a-pew Catholic mind. All at once I didn’t believe it, and sadly knew why (and that) it could very well be true. Sandra Fluke probably wasn’t the first woman to be falsely accused by a powerful public figure of being a prostitute.

    It seems the Bible never referred to Mary Magdalene as a prostitute. A Catholic Pope did. Scholars traced the first mention of Mary Magdalene as a prostitute to a homily given nearly 600 years after the death of Christ. Catholic Pope Gregory the Great (he probably named himself), declared from the pulpit to the mass masses that Mary was a prostitute.

    Here’s where things get really interesting. It’s noted in more than a few spots in the Bible that Jesus had cured Mary of seven “demons” or “illnesses”, depending on the translation. Gregory decided that the demons were in fact the Seven Deadly Sins (anger, greed, lust, gluttony, pride and sloth). So, he must have surmised, Mary was a prostitute! Pope Gregory shared his opinion as gospel (I think Popes had decided they were infallible by this time) during his homily on September 14th, 591 AD. It could be that by this one change in Mary’s stature, the roles of women in Catholicism, and arguably world society, were changed for the worse. (Gregory must have thought that lust and prostitution were somehow related, though I imagine most prostitutes don’t feel that lust on their part has much to do with it. Ah, but I digress …)

    It’s worth noting what the Bible does say about Mary. She was one of the last to leave Jesus as He hung on the cross, staying after most of the other apostles left. She was also the first person Jesus appeared to at the time of His Resurrection. According to the Bible, this makes Mary of Magdala at least one of Jesus’ BFFs, if not His closest disciple. Pope Gregory, seeming to believe that a woman at Jesus’ right hand wouldn’t mesh well with a male-driven church, decided to cut the poor disciple off at her privates.

    What can a man say about a female that instantly disables her power? What would make her sin-filled, less than, more than a few rungs below a man, unworthy of equality? Call her a slut. A prostitute. Damn her essence, the part that makes her a unique creature of God. Say she’s a whore. Impure. And she got paid to do it. Mary Magdalene was extremely close to Jesus, and seemingly equal to her fellow disciples in stature. Why on Earth would Christ want to place her in a hand maiden role in the church?

Comments are closed.