James Madison University has been under fire for a controversial video used for diversity and social justice training of employees. The video details groups of privileged and oppressed persons. While employees were reportedly told not to share the material with others, the material became public before the school suddenly pulled it off of its sites. What stood out for me was the inclusion of the term “heteroromantic” as a privileged group juxtaposed with the countervailing oppressed groups of “homoromantic, Aromantic, bi/panromatic” individuals. I had not previously seen those categories in such materials, so I sought out some definitions.
The training identifies various types of people at “agents” of privilege including able-bodied people, people between 30-50, “man, cis-gender people,” heterosexuals, Christians and “heteroromantic” people. Under the chart, many students would fit a type of uber-privileged conglomeration of all of the categories. This has led to many objecting to the implications of being tagged in this way — putting them opposite (and implicitly responsible for) oppressed groups. While half of the chart refers to the “privileged” (rather than the “oppressors”), the other half refers to the “oppressed.”
What was striking is the separation of heterosexuals and heteroromantics as separate categories for privilege. Merriam-Webster defines “heterosexual” as “of, relating to, or characterized by sexual or romantic attraction to or between people of the opposite sex.”
The training was presented by Jennifer Iwerks (assistant director for Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression programming) and Jessica Weed (coordinator of student activities). In her own identity disclosure, Iwerks identifies herself as “”temporarily able-bodied.”
For those who were not familiar with the heteroromantic category, here is how such terms have been defined on other sites:
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Aromantic: individuals who do not experience romantic attraction toward individuals of any gender(s)
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Biromantic: romantic attraction toward males and females
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Heteroromantic: romantic attraction toward person(s) of a different gender
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Homoromantic: romantic attraction towards person(s) of the same gender
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Panromantic: romantic attraction towards persons of every gender(s)
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Polyromantic: romantic attraction toward multiple, but not all genders
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Gray-romantic: individuals who do not often experience romantic attraction
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Demiromantic: an individual who does not experience romantic attraction until after a close emotional bond has been formed. People who refer to themselves as demiromantic may choose to further specify the gender(s) of those they are attracted to (e.g. demi-homoromantic).
The university has now removed the video but has not made any other statements on the training program or underlying categories.