Academic Follies -- Racism, Sexism, and Emasculation at UNC-Asheville

A recent article in Townhall.com highlights yet another perfect storm of academic silliness – one in which several lines of thought, dominant in the academy, intersect to produce absolutely ludicrous results.

Mark Ruscoe, a local columnist in Asheville, NC came across a handout advertising the showing on the UNC-Asheville campus of a porn film, “Masters of the Pillow” – featuring Asian actors, produced by Darrel Hamamoto, a professor of Asian-American Studies at UC-Davis. Naturally, being a journalist, he decided to investigate.

Professor Hamamoto explained in the film and an accompanying pamphlet that it was produced to rectify several inequalities in American popular culture. He was angry because there were relatively few Asians in the porn industry and and almost no Asian men. This he saw as clear evidence of rampant racism and sexism in the industry. Obviously, the professor felt that all groups, however defined, were entitled to equal representation in all aspects of the nation’s culture. Anything else is racism, sexism, or some other “ism.”

Not satisfied with merely leveling charges of racism and sexism against America, the professor went on to complain that the systematic pattern of discrimination had profound psychological consequences. Asian-American men, he argued, had been “emasculated” by American culture. This film was part of an effort to empower them. Thus he plugged into the pervasive victim/therapy and empowerment themes so prominent in academic discourse.

Here you have it all -- charges of racism and sexism, victimization and therapy, empowerment, entitlement, and sexual freedom all in one juicy bundle.

And how was it received? C’mon now, this is a college campus. You already know how the students reacted.

Being a journalist as well as the father of children who hoped someday to attend UNC-Asheville, Mr. Ruscoe attended a showing of the film. He writes:

the whole premise was so unbelievable it almost seemed funny - except for the very excited and motivated crowd of college students who showed up for the production. They thought it was serious business, right down to the fellow two rows in front of me who took off his clothes halfway through the film while sitting next to his girlfriend….

The whole thing turned out to be even more troubling than I expected. There was graphic nudity. There were also very detailed depictions of sex in several variations. But the ironic aspect of the film was the way in which the staged sex was politicized by the angry professor. I thought this actually rendered it shameful in a different but equally tragic way when compared with “normal” street-variety pornography. It was like in your face Asian-American sex, with an attitude. It was rather sad.

“Rather sad”! I can’t think of a better description of the whole silly enterprise. This is what the legitimate concerns of an earlier generation of activists have become in the distorting funhouse of contemporary academia.

As I have said time and again – if outside authorities are beginning to intrude on academic freedoms, it is only because academics have, through their blazing irresponsibility, invited such intrusions.

Read the article here.