June 4, 2013: Bodies of Unfortunate Knowledge

I can go weeks without any blog inspirations from the headlines of The Chronicle of Higher Ed and Inside Higher Ed.  Then, there are days like today, when topics fall in my lap like manna from heaven.

I have two choices:

The Obesity Tweet

Or 

The Porn Scorn

My goodness, which path do I take?

The one featuring an ass. professor (an associate ass, by the way, not an assistant ass) whose apology and backtracking is potentially more embarrassing than the actual tweet.  As an overweight Ph.D., I could be personally offended, or even worse, post pictures of myself at the "Being Fatlicious In Academia" Tumblr site (and is it just me, or do others find the idea of fat tumblers hilarious?).  Instead, I find my joy in his continued stupidity in trying to talk his way out of the controversy:   "Part of a research project" he asserts, assuming that such a statement assuages the assorted assonance of an associated outraged public. 

In case, you haven't noticed there is a lot of ass in that last sentence.

And speaking of a lot of ass, do I take the path regarding the story of the forthcoming Porn Studies journal, and the outrage that the journal is "uniformly pro-porn" based upon the "journal title" and the editorial board?  In the petition buried in a link within the Inside Higher Ed article, you will see that the petitioners are lobbying for a more accurate title (Pro-Porn Studies) and a second publication (Critical Porn Studies).  It is not clear how these protestors so clearly determined intention from a journal not yet published.  Notice that the journal is "forthcoming," and thus no one yet has the foresight to forecast if the journal will openly endorse or foreshadow a stance that is for(e)skin or not.

It does make me wonder who is on this infamous editorial board:  Hugh Hefner, Larry Flynt, Bob Guccione?

There is no, surprisingly, backhanded apology or twisted explanation from the journal producers. In fact, I suspect there is a bit of tongue in (on) cheek with the line that "we are continuing to invite others so that we have a really good spread of  academics across disciplines" (my emphasis, of course).

Regardless of whether said Porn Studies is pro-porn or anti-porn, I can't help feeling we are one step closer to an academic world that is completely out of touch with the world around it.  Don DeLillo mocked "Hitler Studies" programs in his 1985 novel White Noise; almost 30 years later, we are drowning in academic white noise, whether it be the ridiculously flippant way a professional person uses social media to be Phat (not fat), or more frighteningly, in the way that a small group of scholars can hijack true intellectual pursuit either under the amazingly bland-name Porn Studies or by drawing more attention to the publication through attacks based upon assumptions.

And somehow I end up back with an ass word.

I suppose the good news is that I just increased my potential readership by 60 kabillion people, who when they sneak on the computer to find porn, may be led to this site.  That would have me all atwitter.