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IS IT EDUCATION OR IDEOLOGY?

By Mary F. Gaudet
Member of REAL Women, PEI

Professor Jeffrey Asher's painful ordeal with radical feminism, "Lynched By The Sisterhood," (Reality, November/December 2001, page 13) brought back my own painful experience with radical feminism in an academic setting.

In 1992, as a mother of six and grandmother of ten, I was completing my BA degree (Philosophy Major) at our local university. The introduction of a Feminist Philosophy course, dealing with various current topics, sounded interesting. The professor was a young, handsome, personable Ph.D. from Toronto.

Within a short time, I began to wonder whether or not Philosophy was the primary objective of the course. Halfway through the proscribed readings, I was in serious conflict with the content, direction and single focus on pornography which, we learned, would make up 50% of our mark by way of a term paper.

One of the listed resource books, Angry Women, was brought to my attention by a friend, a Psychology graduate, who was auditing the course. In our judgment, the language, pictures, and graphics were very disturbing. We sought counsel from a trusted university chaplain who seemed unperturbed and alluded to the "generation gap." Angry Women was later included as a resource in a class presentation on Sadism by four students, dressed in black, handcuffed together with one carrying a whip.

Three optional movies were offered. I walked out on one called "Lianne," which involved a dysfunctional family and the mother's explicit lesbian sexual encounters.

Immediately following the film, my friend and I met with the professor. He was extremely calm and courteous but we had absolutely no impact on him.

Despite feeling sick, oppressed and intimidated beyond any "generation gap," I was determined not to quit or be forced out - besides, I really needed the credit.

My term paper, worth 50%, had to be tackled and having read all the required print, I hated the idea of revisiting that material. I got permission to do my paper on the plight of the Maliseet women living on the Tobique Reservation in New Brunswick. Their unbelievable oppression under the federal Indian Act is documented in their own book, Enough Is Enough

It was surprisingly easy for me to extrapolate the required elements inherent in pornography and apply them to the struggle of these brave women.

However, my problems with the course continued. My saturation point became overloaded when the professor suggested that our next assignment would be to write a half page (prose or poetry) on our sexual fantasies from a free imagination. The instructions were not to sign them and all would be put in a container to be distributed and read in class. The offer to refuse is accepted.

My conflict to return to class became acute and forced me to take some action. I documented my concerns and took them to the Chair of the Department, who listened respectfully and advised me to talk with the Dean, who requested copies of all the printed material from the course ($10. for copying).

The "Fantasy" assignment was still a concern and a challenge, but I attended it, minus the homework. Calmly and politely the professor announced that the agenda was changed. We did a class of sharing our impressions of the course, which allowed me to express some of mine. Not surprisingly, the younger students found it innovative and refreshing.

Many months later, the Dean called me into his office for a "formal thank you" for my dedication and integrity and I was presented with the new edition of The Concise Oxford Dictionary.

This recognition from the Dean, along with an indication that the professor was "long gone," and the course was discontinued, helped me in my recovery from an overdose of pornography and the abuse of a discipline dear to my heart.

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