Interesting article on Huffington Post about an honors college class taught by Jacob Held, an assistant professor of philosophy and religion at UCA, on philosophy and pornography. Don’t snigger. It’s serious stuff about civil rights, sexual violence, exploitation, women in media and more.

Tom: So you actually taught a college course on porn? Could you find a classroom big enough?

Jake: Yes. And yes. Honestly, going through the process of offering the course reinforced why this topic needs to be explored more openly. For example, I had to interview all potential students and get them to sign a waiver before they could be admitted to the course. I had several meetings about content, books, and so forth. And the interesting thing is, it was all because of the sexual nature of the content. I’ve taught on torture and war, but no question was ever raised about student exposure to violence. So the care with which I had to approach this course illustrates the oddity of our discordant treatments of violence and sex, where the former is allowed in the curriculum to an almost unlimited degree, but the latter is nearly taboo, even though both are arguably obscene in the strict sense of the word.

Good a place as any to start tonight’s open line.

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