The Michael Bailey Dildo Scandal

EXPLICIT CONTENT WARNING, if you haven’t figured it out already! 🙂

On February 21, 2011, Michael Bailey, a tenured professor at the Northwestern University, who teaches an undergraduate course in “Human Sexuality” arranged an after-class activity for his class of 600 students. esquire reports “Bailey had invited two rather enthusiastic local couples to talk at an after-class discussion about “networking for kinky people.” When they came into Ryan Auditorium, the students were finishing an educational video that questioned the existence of the female G-spot, which is, somehow, a scientifically controversial subject these days. The guests wanted to assure everyone otherwise and asked Bailey if they could perform a little demonstration. He hesitated only briefly — maybe too briefly — before saying yes. But putting a condom on a banana this was not: After some warnings about the graphic nature of what they were going to see, the students watched a man pull out a motorized dildo — otherwise known as a “fucksaw” — and bring a woman to orgasm on stage.” Another account reports – “The professor alerted his students about this extraordinary show-and-tell session, and made clear that attendance was voluntary. The standard account has it that 120 or so of the 622 students enrolled in the course showed up.”

A complete waste of time for everyone is what I think it is. Here is a rather ritualistic commentary on the issue (yeah, finding such things and then writing righteous blog posts is a ritual of sorts).

Now, the point of this post: Joseph Epstein, Professor Emeritus at Northwestern, wrote this fantastic piece in the weekly Standard (got it via Briggs). Idiocy of Bailey and his ilk is, sometimes, pardonable for the quality of the comments it generates. That reminds me of this letter written by Rohinton Mistry in the “book banning” controversy spearheaded by the scion of Shiv Sena. Unfortunately, in this case, there is no excuse for the young Thackeray.