I have been a wee bit wary of my lit professor since the first week of summer classes, when he falsely asserted that everyone was allowed to vote in ancient Athens (except that the womenfolk weren’t!). Unfortunately, there was another awkward moment in one of last week’s classes when we were discussing the play Electra. Professor X brought up the Electra complex, as well as the Oedipus complex and the lecture went something like this (and one sentence is taken verbatim):
The Oedipus complex is basically fiction, because boys and men never really desire their mothers. The Electra complex, on the other hand, is more concrete. Women have a natural affinity for older men that is transferred onto their fathers and uncles and grandfathers. “Uncles are particularly vulnerable to these attentions.” You know how it is, with girls always climbing into their uncles’ and father’s laps and such.
No, I’m not making this up. If only I was. Did I mention this is a literature course and not a psychology course? We cover Electra and Oedipus in terms of their dramatic contexts, not their modern psychological ones. But that’s still enough to give my professor license to talk about the “vulnerable” uncles who have to contend with the attention of girls. It’s more than a little infuriating to have to listen to that, because it carries an implication — conscious or not — that if those poor vulnerable male family members somehow act indecently towards their nieces/daughters/granddaughters, it’s just because the little minxes were sending out invitations. Not to mention the assumption that all women like older men.
He also said that the Electra complex is more plausible because all mothers and daughters have difficult relationships. Mass generalizations masquerading as education? I give that a failing grade.
Unbelieveable. I’d bet money this dude has both Oedipal and little girl issues he’s trying to intellectualize away. He’s just embarrassing himself. Except I worry for those people in his classes that take him at his word.
Does he not think about what he says before he says it? Frankly, I’m kind of having a hard time seeing how he ended up as a lit professor given the competition in the field and his apparent lack of critical thinking skills.
On a lighter note, I think he’s competing with Bob Costas for best analysis of Oedipus:
“Oedipus killed his father and married his mother, a series of events that rarely turns out well.”
(from Costas’s remarks during the opening ceremony of the Athens Olympics)
and he of course knows everything about women, ’cause like everyone knows, men know more about women than women do.
Well, then! He should read some of the French Romantics! Those dudes were all about their moms.
Seriously, though, I find this really puzzling, for the following reasons:
1) How on earth is he proving this? By saying, “Both of these plays exist, but only one relates to reality, because I say so”?
2) …why? What’s the point? How does that relate to what he’s supposed to be teaching you?
It’s just so ignorant and offensive that it’s breathtaking. I would save up his most offensive and inappropriate comments in a notebook somewhere and then copy them verbatim onto the comments section of the evaluation form at the end of the term. That can be pretty effective, although it doesn’t feel like it at the time.
I really can’t wait until it’s time for student evaluations. I think this dude is part of summer faculty and not normal faculty, but that is absolutely no excuse for being ill-informed and boorish. It’s squirm-worthy. And the whole discussion had nothing to do with the actual characters within the plays.
@FashionablyEvil: That is one of my all-time favorite lines.
So i had this asshole forensics teacher in 12th grade and it sounds like him and your teacher would be great friends! He told us all about how he and the other male teachers in teaching school had to have a special class on never leaving the door closed alone with another female student inside because “Ya know those freshmas girls just cant control themselves” But the woman in the teaching school never had to take this class because “Boys are mature” I refused to go near him outside of class…
WOW. In addition to being clearly disgusting, he just keeps revealing how his misogyny keeps him from being able to interpret texts, which is kind of the point of being a literature professor. How can you do a psychoanalytic reading of a text if you are so busy denying the Oedipus complex you don’t even get around to talking about the work itself? The institution should really know about this so they don’t hire him again.
The institution should really know about this so they don’t hire him again. – JD
Agreed.
Wow, that’s pretty astoundingly horrid. And scary. I just hope he’s never allowed near children.
So, you could complain to the department chair and the dean, but expect to be discriminated against, ostracized, and punished until they can no longer damage you (i.e., don’t ask for job or grad school references).
Unless your college is not in the real world.
And student evaluations are bullshit. You should see the things that law students* write about women. No man ever had an evaluation that said, “If it weren’t for her tits, I wounldn’t ever come to class.”
* I mention law students because I’ve been reading my wife’s horribly sexist evaluations for over 20 years, and she teaches law school.
And student evaluations are bullshit.
Sometimes this is true (certainly in the case of commenting on a female professor’s breasts), but in other cases, they can be quite effective. It really depends on who reads them and what they do with them.
Josh, I believe that ego compels professors to read their evaluations although you are right they don’t matter beyond that, esp for an adjunct prof like this. Still I could never resist the opportunity to write my personal opinions to profs. Its true I’ve never mentioned anyone’s decolletage but I have definitely accused professors of racism, classism, sexism, and sexual harassment in them. It brings me a fleeting sense of power, if nothing else.
And I disagree that Sarah’s career is ended if she fights this. All you need are 2 or 3 allies in the administration and tenured faculty; I’m sure with behavior like this she can find it. You only need one or two letters of reference after all, and most college professors are worn out leftists who love a young student with a cause they used to agree with. I caused all kinds of trouble at my law school over shit like this and although I think the school was happy to see me go they really supported me because they were terrified of me making a stink.
First of all, the title of this post is brilliant.
Second of all, this dude is seriously unqualified to be teaching others. Mini-lecture on the Electra complex (completely divorced, I have no doubt, from Freud and his context), but no actual discussion of the title figure? Did he mention that there are TWO plays about E (three if you count The Libation Bearers)? No? Shocked.
Third of all, gross gross gross gross gross gross gross shutup.
Fourth of all, why don’t I have a job again?
@Josh: I’m going to be speaking with my advisor about the whole course (because this isn’t isolated) when my fall term begins at the end of August. Like I said, I think this dude is part of summer faculty and not tenured. But even so, I will have no compunction about voicing my displeasure. My dad was a (tenured) prof for years and instilled in me a hearty appreciation of letting people know if a professor is really crappy. And student evals are not seen as the last word by many people, but I will still fill mine out with gusto.
@PhD: I wish I could somehow get you a job there. Sigh. And take one of your courses. Double sigh.
I’m a lecturer in the UK but my US colleagues tell me that they live in fear of ratemyprofessor.com and its public shaming functions..
Whaat?
I’m not attracted to older men. And I sat on my father’s and my mother’s lap, was held and carried by both of them. Is that supposed to indicate some latent attraction for both older men and women?
Next time he comes out with a gem like this, I suggest asking him for a citation to support his assertion.
Such a perfectly reasonable request…and so embarrassing if he has nothing to offer.
Dude I would pay tuition at PhDork Academy any day of the week.
I took an employment law class with an adjunct prof. who was a practitioner at a large, good ole boy firm. When talking about the FMLA and CFRA, he made some assy remark about how a savvy woman could just time things right (to be eligible for, and get the FMLA and CFRA leave consecutively) and take several months off for a pregnancy. My awesome, very vocal friend immediately shot her hand up, then took that guy to task for insinuating that women were somehow manipulating the system to get free-bee time away from work (pregnancy leave =/= rollicking vacation, bro). And she also pointed out that most women do not come from sufficient wealth such that they can afford to take twelve weeks of unpaid leave, and six more at roughly half their salary. She left him sputtering apologies, and I think every woman in the class was silently cheering.
Because women of course, never really are attracted to women, and only do it for male titillation. Or because they have screwy relationships with their fathers.
God damnit, I hate “statements of fact” like this.
How is this individual still teaching?!
Its been many years since I was in a university class, but I sure remember feeling this way about several of my profs and their ridiculous ‘claims’. They upset me, but over the years they are the ones I still remember! The myriad of instructors I agreed with have blended into the mists, but the bad ones, maybe bad is a judgemental word, the ones I thought were out of line continue to this day in my memory to rile me up. I suppose even if they were dead wrong (and they probably were in some instances) they did add value to my ongoing life. Bad influences still shape us it would seem.
Oh, yes, to ratemyprofessor.com. I would not even tell my wife what the comments were about her. Male professors just don’t get the same treatment.
And, I mean, I was a student there and know many of the people being rated as a long-ago student and as a long-time faculty spouse.
Good luck on complaining and getting rid of the guy, seriously. Hope that he is just “a guy” and not connected to someone important.
I’m sorry, but this is just sick. SICK.
That is perp talk in my estimation. They usually assume that everyone agrees with them about how vulnerable they are to the pushy children who take advantage of them.
Oh, Sarah. SarahSarahSarah. You know you want to fuck him! It’s natural honey. He’s older and you have a womanly compulsion. Just go with it. Now, while you are young enough for him to want you!