Category: Academic

Today was pretty interesting in Theoretical Approaches to Sexuality. About half way through the class time Dr. Stephenson conducted a bit of a “class introduction”. We went through the names of everyone and why they were in the class on the first day of class, but today instead we had a group coming out. I must admit that the idea made me a little uncomfortable at first. The general idea was that we were to go around the room and everyone was supposed to announce their sexual identity. Having never been much for the idea of labels or even with being particular open. I don’t have a need to lie about my sexuality, but I’ve never really felt the need to announce it either.

Anyway, we went around the room and expressed how we sexually identify ourselves. After we were all basically sworn to uphold the idea that whatever was said in the room was entirely confidential, Dr. Stephenson started. Unfortunately for me, I was the one sitting closest to Dr. Stephenson, so I had to go 2nd, being the first student to announce my sexuality. I was a little uncomfortable at first, announcing “I’m a gay male” just seemed awkward, but the more I spoke, the more I saw that my classmates were receptive to me and what I was saying about my personal life.

It was very interesting being directly asked in an academic setting to reveal something like that. In some ways it seems like it was inappropriate for her to ask us to do that, but then it also seems important. The class is Theoretical Approaches to Sexuality, so it is a relevant piece of information for such a discussion-based class. While at the time I couldn’t see the relevance, it is starting to make sense to me. By having us this early on, the week before we begin diving into actual theories of sexuality, there is a slight awkwardness released and an openness established that I am thinking may help the class be more productive by being able to freely express our opinions and perspectives on sexuality. I know that I feel that I have nothing to hide anymore in that class.

I am two weeks into my “theoretical approaches to sexuality” course, and I find myself troubled by the base layer of theory being used in the course. Critical Theory is central to the course’s material. To me, Critical Theory is a little too much like metaphysics for the social sciences. I accept the basic premise that there can be no such thing as academic Truth and that there is only a culturally and temporality relevant perception of Truth. From what I understand of the history of the theory itself, it was created out of squabbling between academic departments over who is “right”. I find the fact that it required the creation of post-modern critical theory to allow interdisciplinary studies to come into existence to be absolutely disgusting. Perhaps I am just a bid jaded by the fact that I come from an academic background of philosophy, art, computer science, psychology and sociology. Art, computer science and the collective remainder do not interact or overlap in their areas of study, so perhaps I didn’t notice from that. As for philosophy, psychology and sociology, I find the disciplines to interact peacefully and not have many conflicts over teachings. There is the concern of “Social Psychology” and “Psychological Sociology” (sometimes “Social Behavior”), but that is merely a minor issue of what to focus on.

The key component of post-modern critical theory seems to be the rejection of a unitary theory of the whole. I am totally OK with that aspect, I think we (collective academic we) can all agree that there is no single theory that covers everything or that is acceptable to everyone. I also accept that any “truth” in academics is merely a consensus of enough heads in the subject area. My problems with critical theory begin with the fact that we loose valuable information as a society or culture as a result of abandoning those Truths of consensus. I believe that throwing out all existing theories as a result of their non-compliance with the anti-bias rules of postmodernism is irresponsible. Our current “Knowledge” and understanding has been created from the movements that began during the Enlightenment. While it has been a long time since the beginning of the age of reason, those values are still in use and are still important to our understanding of the world around us. Abandoning those ideas pre-maturely seems like something that could throw society into another dark age. One of the key questions I have seen in postmodernist writings is “how do we write about the world now?”. There have been plenty of writings on the topic, but it is mostly critical theory being used to analyze itself, essentially getting us nowhere. I do believe that human modes of inquiry must evolve, but I do not feel that we have evolved enough academically or even reasonably to begin to move toward the type of intellectual inquiry that critical theory asks us to use.

Still, the class is being taught using that method of inquiry and I must go along with it. I shall keep an open mind as I always do in an academic environment. I just feel that time could be better spent exploring the depths of sexuality and not just establishing this new field of inquiry. As pointed out by Dr. Jane Flax, there are numerous modes of inquiry already in existence that can be used to compliment each other to develop a tangible understanding of sexuality and gender issues.

I had gotten very used to having the option of renting textbooks at Fayetteville. It was a very nice system. I pay a flat fee every semester for my texts and they are shipped to me. Now that I am fully back at UNC-Charlotte I am reminded of the horrors of buying textbooks. There seem like so many options and there are so many logistics to consider when buying textbooks.

My original goal for the semester was to buy only digital books, from either the Kindle store, or from CourseSmart. At least three of the required texts for my courses are not available in either format. Luckily, I will likely only keep either CSLG or RSCH 6101, but not both, so that does make it a little easier, but still, that’s 2 physical books to keep up with in addition to my laptop and other materials that I need in my bag (such as notebooks, since most of my classes are physical). On the positive side, there is a course that doesn’t have any textbooks and another course for which I have the option of selecting my own textbooks. Also on a positive note, my textbooks for all courses requiring them will still be less than $275, which is far less than the $400 I became accustomed to spending when I was an undergraduate at UNC-Charlotte.