Q: With the economy being what it is, and new graduates having trouble getting jobs in their fields, how would you react to finding out that one of your students or former students has decided to go into porn instead of anything to do with his/her major?- Gertie from Glendale
Q: I just found out that I did not get the job at Small Mediocre Cow College. At first I was torn up about it, because I'd had a lovely stay, and had received positive feedback from all involved. But once I began to search my mind about what could have gone wrong, I thought about a six hour visit I made to a nice "gentlemen's" club on the last evening of my visit. Could the license plates of my car given me away? (I drove to the interview as it was only one state away, and my state's plates are very recognizable and bright!)
- Felix from Farmington
I would be saddened if any student, male or female, went into porn to try to make a living. I don't think porn is a productive or healthy way to earn money, because it's prostitution. Just prostitution with a camera.
ReplyDeleteAs for a six-hour visit to a "gentlemen's club," I would have to say that if I knew for a fact that a candidate had spent time at a "gentlemen's club" during our campus visit, I would probably not want that person around my students. Six hours? What on earth are you doing in there for six hours? This isn't because I think men that visit "gentlemen's clubs" are necessarily perverts or potential harrassers, but geez, can't you skip the lapdance while you're on a fucking campus visit? Are you so desperate to pay some naked lady to writhe around on you that you can't wait a few days?
The occasional bachelor partyesque visit to a club like that wouldn't faze me to hear about, but if any man I knew was so devoted to them he went out of his way to spend time in them on job interviews, that would make me a little ill.
And of course if a male professor gets a deserved reputation for frequenting local strip joints, that I think is a problem.
So, yeah, I'd have to say that if I knew a potential colleage liked to go to those places, I would mentally phase him out of the acceptable candidates pile.
Well, it would be horrible if one had to turn to porn to pay the bills. It's not a nice world.
ReplyDeleteAs for the strip club guy, well, isn't that his time? I mean, I don't imagine he said, "I'm going to skip the meeting with the Dean to go see some dancers."
I'd say had almost any academic had seen his out of state car had a strip club, that he/she would have looked down on it. So, yeah, he made an error.
Yes, you probably blew more than cash at the strip club. Of course, for someone from the department to see your plates, he would have to have been trying to park in the lot himself. Probably, when he saw your plates he realized he wasn't going to be able to get a lap dance from "Tammy" that night, so out of spite he torpedoed your candidacy.
ReplyDeleteStudent going into porn: That's a hard one. I'll have to look at the evidence. Several times.
ReplyDeleteCandidate at the strip club: You went to a strip club and didn't tell me? That's rude. Which part of "collegiality is important to our department" did you not understand? Next!
Porn: It's not my place to think anything of that; it's their decision and a somewhat lucrative one at that, if they're smart about it. I'd just be mindful of the stars of the titles I picked up the next few times I wanted that kind of entertainment -- it would be weird to see a student perform in that way.
ReplyDeleteStrip Club: I'm guessing from "Cow College" we're discussing a Midwest or otherwise rural/conservative setting. If it's a small town, then more than likely yes, you were spotted (and we Midwesterners can be extremely fucking nosey and judgmental). If it's not such a small town or the gentleman's club was in another town, etc, I'd say they probably just had a candidate that either fit better, had better qualifications, or there were political issues at hand. Either way, you couldn't have strayed a little farther or waited til you were home, just in case? If you're from a neighboring state don't you know how rural/Midwestern people can be? Next time bring your own porn (or a book) if you're bored -- if you get the job you'll have plenty of opportunities to see what the local (or not so local) joints have to offer.
What people do with their own bodies on their own time is their own business, if it doesn't hurt other people.
ReplyDeleteI'm torn about porn and other varieties of sex work. On the one hand, I believe that very few people would choose it if they had other equally lucrative options (as well as good drug/alcohol rehab systems, trauma/abuse counseling, shelters for minors no longer safe/welcome in their homes, etc., etc.) available. On the other hand, I'm more than a bit suspicious when people get all hot under the collar about young women exercising one of the few kinds of power to which many of them have access to earn more than they could in most other ways. So, as long as they're adults, I'm inclined to think they should be able to make the decision for themselves (which probably includes making sex work legal, but continuing to exact a high penalty for any form of coercion, and any exploitation of minors -- which, at least as I understand it, would, if strictly enforced, dramatically reduce the number of sex workers).
ReplyDeleteThe main problem I see with a proffie frequenting a strip club near a campus is the likelihood that one of the entertainers will turn out to be a present or future student. In fact, given the general naivete of 20-somethings, I can easily see one perfectly innocently seeking out a proffie they know from the club "because he's a nice guy," with no sense of the boundary issues involved. So I guess I'd expect a proffie at a small-town college, present or prospective, to pursue this particular hobby in the nearest large city, to avoid such situations. If he runs into a student pursuing the same strategy, well, they both tried to be discreet, and should simply avoid becoming teacher and student.
Mind you, the closest I've come to this situation is receiving an essay from a student detailing what she'd learned (all positive, in her mind) from working at Hooters. I graded the essay on its merits and didn't say anything, figuring that the situation at Hooters isn't really all that different from the situation in many other restaurants, just a bit more out in the open (literally and figuratively).
A student working in porn. I'm here supplying a mental image of any random one of my students, male or female. My emotional response in both cases is "oh dear God, you poor child, what has happened to you? How did you get dragged into that?" I would be saddened and appalled.
ReplyDeletere: visiting a strip club for 6 hours while on a campus interview - if I knew that a candidate (I'm now using a mental image of our last hire) had gone off to a strip club when he had some down time at his on-campus interview I would probably be rather amused. For all I know he did. If I knew that he'd spent six hours there, though, I'd be more concerned - that just sounds excessive - but how would I know how long he'd stayed there unless I was sitting in the back watching him myself?
So I don't think that's why you didn't get the job.
Porn. If in the right state and right companies, 5 years in the porn industry can be a really lucrative and a happy spate of employment. But it, like youth, is temporary. And eventually you have to get a real job. It isn't like majoring in English and going into accounting instead. It's a temporary detour.
ReplyDelete(Prostitution should be legal so it is safer, taxable, non-criminal. It will exist no matter what so why are we driving it underground where people can be abused, tortured, and enslaved? Stupid.)
As for visiting a club:
ReplyDeleteThat really doesn't say good things about you, does it. It says that when it was really, really important, you decided to phone it in by going to a strip club instead of pretending that you are worthy of employment.
I'm a frequent visitor to strip clubs. From the crappy Lion's Den off the highway to stupidly extravagant Vegas clubs, I have a good time. But we dress ourselves up for an interview for a reason. We are on our best behavior. We try to be the person we aren't so they'll hire us. And you FAILED that basic task.
Going to the club is a symptom of everything you didn't hide from them during the interview process. That was a stupid thing to do, like admitting you like to sleep in and show up late for class. It may be true, but we hide that stuff during the interview.
I kinda want to revoke your PhD for this act of stupidity.
Were there twins at the club? Because if there were and I were Dean and you told me, I might forgive this trespass... That is, if they looked like Seven of Nine.
ReplyDeleteBring me along next time?
@ Wisconsin Will,
ReplyDeleteSometimes I feel like I'm in the porn industry when adjuncting. As you say, it is not a nice world.
Down in my neck of the woods, we try to remember that Jesus loved the prostitutes.
ReplyDeleteAs long as the student went into it with a clear head, wasn't coerced, etc, I'd be fine with him/her going into porn. His/her choice. It can be disastrous, it's true, but it doesn't have to be. There's an awesome podcast called "The Morning After" that interviews different people (usually performers) from the adult industry; really interesting. The performers they have interviewed are really on the ball, have 5 and 10 year plans, realize they can't do pron forever, etc.
ReplyDeleteAs for the strip club thing, I don't know for sure. The Cow College I attended was in a city with like 5 different strip clubs, so it seems like that was part of the culture (and several profs were known for attending -- I never took their classes, so I don't know how they handled grades, etc). But it seems like if you have very distinctive plates, it would be wise to keep a low profile, at least while still interviewing. In reality, it shouldn't matter, and I personally wouldn't care, but.............
Porn? We'd just hope we wouldn't recognize the student, much less notice that they were better endowed than us/our partners. Finding out that your nasty ex is now doing low-budget porn is one thing (happened to a friend of ours); seeing the dude/chick who sat in the third row and actually seemed kinda bright is another. The less you know about your students' sex lives, the better.
ReplyDeleteAs for visiting strip joints while Proffing: how many of the dancers/bartenders/bouncers/doormen/DJ's are doing it to pay their way through college? Your chances of running into a future student are not exactly low. Again, that person in the third row? Do you really want them throwing you out after one of the dancers sees you from across the room? "Hi Professor Egbert!" is not something you really want to hear from Kandy Kane—and "sorry Prof, but you're not allowed back" isn't either. Again, the less you know about what your students do while naked, the better.
C'mon, Felix from Farmington was fucking with you. It's a joke!
ReplyDeleteHeh, Harrold Camping's middle name is Egbert.
ReplyDelete