Long ago, young people aspiring to prosper may have taken leather-making lessons. These days, the material is involved in instruction of a steamier sort.
Some of you may recall select easy-going electives during your college years. The lore of classes such as “Underwater Basketweaving” still persists. But times have changed, and baskets and their construction are absolutely Amish. In 2022, universities offer more contemporary fare.
Take, for instance, Princeton University. Next spring, the private Ivy League research school will host instruction on something fantastically frisky. The official website advertises VIS 207/AAS 206/GSS 216 — “Black + Queer in Leather: Black Leather/BDSM Material Culture.”
Description
Black Queer BDSM material culture resists contextualization in relationship to biographical narratives because of the underground elements of the community. This course will explore the material culture of this community from three perspectives: Architecture + Location, Visual Artists and Exhibitions, and Black Queer BDSM communities with a significant research focus on finding and presenting new materials. We will consider the fragility of archival engagement with these communities by surveying existing BDSM archives in research libraries, community groups, and individuals and their personal ephemera.
The course will be taught by Tiona Nekkia McClodden, whose homepage touts her as a “Princeton Arts Fellow and award-winning visual artist, filmmaker, and curator.”
College has come quite a long way, as has curating — see “University Launches Graduate Program to Fight the ‘Rampant’ White Supremacy of Museums.”
Schools are hard at word deconstructing that which came before. And where libertine views on sex are concerned, it’s full-speed ahead:
Vermont Makes History, Starts Handing Out Condoms to 12-Year-Olds
K-12 Teachers Wear QR Codes Promoting Sex Work and Sex Secrets
Dirty Work: Universities Try to Sell Students on the ‘Positives’ of Sex
Report: Utah College Course Invites Students to ‘Watch Pornographic Films Together’
READ RELATED: "He was treating them like peasants": DeSantis hits back at Gavin Newsom
A more traditional take doesn’t always work out:
Professor Claims There Are Two Sexes, All but One of Her Graduate Students Walk Out
Princeton’s tantalizing training on BDSM boasts a rousing reading list. A few samples:
- Sensational Flesh: Race, Power, and Masochism
- The Color of Kink: Black Women, BDSM, and Pornography
- The Black Body In Ecstasy: Reading Race, Reading Pornography
- Fetishism as Cultural Discourse
- In The Life: A Black Gay Anthology
- A Taste for Brown Sugar: Black Women in Pornography
Decades ago, higher education was viewed as superiorly sophisticated. And Ivy League schools avoided unsightly exposure related to salacious subject matter. But these days, it’s beautiful to be bold; and institutions don’t mind getting caught with their pants down.
-ALEX
See more content from me:
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