Earn an 'A' in Exploitation!
This pretty much speaks for itself. A University in Taiwan has created a course on porn, teaching students how to analyze and appreciate porn movies. The article itself seems to treat the whole thing like a joke. . . Thoughts?
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Are you against the idea of having a class on porn? Care to elaborate?
My (American) university had a course on porn for film students. I never took it but I heard it was indeed a serious course.
I don't see a problem with pornography in general, and I definitely don't see a problem with learning about and analyzing pornography. It'll probably teach men and women the differences between healthy and unhealthy expressions of sexuality in the media and how misunderstandings about pornography can have negative affects on society.
The thing I had a problem with was the way students reacted to it- with a phrase like, "if I don't do well in the class and my parents see, i'll just have to convince them to let me watch more porn!" It is the appreciation part, too; it seems to validate porn (in the traditional, exploitative sense). It doesn't seem to educate students and have them decide for themselves whether or not porn, in the traditional and demeaning sense, is wrong. Rather, it seems to perpetuate the idea that porn in its rawest form is completely okay and is just innocent entertainment and has no effect on the viewer's perception of women when it actually can.
Pornography, almost by definition now, includes some sort of sexualized abuse of women. It's not that anyone really misunderstands pornography- it is how it is actually presented, and people mimic what they see. It seems like a pretty clear message in pornography, and the responses of students being asked about this class seem to reflect strongly on this same perception.
If a class were being taught on pornography's influences on society, or just on human sexuality in general or something, I would have no problem with it at all.