Who Could Have Predicted…. “Dr. Sex” Issues Non-Apology Apology
Posted: March 5, 2011 Filed under: academia | Tags: fetishes, human sexuality course, J. Michael Bailey, Northwestern University, orgasm, sex, sex toys, tenure 35 Comments
The sex toy in question ("the f@cksaw")
I knew this was coming. I posted a link to this story in a comment on the Thursday morning thread: “Northwestern University defends after-class live sex demonstration.”
More than 100 Northwestern University students watched as a naked 25-year-old woman was penetrated by a sex toy wielded by her fiancee during an after-class session of the school’s popular “Human Sexuality” class.
The woman said she showed up at the Feb. 21 lecture in the Ryan Family Auditorium in Evanston expecting just to answer questions, but was game to demonstrate. The course’s professor on Wednesday acknowledged some initial hesitation, but said student feedback was “uniformly positive.”
At first Northwestern stood behind their controversial professor, J. Michael Bailey AKA “Dr. Sex.”
“Northwestern University faculty members engage in teaching and research on a wide variety of topics, some of them controversial and at the leading edge of their respective disciplines,” said Alan K. Cubbage, vice president for University Relations. “The University supports the efforts of its faculty to further the advancement of knowledge.”
Faith Kroll
Uh huh. I wonder what knowledge was advanced by a woman (Faith Kroll, see photo) having an orgasm on a stage in front of 100 students? I’m no prude, but come on! Please someone explain how this “furthers the advancement of knowledge?” Was it the part where the woman who was stimulated on stage announced that she gets off on being watched while having sex?
Next, a woman took her clothes off, and—with an audience of around 100—lay down on her back, legs spread. As students moved forward from the theater’s back seats, for a closer view, “The girl grabbed the mic,” says Sean Lavery, a Northwestern freshman. “She explained that she had a fetish for being watched by large crowds while having an orgasm.”
Again, I’m no prude. This was an optional session, with a warning about a graphic demonstration. The students were presumably chronological adults. Frankly, I wouldn’t have stuck around to watch, but I probably wouldn’t have taken the class to begin with.
But if I had been there, it would have been very easy for me to foresee that this after class “demonstration” would lead to Trouble with a capital T. The trouble is those “adult” college students have parents who don’t see them as full adults yet, and universities are surrounded by communities of people who tend to get a bit worked up about the idea of professors organizing live sex shows for their students.
Guess what? After some reflection, the president of Northwestern is “troubled,” and has launched an “investigation.”
….after the incident received national attention, officials now say they are investigating. In a statement, the university president said the demonstration “represented extremely poor judgment on the part of our faculty member” and was not “appropriate, necessary, or in keeping with Northwestern University’s academic mission,” the Daily Northwestern reports.
Professor Bailey
No kidding. And today Dr. Sex has issued an apology.
“I apologize,” he writes. “As I have noted elsewhere, the demonstration was unplanned and occurred because I made a quick decision to allow it. I should not have done so.”
He said he was surprised by the public outcry over the after-class incident in the Ryan Family Auditorium, where a man used a high-powered sex toy on his girlfriend in front of 100 students.
“During a time of financial crisis, war, and global warming, this story has been a top news story for more than two days,” Bailey wrote in his statement. “That this is so reveals a stark difference of opinion between people like me, who see absolutely no harm in what happened, and those who believe that it was profoundly wrong.”
Obviously, this man has been in his ivory tower studying human sexual behavior for so long that he missed the fact that we live in a country where people search for titillating and even sordid distractions from the nightmare of our current political and fiscal situations. He must not be aware that Americans love “reality TV” almost as much as they love the “unreal” world of Fox News. The controversy Bailey set off fit right into that picture.
As part of his non-apology “apology,” Bailey said:
Bailey said that while he regretted allowing the Feb. 21 sex toy demonstration he also does not believe those who were offended made a good case for why the act should not have been allowed.
“Those who believe that there was, in fact, a serious problem have had considerable opportunity to explain why: in the numerous media stories on the controversy, or in their various correspondences with me,” the statement reads. “But they have failed to do so. Saying that the demonstration ‘crossed the line,’ went too far,’ ‘was inappropriate,’ or ‘was troubling’ convey disapproval but do not illuminate reasoning.”
He adds that if he was grading the arguments against allowing a man to use a custom high-powered sex toy to bring his naked girlfriend to orgasm before 100 students, “most would earn an ‘F.’”
Others can make the “right or wrong” argument. For me, the reason no professor should do some thing like this is because it’s just plain stupid and if the uproar gets too great, it could lead to the loss of tenure and dismissal.
Even if he keeps his job, Bailey has drawn a great deal of negative attention on the academic institution he works for and his human bosses, including the university president, the dean, and the department chairman. His actions could cost his university in terms of alumni support and contributions from large and small donors. It could even lead some parents to discourage their children from attending Northwestern.
And for what? What are the arguments in favor of doing the demonstration? How was the cause of science or knowledge advanced by what what Professor Bailey did? In my opinion, Professor Bailey’s decision was just plain stupid, childish, and egotistical.
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
A report in the NYT on one of Dr. Bailey’s studies.
Dr. Bailey’s book on “gender bending and transsexualism”
Yeah BB, that “apology” sounded very egotistical to me as well. Where does he “get off” on saying his is sorry, but anyone who disagrees with him deserves an “F” for failing to articulate their disgust or disapproval at his “demonstration.” I’m no prude either, but that clearly beyond your simple sex toy. That is clearly a pornographic demo if you ask me…
If it makes me want to look away or if it makes me want to see more, it’s pornography. I know pornography when I see it.
It looks dangerous to me! But this presentation was supposed to be about BDSM, so that makes sense.
you would think this kind of display would violate local obscenity laws
I wish Dr. Kinsey was around to share his view about the demonstration.
My parents were friends with the Kinseys. Very nice people. When I was a Girl Scout, Mrs. Kinsey used to take our troop on nature walks – fully clothed, btw. 🙂
Cool
All I can say is: The man’s a moron.
He certainly isn’t too clued in to the zeitgeist, that’s for sure.
You’ve nailed it, Trouble with a Capital T and compounded with Capital C on Campus.
It’s terrible what women will do for pigs like him who are pushing pornography on campus, and in our commuinities.
Come to think of it I do have something else to say. What is the educational value of seeing a person have an orgasm on stage? The person who needs to illuminate his reasoning is the prof. How does this “demonstration” add to the knowledge of his students?
Perhaps next week a man will masturbate on stage with a sex toy?
That was my question. What’s the point?
The point is probably to win a free ticket to the Ivy League. If Larry Summers were still President of Harvard, he would have hired this guy on the spot.
Northwestern is a very good school–definitely in the same league as Michigan and Wisconsin.
The point is, Professor Bailey got off on it. He gained many future masturbatory hours from watching his students watch. Why else would he do it? He can be as cavalier as he wants to be in his statements, but the truth is, the guy is a pervert. Personally, I would like to see a video of someone with the reciprocating- saw-“toy” cutting his nuts off. Students could voluntarily attend to watch.
It will be interesting to see if he gets to continue on as a member of that faculty. Very interesting.
Uppity Woman nails it!
Hmmmm…this is interesting:
Eventually, this guy will be caught in the arms of one of his transexual study participants. Methinks he protests too much.
He also looks like Gomer Pyle.
That Chronicle of Higher Ed piece has a lot of interesting background, thanks BB.
He seems to be pushing unhelpful stereotypes based on a lot of anecdotal observations. The after class demonstration itself plays into negative stereotypes about academia.
Whatever his motivations, I’d give him an F for explaining the educational value in this demonstration.
I think he probably has his own gender identity issues, as I noted above. He feels he has to explain to everyone that he is *not* gay.
If that’s a “sex toy” I want outta here!
Don’t look now, but Saudi Arabia is erupting.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudis-mobilise-thousands-of-troops-to-quell-growing-revolt-2232928.html
Guess they get an A+ for creativity when it comes to sex paraphenalia construction.
This is so-o-o wrong on so many levels-voyuerism, academic irresponsibility and just plain smut. The participating woman’s comment alone tells you everything you need to know. She’s an exhibitionist and now this is deemed a learning experience. In what? Decadence?
How any academic insitution could defend a live sex show is beyond me. What’s next? Maybe they’ll add animals to the mix–increase the interest level. They’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel. Northwestern ought to be ashamed of itself [even though shame seems to be out of fashion these days]. In fact, where are the other major universities calling this nonsense and this professor out??
Crickets.
gEE things have changed in schools, I remember getting yelled at for reading
Anna Karina in high school. The nun was not happy.
I have been reading about the weather in your neck of the woods.
Are you all right where you live?
WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS
PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE CHATTERING PEOPLE RULE
Helen,
How are you doing? It’s great to see you!
I thought it was only at the University of Chicago that students needed step-by-step instructions in how to have s*x.
Go Maroons.
LOL
First, the “experiments” were done on women. Where are the erect naked men being jerked off by an electronic gadget? What’s this dude’s problems with women? Degradation? Can’t satisfy them without a machine?
Second, the guy is a voyeur. Probably a Peeping Tom on his off hours. Certainly enjoys watching gay men in the gay bars.
Seriously seriously sexually dysfunctional.
Why don’t we conduct our own experiment? Send him over to me. I’ll check out his equipment and his performance and write a report. And take some pictures. Especially of him in a dress. Cuz my bet is he loves playing the female big time. And, underneath it all, not only does he love to watch, he wishes it were he on the big stage.
That’s my suspicion too. He’s defensive about his sexuality–check out the description of the way he dresses too.
I have a friend who has a doctorate in psychology (and counseling–can’t recall), specializing in human sexuality and is a sex counselor. She did her PhD on transsexuals (I don’t recall the details now) and part of her research involved going to sex clubs to interview participants. She did view sex acts, at the request of some of her study stubjects (probably the exhibitionist subset).
It’s not my cup of tea, but it was her area of study and interest, and now is her area of work.
She said it was awkward initially to even talk about the sex act clinically, but it was something she got over. It’s like studying any other initimate aspects of humans, I would think.
BTW, some women have never been about to achieve orgasm, so perhaps it would not be so far fetched to think seeing an actual woman have one might be helpful. Just a thought.
Certainly does push the envelope.
That sort of drill thing scares me silly.
A few years ago there was a big hullabaloo over here, about an Italian soldier who raped a Somalian woman with some kind of large ammunition, which he had kindly smeared with jam.
It took her 3 years but she finally caught up with him and dragged him before the courts (and the media) and he was sentenced.
IMO the subliminal message in that class, was that women enjoy having lifeless mechanical objects shoved up them – they have instant orgasms.
They had a drill like that in Naked Gun 2 and a half, up until yesterday I thought that was just a joke…to get laughs. Had no idea they had those things for serious….
Some people do have strange erotic tastes, and I am not sure the value of encouraging it. That thing looks dangerous,noisy, and unerotic!