SALT LAKE CITY — Conservative watchdog website Campus Reform is conducting a shaming campaign against a small liberal arts college in Utah that scheduled an elective film course analyzing the phenomenon of pornography.
Student Editor Ben Zeisloft — a Pennsylvania college student and Christian activist who describes his mission as “reporting on liberal bias and abuse” — published an article on Tuesday under the sensationalizing headline “Course at Utah College Lets Class ‘Watch Pornographic Films Together.’”
Zeisloft condemned the Salt Lake City private college for offering a class on pornography “in which students watch raunchy films as a group.”
“Campus Reform has reported on multiple instances of universities pushing sexuality upon their students — both inside and outside the classroom,” Zeisloft boasted.
The story was picked up and amplified yesterday by the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News ecosystem, forcing Westminster College to justify the two-credit elective.
The course description, now removed from some parts of the school’s website, reads: “Hardcore pornography is as American as apple pie and more popular than Sunday night football. Our approach to this billion-dollar industry is as both a cultural phenomenon that reflects and reinforces sexual inequalities (but holds the potential to challenge sexual and gender norms) and as an art form that requires serious contemplation. We will watch pornographic films together and discuss the sexualization of race, class, and gender and as an experimental, radical art form.”
Westminster College Issues Response
Yesterday, when FOX 13 News contacted the school for comment, a spokesperson explained that Westminster College “occasionally offers elective courses like this as an opportunity to analyze social issues. As part of this analysis, Westminster College and universities across the county often examine potentially offensive topics like pornography to further understand their pervasiveness and impact.”
The spokesperson noted that, while descriptions of these courses may be alarming to some readers, they “help students decide if they wish to engage in serious investigation of controversial subjects.”
“This course will help students learn how to think critically about the influence of digital media culture,” the statement continued, stressing that “Westminster is a private liberal arts college dedicated to offering students life and career readiness education through programs that challenge, provide diverse perspectives, and develop critical thinking skills.”
Professor Constance Penley, who has long taught film and media studies courses about the adult industry at the University of California, Santa Barbara told XBIZ that “other film department courses in the Westminster College catalog similarly display the depth of critical thinking about this area of film and popular culture that one would expect at the college level.”
“Whenever someone says a university course should not be taught,” she added, “the best response is to ask ‘Why not?’ and then the onus is on them to say why they object, other than on grounds of moral, religious or political considerations.”
The Salt Lake City Fox 13 news anchor who covered the story finished his report by stating that “it’s important to note the Westminster University is a private school.”