One of the few A.S. photos I can post here.
Posted on 05/02/2006 10:52:05 AM PDT by JSedreporter
In a special appearance at American University, a former porn star made use of academic freedom in a manner that college officials can live with.
A passage from an alternative college newspaper helps to illustrate the boundaries that colleges and universities are willing to place on free speech. “Ann Coulter is an enigma,” The Stanford Review’s Taylor Cox writes of the frequently heckled conservative columnist university officials welcome grudgingly. “So much so, that I think she deserves to become the topic of Stanford’s next PWR [Program in Writing and Rhetoric] class.”
“It would be even better and more outrageous than ‘The Rhetoric of Menstruation’ that was included in the course bulletin last year.” Meanwhile, back at AU…
Just last week, “Former porn star and sexologist Annie Sprinkle warned her audience to cover their eyes if they were offended by her multimedia talk about her life in the sex industry in Ward 1 Monday night,” according to a story by Laraine Weschler that appeared in the AU Eagle. “‘Sex was easy, acting was hard,’ she said.”
“Sprinkle, an artist, sexologist and former prostitute who spent much of the ‘70s and ‘80s as a porn star, spoke to around 300 people in an event sponsored by AU Queers and Allies and the College of Arts and Sciences Graduate Student Council.”
An university-sponsored debate on academic freedom held at AU earlier in the month drew a crowd of about a dozen and none of the panelists were paid for their time. Although, understandably, students might find the Sprinkle event more interesting, it begs the question I asked a young man doing a story on porn in the classroom for the University Newswire: Why spend thousands of dollars in college to get what you can find off campus for tens of dollars?
Also, why should everyone who foots the bill for such college fare whether they like it or not—namely parents, students and taxpayers—get stuck with the tab? And how does this compare with one of AU’s mission statements: “American University (AU) is for students who want to understand—and influence—how the world works. AU’s academically rigorous curriculum enables students to combine serious theoretical study with meaningful real-world learning experiences.” If federal funds were involved in the staging of the Sprinkle appearance at AU, it would not be the first time that she has collected a government subsidy for her work. Back in the 1980s, Sprinkle was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, which she bragged about in her show at the time.
Although the student journalist at The Eagle describes Ms. Sprinkle as an artist, the young lady fails to mention that the art that the veteran performer has performed is just that—performance art. Her NEA-funded performance art involved pouring chocolate sauce on herself and then covering the base with bean sprouts. Maybe that’s why this federally-funded human sundae got an appropriation: Her props were vegetarian.
Malcolm A. Kline is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia.
It just never ends does it? If I had a kid at AU he'd be out of there this afternoon!
This and other reasons why I no longer contribute to AU.
Yuck... bean sprouts.
One of the few A.S. photos I can post here.
My girl will be a 16 year-old freshman in the fall. I'm gettin' really worried. At least she's not going to AU!
She should change her name to Annie Jiggles.
I don't think the arts need any Federal subsidy--they can succeed or fail on their own just like any other endeavor.
Malcolm A. Kline is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia.
Unfortunately Mr. Kline isn't accurate. The chocolate sauce-bean sprout thing was the act of another of the controversial NEA grantees, Karen Finley. Sprinkles' act included a speculum and an invitation to the audience to come up and take a look.
I'm not going there!
Yep, checked out her cervix.
Annie Sprinkle? Wow, that's a blast from the past! She must be in her 60s by now. Didn't she have a live-sex act where she and her male partner threw up on each other? Your tax dollars at work.
Universities=pits of depravity.
L
And no I will not disclose any further details of the meetings, not here anyway. Suffice it to say the autographed pic I have of her sure brings back some memories.
That and when that woman throws a party, she knows what she's doing. L
Excuse me... I 'gotta take a whiz.
Yep, checked out her cervix.
How many days from base camp was that expedition?
....actually, she already changed her name....! she was born in 1954, if I recall, and her real name is/was Ellen Steinburg.... she is bisexual, something few folks even know..... her website identifies her as a "Ph.D" - wonder what field of study that was in....!!(Ph.D." - Piled Higher and Deeper....!")
Objection, calls for speculumation...
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