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The Chronicle Blogger

March 4th, 2008

At Duke, sex is always controversial

When I first heard that an organization was presenting Shortbus on campus, I didn’t know who the organization was, but I was impressed. Shortbus is not a film for the faint of heart. Anyone who doubts this needs only Google the film. The image results – with SafeSearch on no less – are purely pornographic.

Thus, it was only natural that some problem would ensue from the screening of the film. When I spoke with Mayuresh Tapale, chair of DukeOUT, he told me that the group prepared for problems with the screening. The article details these issues, but one thing he noted was that Duke is a very “conservative” campus. I’m not sure whether or not this is true, but when it comes to the bedroom, Tapale’s assessment might be true.

It could be this post-lacrosse era of Duke that we are living, or it could be something else. Nonetheless, events like the Sex Workers’ Art Show and now this screening reveal a trend different from other schools. Just look at Brown University. Sure, it’s the “liberal Ivy,” but with staples in their social calendar like SexPowerGod, they are not shying away from sex. Why are we?

In the case of the Shortbus screening, the issue seems to be sex. As FVD Director David Paletz said, the events that transpired between Screen/Society and DukeOUT were by no means a controversy and this was not an issue of censorship. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see how Duke responds to the perpetual theme of sex in the future.

–Andrew Hibbard

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 8:45 am and is filed under Editor's Blog, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.