Friday, December 02, 2005

You know you are at a Northeast liberal arts college when ...

you can sit around a table with the president of the college, provosts, professors, and staff members discussing pornography and sex toys in public bathrooms without anyone blushing, laughing nervously or responding angrily. This happened to me just the other day.

One day, I attended a meeting about strategic planning over the next 10 years or so. I sat down at a table amongst the people listed above and waited quietly for the meeting to start. A nice lady from HR introduced herself, and then an English professor did as well. We were all chatting about the weather and other such inane things when the professor asked me what year I graduated. My response of four years prompted her to ask what I had been doing between graduating and coming back as staff. So, I told her that I had been working and attending graduate school for theatre history. The prof perked up and asked what era or genre I had studied. My answer happened to coincide with her area of expertise, so then she asked about the particulars. Well, the particulars involve the history and development of pornography in relation to the history and development of theatre. Generally, this is a conversation killer and someone immediately asks about sports, the weather or some other safe topic. Today, however, it sparked a large discussion about how porn has affected mass media and the arts, how it is now the biggest addiction in the US and how it makes us desire sex toy vending machines in public bathrooms. Within two minutes, the entire table of about 10 people, including the president, were participating in this conversation--furrowing brows, nodding heads, rubbing chins, not blushing or shushing. I even got invited to give a lecture to an English class on 19th century porn!

Overall, this was a great lunch meeting, reminding me that I was home now at my NE liberal arts college where theatre, pasta, porn and strategic planning are appropriate discussion topics around the dinner table.

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