A graphic novel with gay and lesbian themes, which was featured on Duke University’s reading list for incoming college freshmen, has generated a lot of pushback among Christian students, who deem the book “pornographic,” reports CNN.
Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home tells the story of a girl who comes out of the closet and soon learns that her father was gay. The book was one of several books Duke University selected “to give incoming students a shared intellectual experience with other members of their class.” It was adapted into a stage musical in 2013 and was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and won the Tony as best musical.
“The nature of Fun Home means that content that I might have consented to read in print now violates my conscience due to its pornographic nature,” wrote student Jeffrey Wubbenhort to The Duke Chronicle.
“I feel as if I would have to compromise my personal Christian moral beliefs to read it,” Brian Grasso, a freshman at the University, posted to Facebook. “Duke did not seem to have people like me in mind. It was like Duke didn’t know we existed, which surprises me.”
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The students are most concerned about images of acts in the book that some might find objectionable.
Ibanca Anand, a student member of the selection committee, told The Chronicle, “It has the potential to start many arguments and conversations, which, in my opinion, is an integral component of a liberal arts education.”
Rick Fowlie
What’s the big deal here? Reading this book was optional and some students opted not to read it. It’s not like they refused to participate in a mandatory assignment.
Daveliam
I get that it’s technically optional reading but this story actually boggles my mind. Do these college students actually think that they only have to read literature that reaffirms their world views at university? Seriously? I can’t tell if this is millennial entitlement, religious ignorance, or some scary Frankenstein monster where they overlap. Any way, it’s terrifying that there are adults (EDUCATED adults) who think that they don’t ever have to be forced to challenge their belief systems. Terrifying.
Cam
One of the signs of a cult is something that tries to prevent you from getting any outside information that could dispute the cult’s teachings.
This is why Scientology demands that it’s members not associate with those outside the group, and why the Mormons used to pressure people marrying non-Mormons to either convert them or end up forcing them out.
And it’s why the growth of the Mormon church slowed so dramatically after 1996, i.e. when people could actually access information about the church online.
Same with these “Christians”, what exactly are they afraid of reading? If their faith is so weak that reading this book will shake it, then it sounds like their religion is too weak to continue.
Cam
@Rick Fowlie: said…”some students opted not to read it.”
_______________________
No, they went out and tried to get attention for not reading, that is different.
notevenwrong
So they go to have a liberal arts education thinking they should have the option not to be exposed to ideas outside their world view? Why are colleges admitting these thugs anyway?
1EqualityUSA
The Tedious Right will look for issues to sue over. One mosquito is annoying, thousands are contenders.
Glücklich
@notevenwrong:
Duke’s not really a liberal arts school. It’s more like Carnegie-Mellon, quite well-respected, with a more bucolic campus and different weather.
These kiddies should all be enrolling at SMU or….some other Christian school but funny how *very* few of those schools ever turn up in the top college rankings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMJYw0sxZ0k
Clark35
@Rick Fowlie: Exactly. But the LGBT ”community’ will get bent out of shape and offended over everything even if a small number of college students at an overrated university opt not to read a book that is assigned reading for freshmen.
notevenwrong
@Glücklich, Duke certainly considers itself a liberal arts school. The start of its mission statement is pretty much a definition of what a liberal arts education is:
“…the mission of Duke University is to provide a superior liberal education to undergraduate students, attending not only to their intellectual growth but also to their development as adults committed to high ethical standards and full participation as leaders in their communities…”
jwtraveler
If the students don’t want to “compromise [their] personal Christian moral beliefs” they should have attended Oral Roberts Univ. or Brigham Young Univ.
jwtraveler
@Clark35: Right. The LGBT community is too sensitive. Not like your fellow Christian fundamentalists who get hysterical when someone says “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”.
Avery Alvarez
University is about going out and being exposed to different ideas!
WTF? These christian clowns don’t even know how to do that right.
Last week we talked about the SJWs and their hypersensitivity, low-self esteem, their inability to cope with the outside world, and their need to control it.
This week we’re back to the other side of the coin, with conservative christians, their hypersensitivity, excessive self-esteem, their inability to cope with the outside world, and need to control it.
Everybody needs to get used to the fact that when you go out into the big, bad world – it’s not going to bend over and cater to you. It doesn’t really care about you.
These clowns in the story can go to a “Christian University”, if they don’t like their views challenged, and want to live in a a bubble.
Cam
@Clark35: said…
“even if a small number of college students at an overrated university opt not to read a book that is assigned reading for freshmen”
_________________
They didn’t “Opt Not To Read Something” They have been all over social media playing the part of persecuted victims.
Look, we get it, they’re bigots, and not being able to attack and harm gays, or being forced to acknowledge that others different from them exist is beyond their tolerance. Fine, I hope they have fun over the next few decades becoming objects of mockery for the rest of the country.
Glücklich
@notevenwrong:
Eh, Reed’s a liberal arts school in my book. Not Duke – their business school’s too good.
Ogre Magi
christians are such jerks
Finrod
Your god is a weak god if just reading a book with some new ideas in it poses an existential threat to your faith. But I suppose that the whole New Testament boils down to, “Everybody’s mean to us, but we get revenge in the end.”
I miss the lions. Now THAT was a solid metric for religious persecution.
notevenwrong
@Glücklich, so is Harvard’s business school, yet the Harvard undergraduate program is considered liberal arts. That doesn’t mean Harvard Business School isn’t evil, by the way, but a college can certainly provide a liberal arts education in business or the sciences.
You obviously know more abut Duke than I do, so I’ll defer to you on that, but what Duke is doing with this reading assignment is profoundly liberal arts, so at least they are trying.
Clark35
@jwtraveler: Who says I’m a Fundie Xtian? I’m not. Duke is not a liberal arts school or private liberal arts college. It’s a private research university.
Kangol
@notevenwrong: Probably because they’re rich and smart. And privileged and entitled.
@Glücklich: Duke is a private, national Top 25 Research I, NCAA Division I university, one of the best in the world.
US News & World Reports ranks Duke 8th in the US, tied with the University of Pennsylvania.
Its undergraduate arts and science division does have a strong liberal arts component, though.
Clark35
@Finrod: Said by someone who knows jack shit about religion/spirituality, and history. Nobody really gets revenge in the New Testament, but there’s a lot of ‘revenge’ in the old testament.
Clark35
@Kangol: Meh, Duke is overrated, and overpriced. U.S. News and world report college and university rankings do not mean anything.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/07/30/do-college-rankings-mean-anything-that-depends-on-your-perception-of-no-1/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/09/10/why-u-s-news-college-rankings-shouldnt-matter-to-anyone/
Paul Green
One of the purposes of a college education is to expose the student to ideas and ways of thinking that they otherwise wouldn’t experience… Their loss
Glücklich
@Kangol:
I’m sure you realize I wasn’t dissing Duke.
@Clark35:
The rankings may not mean anything to the Post but try convincing any bulge bracket HR-RIS staffer of that. I’ve yet to see a resume from Chico or ASU cross my desk. Doesn’t mean *I* wouldn’t hire ’em but they don’t make it to me.
Now…back to the story at hand…
Giancarlo85
@Clark35: You are hysterical. No one is forcing anyone to read anything. But if you go to a well ranked university like Duke you’re expected to read books you may not agree with. When I was doing my graduate education, I was exposed to various beliefs and ideas.
@Clark35: Coming from you that’s ironic… you don’t know jack shit about universities. Did you even go to one? The bible has been revised a dozen times over and is just a rip off of previous pagan texts (like the Epic of Gilgamesh). The bible is one of the greatest fictional bullshit stories of all time.
If these ignorant idiots don’t want to read a book, that is their choice. These “Christian” students have a very weak foundation to their religion.
Glücklich
@Giancarlo85:
Loves me some Gilgamesh.
“Being a largely disguised reduction of the Epic of Gilgamesh”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeEqe1-EL30
Finrod
@Clark35: “Said by someone who knows jack shit about religion/spirituality, and history.”
Other than having taught religious philosophy.
Christianity’s message is, “I’m right; you’re wrong. Do it my way or go to hell.”
jwtraveler
Actually “Christian university” is an oxymoron. Education and religious fundamentalism are mutually exclusive. That’s why there’s such a high level of ignorance and stupidity in this country.
RobvR
I was raised an atheist but at (public) high school I still had to learn about christianity, judaism, islam, etc. If that’s possible then why is so hard for some to learn about different pov’s at university? If you’re afraid of other world vieuws than your own you simply don’t belong on a university.
McShane
But he’s totally fine with the over the top violence and sexuality in the Bible, right?
I’m 100% positive that the rape of Dinah is a lot more hardcore than the tame lesbian scene in Fun Home. Whatever.
Clark35
@Giancarlo85: I’ve been to two universities, one for undergrad, and one for grad school; but they’re both far better than any university you attended.
@Finrod: Riiiiiiiiiiight. Sure, whatever you say since you’re talking out of your ass about yourself and are a random internet troll and not any sort of academic, or authority on various religions or philosophies.
Clark35
http://i.imgur.com/6Xn6zkah.jpg
Giancarlo85
@Clark35: Obviously not. You post on here all the time… Meaning those so called degrees didn’t help you. Second, the university I went to had actual accreditation. The one you went to (Everest or DeVry) is now under federal investigation.
Glücklich
@Giancarlo85:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0TJzfo9QPo
Kangol
@Glücklich: No, I know you weren’t. I just wanted to make clear what sort of university Duke is, since the question had arisen in the comments, and how its liberal arts program fits within its larger Research I framework.
Clark35 may call Duke “overrated,” but it is one of the most important research universities in the United States. It was in the top 10 in federal research dollars just a few years ago, and as high as 5 in 2012. (And I say this having no ties or connections to Duke at all.)
Clark35
@Giancarlo85: LMAO I did not go to degree mills or fake “universities” but I’m sure you have. You clearly do not use any of your degrees as you post here daily.
@Kangol: There are many far better research universities than Duke.
Giancarlo85
@Clark35: You definitely did go to a degree mill. You do not show any form of intelligence on here. You probably have $50,000 in debt for that piece of paper you proudly put in your wall. All the while you work cleaning gas station bathrooms.
Nobody is going to accept your fake degree. Sorry dude. I don’t post here daily. I post every now and then. Sometimes not for a couple of days. You post every hour basically.
kuma6963
@Glücklich: Brothers Quay! Ah – this lurker loves you even more! Xoxo