Westminster College, a private college in Salt Lake City, Utah, is presently trending on the internet for the unlikeliest of reasons: porn!
The 147-year-old institution comprises four schools: the School of Arts and Sciences, the Bill and Vieve Gore School of Business, the School of Education, and the School of Nursing and Health Sciences.
But tucked in the Film Studies program of the School of Arts and Sciences is a two-unit course titled, Film-300O: Porn.
The course became an internet sensation when American author and cultural critic, James Lindsay tweeted:
Imagine having to watch hardcore pornography with your professors in a private college in Salt Lake City, Utah. pic.twitter.com/C8Evj6z7R5
— James Lindsay, weaponizing your mom (@ConceptualJames) April 19, 2022
The course is one of two courses under Film-300: Special Topics In Film, which also included Film-300Z: Horror Films.
A synopsis of Film-300O: Porn reads, “Hard core 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.”
As expected, many Twitter users have been going back and forth on the relevance of the course.
Simply put, hardcore pornography is designed to be addictive. I sure wouldn't want to risk developing an addiction based on a class I (mistakenly?) decided to take.
I wonder how many students might not know what they would be getting into by registering for this class?
— Briél Kate (@brielc8) April 20, 2022
Imagine being a parent, paying for your child’s college education and finding out THIS is one of their classes?
— ToniAnn (@ToniAnnSL) April 19, 2022
And then the students complain they can't get a job.
— Kevin MacDonald (@TOOEdit) April 19, 2022
What the actual F*CK??
— alex_elliott_99 (@alex_elliott_99) April 19, 2022
Why is sex getting so normalized it should be something you do with someone special. Not everyone y’all got shit mixed up
— Tyler Morey (@TylerMorey9) April 19, 2022
Holy crap.
— ZUBY: (@ZubyMusic) April 19, 2022
Attendance numbers will be above average.
— Bill The Conquerer is working out (@LearningBill) April 19, 2022
Isn't Student-Teacher a genre in that area of study?
— spendthrift (@spehung) April 19, 2022
Exactly how “hard” would one need to “work” for tenure at Westminster College?? I guess you’d have to pump and grind; and collect notches on the bedpost until they leave the notes on your bedside table…
— Ghetto Limo (@GhettoLimo) April 19, 2022