As SLE recently released its newest syllabus, the incoming frosh were perplexed and surprised to see an unorthodox addition to the fall quarter schedule: Gay Sex.
When asked about this extension to the lesson plans, SLE Associate Director, Jeremiah Salmon, commented, “The entire point of SLE is to encourage students to live a life of critical thinking and interpretation by focusing on great works of philosophy, religion, and culture. To that end, we really want to highlight the most important aspects of the literary canon: Aristotle, Plato, raw animalistic homosexual intercourse, Rousseau, and so much more.”
Many SLE alum have commended this inventive change, supporting the program in its new hands-on approach to learning during their foundational philosophy unit. Charlie Yang, a recent graduate of SLE, wrote to Flipside, “The best way to learn about culture is to experience it. And what better way to study the Greeks than by living life the way they would? That is to say, plagued by horny gay inner monologues and nonstop participation in all-male orgies.”
The feedback, however, is not all supportive. A small group of SLE alum have banded together with a platform to “Make SLE Straight Again,” criticizing the program for going too far in its attempt to revolutionize philosophy education. Emmett Chase, the founder of the MSSA movement, discussed SLE’s history of “near-constant” queer subliminal messaging: “Homer’s Odyssey is clearly just an extended metaphor for coming out, Don Quixote’s ‘windmill’ was obvious phallic imagery, and Nietzsche’s Science was canonically super gay. As a straight man, I was indescribably uncomfortable at every class. And literally all of them were like this! Except maybe when we read Baldwin, Sappho, and Woolf…. those seemed pretty normal.”
Despite the community debate, SLE has confirmed that it will be moving forward with this decision, reinforcing their belief that the true Wretched of the Earth are those small-minded about educational innovation.
