I often assume very few people are reading this blog. I realize any of my students might, as might any person who meets me somewhere and takes a business card. It’s not like it’s hidden. At the same time, I’m usually taken aback when I get a really, really negative response comment, but I also know that sometimes people get pingbacks and don’t appreciate me mentioning their site in my comments.
The other day I wrote up a little opinion piece on the concept of the “beta male.” Someone responded to it (using the fake login “student@fuckyou.com — great sign that it’s going to be a constructive conversation) and went on to attack my use of the term and criticizing the “article.” I don’t really care. It wasn’t the most fun thing to see when logging in, but eh, I’m a big boy.
It is a chance to talk about two things that are important to studies in the digital age, though.
The first is the blog as a genre. This is a blog. It’s on a site I pay for, so it’s not meant to be a representation of where I work. No one has endorsed any of what is written here but me. I am fine with my students reading it, but other than rare occasions when I use my site (not this blog, but my website) to host things, no one is expected to use this space for anything. I’m not claiming rigor and peer review. It’s my thoughts.
I know that ever talking about my political beliefs on the campus where I work or to that community will result in someone, somewhere in the crowd, getting upset. And so when I’m in class or doing my work, I try to be easy about politics. Academic freedom means that I don’t have to be. As long as I’m not preaching at anyone, I have the right to think as I please and here, on my blog, I am the only person who has to decide if something is worthy of print.
Academics are allowed to have opinions. If you don’t believe that, take a look at this.
But again, this is a blog. The things on it aren’t academic “articles.” I often offer links to things because I think it enhances the reader’s experience, but I’m not writing academic work here. I do that as part of my job. That’s not the point of this genre and certainly not the point of this document. Sometimes I’m working out a thought I might use somewhere else, but sometimes I’m writing while sick, making sure I do a post for the day, and I’m offering up half-baked thoughts from my perspective.
The goal of this blog is to write something every day. I have said over and over in the text here that much of it will probably suck. It’s just me doing things. I might look back at most of these and think “wow, I was off that day.”
But here’s a more interesting thing that this comment made me think about.
Teachers/Professors are people, too. I think sometimes students are so transaction-minded that they forget that. When I’m in my classroom, I’m teaching. It’s my job to help a student to learn. I don’t hold my students’ feet to the fire, but I could theoretically attempt to control their behavior in that time period because we’re working under a contract.
When that class is over, my general duties as a teacher don’t dissolve– I answer questions, I grade, I take appointments, I help with extra-curricular activities. But I don’t owe it to my students, or to the university, to not have opinions about things or to avoid touching on topics, nor do I owe it to the University on a day that I’m not working (like this one, a Sunday) to do anything academic.
I have found that conservative students (the sort that write a long scathing response because I mentioned Obama and spoke in a negative tone about our current President) seem to think that because I work for what they consider to be a conservative university I owe it to them to be conservative politically. And you know what? Outside of my classroom, fuck that. To assume that I owe anything to anyone is silly. I won’t ever provoke students or belittle their beliefs in my capacity as a professor, but I don’t have to treat issues that matter to me with kid gloves when I’m not in that space.
So if you happen upon my blog, and you don’t like what you’re reading, first measure it against these two things:
- Do you realize that my goal is to post every day, and that some days I don’t feel like posting and have to sort of Lewis Black it and dig for something in my day that got me worked up so I can write?and
- Why are you here? If you wanted to know more about the inner-workings of my mind, you’re spending your time in the right place. If it bothers you, though, maybe just stop reading it. I’m not going to change my mind over someone hurling an insult, and what I say and think in my private time–even in a public space like a blog– is no more or less relevant than anything else. In other words, if you get all rage-face and keyboard-warrior-y about something I posted, odds are I would, in turn, feel the same about what you think. But I’m not bugging you with it. 🙂
I had this argument with a faculty member when I worked at another university. I used to teach a writing class that had a required (I mean by the program) unit on gay marriage (back when it was a much hotter-button topic than it is now, though it still starts rough conversations). A co-worker asked me if I was having trouble with the unit because most of my students disagreed with me. I wasn’t. Because I’m a grown up and I have the capacity to understand things from more than one side. Joe Biden answers the abortion question in relation to his faith the same way. I think people who don’t believe that gay couples should be allowed to marry are misled, and I will never agree with any logic they come up with. That doesn’t mean I can’t understand how their logic works and respect it.
And I do. I respect people who think the exact opposite of what I think, and I almost always have. In fact my last post was about someone I was romantically involved with who I disagreed with about many critical issues. It’s a part of life to learn to interact with people who don’t think the same way that you do. That’s what a society is.
I also without apology reserve my right to be at least as irrationally op-ed as everyone else on my own blog. To get political for a second, the President does it on the regular on Twitter, and expectations have to be higher for him than they are for me. If they aren’t, the whole world is crazy.
In my humble opinion.