May 11, 2015

"To blanketly say, you must be naked to pass my class — it makes me sick to my stomach."

Says the mother of a student at the University of California, San Diego. 
UCSD professor Ricardo Dominguez has been lighting his classroom by candlelight and baring it all alongside his students as part of the assignment for 11 years and never received any complaints, he told the TV station.

“It’s a standard canvas for performance art and body art,” Dominguez said. “If they are uncomfortable with this gesture, they should not take the course.”

81 comments:

MadisonMan said...

Helicopter parent to the rescue! Does she realizes just how infantilizing of her daughter her behavior is?

The daughter is an adult who made a choice. She must live through the expectations of that choice.

I notice the daughter is not quoted in the article. She's over at her apartment, rolling her eyes.

Bob Ellison said...

Pervert.

Laslo Spatula said...

It is like taking "Basic Street Hooker 101" and not giving the obligatory final 'oral' exam.

That is a blow-job joke. In case you didn't get that.

I am Laslo.

Etienne said...

Now there's a mothers day story.

Personally I don't think it is fair. Students used to hire models for the class, and these models were usually art students who really needed the cash for rent and food.

We didn't charge everything to a student loan back then...

Paul said...

So students knew but signed up anyway?

Was the class a requirement to get any degree?

Since the teacher was male, any female object?

MayBee said...

Artists who like to see people naked have the best gig.

Seems a bit rape-culturey to me, but if students know before they take the class, I can't support the parent who complains.

MayBee said...

The "I'm above it all" attitude from the artist trying to get people naked is such a bogus pose.

tim maguire said...

Coupe said...We didn't charge everything to a student loan back then...

That's because tuition was peanuts back then compared to today. It's not possible to pay your own way through school anymore unless you invented a top selling app while you were in high school.

Laslo Spatula said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tim maguire said...

MayBee said...The "I'm above it all" attitude from the artist trying to get people naked is such a bogus pose.

It does seem a little unimaginative, doesn't it? "Ok people, today we focus on expressing yourselves, you can do this any way you want, just let your creative juices flow. So long as you show me your hoohah."

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

This seems like a really bad idea.

I certainly hope the university is up to date on their liability insurance payments.

Laslo Spatula said...

All I know is that if I were in that class I'd probably ejaculate on the female student closest to me. Or the one with the best breasts.

I have boundary issues.

I am Laslo.

Unknown said...

It's an elective. Complaint discounted.

The story does cause me to consider whether a similar but more "he raped me with his eyes" complaint from a student wouldn't have gotten this professor skinned alive. The guy is, as he smugly illustrates in the picture of him they chose, a member of a protected class himself. I always enjoy a good when-the-left-eats-their-own story and would like to see how it would play out.

Brando said...

See, if this was a math class and the professor said "you have to be naked to pass my class" my initial reaction would be--okay, let's see where he's going with this. A radical new teaching method, but we live in radical times.

I feel sorry for the daughter of this mother. By college you shouldn't be having your parents involved in picking your classes anyway. Clearly a micromanager and I'm sure this seeps into the rest of her life as well.

Peter said...

Yes, but just imagine the protests if the class required drawing Mohammad cartoons! That would get it shut down.

JSD said...

Nice photo-bomb of Professor Dominguez with the Border Patrol Officer exiting the cruiser in the background. Run!

Xmas said...

Grad-school art student doesn't understand the differences between 'naked', 'nude', and 'exposed'. Mom's Thomas Kinkade lithographs hardest hit.



Laslo Spatula said...

Of course, now that I have had time to think about this I am picturing a class chock full of naked Lena Dunhams.

I have painted this mental picture for you.

I am Laslo.

Some Seppo said...

It's an experiment in time travel. The professor ages 11 years while the naked students never get older.

Xmas said...

Related:

Oberlin Choir

Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

That's because tuition was peanuts back then compared to today.

The obvious solution is more regulation and social just initiatives, each of which takes administrative time, and requires reporting, so that we can have more administrators so that students can pay off loans in the future instead of buying houses and having families, for example.

It's dirt simple.

jimbino said...

The prof should hire a Brazil wax instructor. That might take the mom's mind off of mere nudity.

lgv said...

What if a male student spends too much time staring a female student. This micro-aggression could lead to her being mentally raped. Does yes mean yes when you sign up for this class? Can the female student change her mind and say "no" when it comes time to ditch her clothes?

Paco Wové said...

What JSD said. Great photo selection!

Big Mike said...

@lgv, apparently the answer is that she certainly can, provided she is willing to take an 'F' in the class.

Since 95% of the students who've taken the class over the past eleven years get an 'A' it seems as the deal is strip and get an easy 'A' or stay clothed and flunk.

MadMan is right, her daughter knew, or ought to have known, that she'd have to perform nude and took the class anyway. Mother needs to butt out.

Laslo Spatula said...

Naked Lena #1: Unrestrained by the social construct of clothing I finally feel free as an artist...

Naked Lena #2: I feel like everyone is looking at my butt.

Naked Lena #1: Let them look! This is Artistic Freedom! You are an Artist!

Naked Lena #2: I am self-conscious about my butt.

Naked Lena #1: That is because the Patriarchal Society has controlled our thoughts about what a body should look like. This is our Statement that such thinking is of the Past!

Naked Lena #2: I've got cellulite. And pimples.

Naked Lena #1: It is part of who you are -- embrace it!

Naked Lena #2: I know I should start going to the gym. And not eat so much ice cream.

Naked Lena #1: You are Beautiful as you are: don't let Patriarchal Media craft your self-image!

Naked Lena #2: At night ice cream numbs my pain.

Naked Lena #3: I am on my period.

Naked Lena #1: You are all letting the World constrict you into Conformity: Fuck Conformity!

Naked Lena #2: Maybe I just am happiest hiding in the unknown masses. No one bothers me there.

Naked Lena #1: The masses? The masses are what the White Media tells them to be! Fuck Conformity! Say it!

Naked Lena #2: Fuck Conformity.

Naked Lena #1: Come on, you can do better than that! Say it loud!

Naked Lena #2: I am uncomfortable raising my voice.

Naked Lena #1: Then I'll say it for all of us: I will NOT let this World of White Men rape my Soul!

Naked Lena #3: I am on my period.

Naked Lena #2: When do we get to put our clothes back on?

Naked Lena #3: Eighteen more minutes.

Naked Lena #2: I really want ice cream.

Naked Lena #3: When we're done can I go have ice cream with you?

Naked Lena #2: I would like that a lot.

Naked Lena #3: Seventeen minutes...


I am Laslo.

Anonymous said...

Topless bars are regulated, naked classes are not, for art.

He gets pay for "teaching", watching naked bodies squirm, instead of paying out of his pockets to see naked women gyrate up and down the poles.

On the other hand, the good professor is preparing the class for the reality they are going to face: the only thing they can do, to maybe earn some money, is to go naked.

Anonymous said...

Paul said...
Since the teacher was male, any female object?

How quaint! LGBT.

damikesc said...

That's because tuition was peanuts back then compared to today. It's not possible to pay your own way through school anymore unless you invented a top selling app while you were in high school.

As the saying goes, if you can pay your own way thru college, you really don't need college.

Bryan C said...

It's an elective, and it seems like a pretty well known requirement. Nobody's being ambushed or forced into anything.

I've been told traditional performance artists, like dancers and theater people, get pretty blase about professional nudity. Hasty costume changes in confined spaces don't allow for much modesty. I can see why being comfortable in your own skin would be a useful skill there.

Rob said...

What better place for the ingenious adverb "blanketly" than a story about nudity?

Anonymous said...

If you know going into the class this is the requirement and the class is an elective, then the mother should be upset with her daughter, not the school. The daughter clearly made this choice. It's the daughter's choice to take the class and perform naked. But, if she still objects, she should carry a mattress with her into the session.

Of course, for the men in the class, we can clearly see there nuts...

*they're

Michael K said...

"I always enjoy a good when-the-left-eats-their-own story and would like to see how it would play out."

Exactly. Now, if they had to carry a mattress around naked...

traditionalguy said...

I wonder how her daughter manages see a doctor with her clothes on? I guess she just gets sick to her stomach over the thought and then she has to take her own clothes off too for her stomach doctor, etc., etc.

I suspect she is a canny business woman. God made the female body to be seen. Keeping it hidden is the best way to drive up the desire price. But ad men see it from a marketing point of view.

CarlF said...

I guess we can expect a lot of frats to be holding art expositions.

Michael K said...

"Nice photo-bomb of Professor Dominguez with the Border Patrol Officer exiting the cruiser in the background. Run!"

Maybe he is just commuting to work, like Cheech and Chong did in "Up in Smoke."

glenn said...

If he was an Anglo and anything but a "University Professor" he'd be a dirty old man.

Laslo Spatula said...

Lena #2: The ice cream here is very good.

Lena #3: They have the best Rocky Road.

Lena #2: It feels good to have my clothes back on.

Lena #3: Me too. Although Rick over in the corner was checking you out.

Lena #2: No he wasn't.

Lena #3: Oh yes he was.

Lena #2: Yeah, maybe. But he looks like Jack Black.

Lena #3: He kinda does.

Lena #2: I never wanted to see Jack Black naked.

Lena #3: But he has a good sense of humor.

Lena #2: Don't get me wrong: I don't expect that I'll ever get a male model - Ha -- but I really can't deal with the back hair.

Lena #3: Don't you think you might be being a bit... hypocritical?

Lena #2: Everyone would look at us and say "there goes the Fat Couple." I don't want to be part of the "Fat Couple," I'd rather be fat alone.

Lena #3: I wouldn't mind going out with Rick.

Lena #2: But I thought you were Lesbian?

Lena #3: No, I just take the classes.

Lena #2: Wouldn't it be funny if we were both lesbians, and this was actually a date?

Lena #3: Why would that be funny.

Lena #2: No reason, I guess. Just thinking out loud.


I am Laslo.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Speaking of blowjobs, I found myself intrigued by Mr. Spatula's reference to Chloë Sevigny not too long ago, so I decided to consult the interwebs to see what I'd been missing.

Color me bemused. What's with the desperate team effort? Was he one-handing a fake dingus? Couldn't she have done the same? Couldn't the tech guys have duct taped it to him? Or was it his real wigglestick but he wanted to keep a hand on it so nobody could get a good fix on how much of a hank he's packing?

Weird.

Anyway, kudos to Ms. Sevigny for picking up the pace when it was crunch time.

And . . . way to stick the landing!

kzookitty said...

There's a long tradition of profs getting their students naked in classrooms. Usually it's more like a one-on-one "mentoring" session.

kzookitty

tim maguire said...

tim in vermont said...
"That's because tuition was peanuts back then compared to today."

The obvious solution is more regulation and social just initiatives, each of which takes administrative time, and requires reporting, so that we can have more administrators so that students can pay off loans in the future instead of buying houses and having families, for example.

It's dirt simple.


Wow! That's brilliant! With innovative thinking like that, maybe you should be teaching this class. Your idea is at least as creative as his.

(ok, I'm a "/sarc" hater and I'm not sure it's appropriate here anyway, I'm not being sarcastic. But I think you have perfectly captured the administrative equivalent of this "teacher's" "envelope pushing.")

Fen said...

Class description: Using autobiography, dream, confession, fantasy or other means to invent one’s self in a new way, or to evoke the variety of selves in our imagination, the course experiments with and explores the rich possibilities available to the contemporary artist in his or her own persona while proclaiming "would you like fries with that?"

/fixed

Patrick Henry was right! said...

And why does college cost so much these days?????

Republicans!!!!!!

khesanh0802 said...

Thank you, Xmas. At least a small collection of students still has a sense of humor!

Mary Beth said...

“We had a choice between being nude or doing something emotionally ‘naked’ and every student but one chose to do the nude performance.”

So instead of being naked she could do a performance on how her mother micromanages her life? Maybe wrap herself in cotton batting and read off the best comments from the article.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

To blanketly say, Cate Blanchett must be naked to pass my class — is something completely different.

Gabriel said...

@tim maguire: It's not possible to pay your own way through school anymore unless you invented a top selling app while you were in high school.

Not true. If your parents have no money, your FAFSA application will result in 100% funding in the forms of grants, loans, and work-study.

If your parents have money, but you want until 25, or you are married, or you are a veteran, the same.

It is hard for middle-class students, yes, because their parents have some money and are expected to kick in quite a lot.

But for poor students the challenge will be staying in, not paying for it.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

I was not going to comment, thinking why should I feed this naked attempt at intercourse... but then the text grab me.

Blanket... I couldn't pass it up.

lemondog said...

Could keep obesity rates down. Perhaps mandatory for all classes.....stem, arts, humanities, law........

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

It brings up all kinds of questions... how do you cheat at a class like this?

dbp said...

I wonder if the young woman who did not want to get naked was one of the few attractive students in the class. I find that funny. On the other hand, if she is unattractive and objects to getting naked, that is just as funny in a way and kind of sad in another way.

I can imagine the thoughts of her fellow students: If she is hot, disappointment at her turning out to be a prude after waiting all semester to "sketch her". If she is unattractive, relief that she is a prude, mixed with disappointment that you worried all term about it.

Mike Sylwester said...

Of course, for the men in the class, we can clearly see there nuts... *they're

Shouldn't it be their nuts?

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

About this sick to her stomach busyness.

Would it help the mother not to eat anything, except maybe fluids, six hours prior to her daughter taking the class.

I'm just trying to help.

Help your daughter pass by not passing anything.

A Chinese/Japanese parent would do it. in a hart beat.

Out of the abundance of the hart... never mind.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

Lot's daughters deliberately got their father drunk but it was not to paint his body...

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

Ah, but it was to try to paint him a son...

The fear of the mother is that not all the stunts are going to be on the same page.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

I meant to say students,

tim maguire said...

Gabriel said...Not true. If your parents have no money, your FAFSA application will result in 100% funding in the forms of grants, loans, and work-study.

Is true. Even with that "If" you can't avoid the argument-refuting word "loans."

glenn said...

Does anyone really know if it's the female coeds the prof is interested in.

mikee said...

I'd take a few Chlorox wet wipes to clean the classroom seat I used, before sitting on it and maybe after, but who hasn't spent some part of a long hour imagining everyone else in a classroom sitting there naked?

PatHMV said...

A little more about the professor:

Shockingly, he's a pro-illegal-immigration leftist activist.

There's a reason the file photo they had of him to illustrate the article showed a Border Patrol agent behind him.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

When a major leaguer consistently hits the corners he is said to paint. Should the team against him not score the losing team is said to have been blanked.

Where Am I going with this?

I don't know. Althouse is the one with access to the OED.

Bryan C said...

"People who say, "She got what she signed up for" would likely go along with Nazis."

So you're saying that to be on the football team, I have to wear a color I hate, run around this field in all sorts of weather, and throw a dirty rubber ball around? While the other members of the team watch me? Nazi!

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

I wanted to bring in Mount Blanc pen into a comment but my mind went to connecting thoughts of Snow White.

I just don't know that much about Snow White to connect her to Mount Blanc pen.

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

It's kind of ironic how the Obama administration is going after "for profit" schools for saddling students with debt for worthless training when this kind of stuff is A-OK.

I have no moral problem with it. It just seems like the kind of stuff one does on one's own time, like yoga or watercolor classes, rather than at a cost of a few thousand dollars in debt or to one's parents.

Freeman Hunt said...

"Today is Naked at the Office Day."
"What?"
"You're supposed to be naked."
"What?!"
"This is the day of every year when I get naked, and I have all of the staff get naked too."
"I'm not doing that."
"Then I'll have to fire you. Naked at the Office Day is part of your job."
"That's insane."
"No. No one has ever complained before, so it's not insane; it's fine."

Lewis Wetzel said...

The issue is over a syllabus entry that refers to an “erotic self” assignment, requiring students to “create a gesture that traces the outlines or speaks about your ‘erotic self(s).’”

I would give each my fellow students one of them writing pens that has girl pictured on it, and when you invert the pen her top comes down.
I have a box of like a hundred of those.
I think that would get me an A+. We are talking UCSD.

Freeman Hunt said...

She could bring a dog. The dog would be naked but she would be clothed. Then she could speak of herself as being in the mind of the professor, like in Being John Malcovich, and give a graphic monologue about the professor's sexual attraction to the dog.

Edgy!

Freeman Hunt said...

She could wear a flesh-colored fat suit and insist that she was, in fact, naked.

"What? Are you going to touch my naked body and check? I don't think so."

Freeman Hunt said...

"I am naked. I have tumors that exactly resemble jeans and a t-shirt. Stop body-shaming me!"

Freeman Hunt said...

"You're not naked."
"Yes, I am."
"No, you're not."
"I'm transnaked. Check your privilege."

Alex said...

I'm pretty sure the instructor isn't someone you'd want to see in the buff.

Alex said...

Laslo... LOL you are so precious!

Tits.

PatHMV said...

Awesome, Freeman!

Paul Ciotti said...

Freeman Hunt: "I'm transnaked. Check your privilege."

I like the way your mind works.

Aussie Pundit said...

From February.
His lawyers say Hernandez was coerced by detectives who preyed on his mental deficiencies and vulnerabilities.

He grew to believe that he committed the crime after speaking to them for nearly seven hours in interviews that weren’t recorded, they argue.

The real killer is Jose Ramos, a longtime suspect and admitted child molester, according to Harvey Fishbein and Alice Fontier, Hernandez's attorneys.


Unrecorded 7 hour interview....
no corroborating evidence...
alternative viable suspect.

Reasonable doubt. Not guilty. Acquit.

The lone juror is a hero.

Aussie Pundit said...

oops, wrong thread. sorry.

Lewis Wetzel said...

In the movie, the part of Professor Ricardo Dominguez will be played by a 1960s era Peter Sellers or Donald Sutherland.

bgates said...

People who say, "She got what she signed up for" would likely go along with Nazis.

It's a fair cop.

Lefty Obvious Truth (Today's Edition): What's the big deal about requiring young women to strip in a college class?

Lefty Obvious Truth (Yesterday's Edition): Most college men are one glimpse of unsheathed ankle away from raping every opening deeper than it is wide.

Laura said...

"I have painted this mental picture for you."

You know when Ms. Dunham is the class assignment the style I want is Jackson Pollock.

Please repaint or submit an extra credit assignment on Latin men (think Mr. Arce) if you want to do realism again. Your paintings of Ms. Johansson are quite good, but it is my mental classroom and I have sole tenure there.

D. B. Light said...

So much damn lunacy in academic institutions! When, oh when, is the public going to turn on them? Yes, of course, it is a jobs program, and it warehouses a large population unprepared for useful employment, but the human and social costs of maintaining such an expensive, bizarre and dysfunctional system is overwhelming. Eventually, as some singer guy put it, "a hard rain's agonna fall".