When George Petrie wrote the Auburn Creed in 1943, declaring his beliefs in a practical world, education, honesty, truthfulness, and a sound mind, before stating that he believed in Auburn and loved it, he might have revised those remarks if he knew what was coming down the pike decades later with his university's Women's Studies curriculum.
According to this semester's course listings, Auburn University is offering three sections of WMST 2100: Introduction to Women's & Gender Studies, taught by Dr. Allison Vandenberg: two online and one in person. Three will be offered again in the spring as well.
A review of the course material shows that it focuses on LGBTQ+ concepts related to gender and gender roles, as well as topics that promote liberal feminism.
"I was taken aback by the entire subject matter. It's so graphic and explicit, and why?" asked Terry Lathan, who received and reviewed the material and assignments from a student whose parent she is friends with. Lathan is an avid Auburn supporter, a former educator, and a former chairman of the Alabama Republican Party.
According to a student, if the course description accurately portrayed the subject matter, they would not have enrolled in the class.
"Absolutely not," the student declared.
"I just wanted to take an easy class to check off a required social science credit," the student elaborated. "From the description of the course, I thought the lessons about women would be more historical and less current. Despite my political views and gender beliefs, this class felt extremely left-sided, and seemed to focus more on reshaping our minds politically and socially than focusing on learning relevant content."
Assigned readings included "Dude, You're a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School" and "Gender: Ideas, Interactions, Institutions. Second Addition."
The Gender textbook does not take an unbiased, mainstream approach to race or gender. Instead, it promotes the most liberal ideas as fact.
Thomas Beatie, for example, made headlines when he became pregnant with the first of what would be three children. Thomas was born female but began to identify as a boy during childhood. He underwent some surgical transformation at age twenty-three but chose not to undergo a hysterectomy, preserving his ability to get pregnant and bear children. Some trans people, then, identify as men or women, others identify as trans men or trans women, and still others identify as nonbinary, outside of or between the binary between male and female (also described as genderqueer). This includes people who identify as gender fluid, without a fixed gender identity. In light of these new terms, the word cisgender is increasingly used to refer to male- and female-bodied people who comfortably identify and express themselves as men and women, respectively.
On traditional families, the book insists, "To start, evolution-based thinking about humans often asserts that the so-called nuclear family—a mother and father with children who live together without extended kin—is natural. But this family form didn't exist until very recently."
The books' take on race is as biased as their take on gender and gender roles.
Beyond the textbooks, the course relies heavily on videos.
One assignment required students to watch the movie "The Trans List." The assignment that followed did not offer students the opportunity to challenge the film's most basic premise that men can become women or that gender is a fluid concept.
According to IMDB, "The Trans List explores the range of experiences lived by Americans who identify as transgender (an umbrella term for people whose gender identity does not conform to that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth). No two experiences of trans people are exactly alike. Transgender, transsexual, gender-queer, bi-gender, and non-binary are just a few of the multitude of self-identifiers in the trans community."
"There's a male adult film star who still sports female genitalia. And there's a young Indian wearing bizarrely bright lipstick who refuses to be labeled male or female. He/she is a they, pronoun-wise," according to The Detroit News.
Another assignment involved watching a series of videos referred to as "Green Porn."
"In this short series, Isabella Rossellini uses performance art to teach about reproductive diversity among insects. While some find this innovative approach humorous, others (especially those who have been taught that sexuality is innately shameful) might find it shocking. I expect you to engage with this content with maturity and respect," Vandenberg wrote on the syllabus.
"I understand that I'm an adult and mature enough to watch explicit content such as this if I wanted to. However, it is an entirely different scenario to require a student to watch sexual content and write about how it is beneficial to our class or society as a whole. The fact of the matter is that my classmates and I felt uncomfortable during this class, and that should be enough of a reason on its own to scratch this course entirely," the student told 1819 News.
The student added, "I can't even begin to count the number of times I screenshotted my assignments or briefly screen-recorded our required videos and sent it to my mom, saying, 'Can you believe Auburn allowed this?'"
Lathan felt the same, asking, "How is this class educational?"
"This is another example of a far-left social propaganda narrative that needs to stop in educational institutions that accept our tax dollars," she said. "I think if the average Alabama family sees these materials, they will be very upset."
She added. "Auburn University is a phenomenal academic establishment. They turn away applications of thousands of freshmen students, and the incoming average ACT score of 27.4. Auburn students, families and the taxpayers deserve better than these teachings.
"I hope our legislators take a hard look at this example of what our dollars are supporting. My parting question would be: Would you allow or support your daughter, son or grandchild sitting in this class with the required reading of the book 'Dude, You're a Fag?' Or approve of the graphics and almost X-rated videos and graphics that are required?
"I'm pretty sure the answer is absolutely not. I plan to make sure our elected officials see these materials. This needs to stop immediately, regardless of the school."
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email [email protected]
Don't miss out! Subscribe to our newsletter and get our top stories every weekday morning or become a member to gain access to exclusive content and 1819 News merch.
