Mack // A professor who compared lectures to lap dances has been accused of not respecting women.

Critics says he needs to retire, and students are making it a point to avoid the uni until he is forced out.

To Dr. Kealy, a vice chancellor at Buckingham University, this is all a misunderstanding over what he thought was a humorous “moral piece” encouraging university staff to “use restraint” when dealing with curvaceous young students and not engage in sexual relationships with them.

His form of humor included likening the lecture theatre to a lap-dancing club and saying that:

Most male lecturers know that, most years, there will be a girl in class who flashes her admiration and who asks for advice on her essays…What to do? Enjoy her! She’s a perk… you should admire daily to spice up your sex, nightly, with the wife.

I can see why people would be upset by this. I agree with his critics that what he wrote was offensive to women and he appears to be a dirty old man. I think he should have made better decisions and realised that he would hurt people with this.

However, I also want to give him the benefit of the doubt and think that he was not trying to offend anybody. He naively assumed that people would see the humor in what he wrote.

We like to think of older married university professor-types as asexual. They are there to teach us. They are invested in helping us further our careers by facilitating the development of our intellect. They do not have sexual feelings. They are not dirty old men. They would not abuse their power.

I hope that all the fuss this has caused will show him how some thoughts should not be stated aloud even if what he says does hold some truth in it.

These professors are human beings. They are usually men. And they are constantly being exposed to nubile young women at the peak of their fertility. It would be wrong to assume that teachers do not have sexual fantasies about students and it would be wrong to also assume that these young girls are not sometimes also attracted to the intellect and power that their teachers hold.

But Dr. Kealy also goes on to say that:

Thanks to the accountability imposed by the Quality Assurance Agency [the university watchdog] and other intrusive bodies, the days are gone when a scholar could trade sex for upgrades.

Here Dr. Kealy thinks he is saying that sexual relationships with students are inappropriate and wrong and he is thankful for the accountability that prevents any potential exploitation of these students. However he comes off as missing the good old days when there were no restrictions on teacher-student relationships.

Again, I think we need to give him the benefit of the doubt. He was wrong to have written what he did and naive to assume that people would not be offended.

But once we get past our hang-ups and take an honest look we can see that he was telling the truth and, so long as there is no abuse of power and standards are in place to ensure proper conduct, there is nothing wrong with admiring the curvaceous young women in his class.

BBC News