The day after the election (Wednesday November 9, 2016), I had only one class, Psychology of Women. Waking into class that day was a little surreal. I did not know what to think, what to expect from the class but I knew something was going to happen. And I think everyone had the same feeling. There was little to no talking, and even if there was, it was whispers between friends about what had happened the night before. As we took our seats we were all on edge about the class, what is the professor going to say? Are we going to talk about what happened? Are we going have a class discussion about implication of a Trump presidency? Are we going to have an opportunity to speak our minds? Are we going to talk about whats the implication on women, minorities, the LGBTQ community, etc., and those with intersectional identity? No one knew the answer, which made the anxiety in the room increase.
So finally, at 2:30 on the dot, the professor walked in. There was no works other than a simple “hello everyone”. The computer screen projector was set up in front of the classroom and a video was prepared before the other words came. It went something along the lines of: ‘so today we are starting a new chapter and this documentary is an intro into the chapter. While today is not the best day for this, we are going to stay on schedule’. And that was it.
My friend turned to me, is that really it? What the heck? I didn’t know what to think either.
And then the video played. The worse thing we could watch on that day. The video that made me lose more hope in our society, in our country, in our humanity. The video that made the results of the election even more terrifying. Pornland: How the Porn Industry Has Hijacked Our Sexuality.
Throughout the video, there was silence. Afterwards there was silence.
It was after the video was finish that I saw the impact of the election and the reaction that my professor was trying to hide.
There was silence, until one guy from the back of the class raised his hand and remarked “I don’t know what this is. This is shit. How can we treat women like this?! It’s not human”. His reaction was like the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
At first it was just one, but then it increase, and you could hear sniffling from all over the room, and when I looked at the professor, she looked ready to break.
What followed was a lengthy discussion of hope, or implication of the coming years under our new president elect, of different students speaking their minds of what the results meant to them regardless of which political part they were part of. Especially in the context of women and minority, what’s going to happen? The uncertainty was daunting. It was the first real reaction I’ve seen after the election and the first real discussion about what it means.
I choose to write this blog about this because I think this is a discussion that is happening around the country and even around the world. And it is an important discussion especially seeing the protests that are happening across the country.
Unruly Bodies 
Since election day I kept telling myself that I’m over talking about this.” I’m not sure which part of all of this makes me want to be silent. Is it the fear, the shock, the hate, or is it just because I’ve been hearing it so much and just needed to move on to something new. Then again I constantly find myself wanting to find out more, read the news, (not cnn) do my research, hear people’s opinions. I realized if I was going to be silent then I also needed to become pro-active and educate myself on some of this issues. In my Intro to U.S Healthcare Systems class we were supposed to cover the chapter on Medicare, Medicaid and the ACA( Obamacare). Well that didn’t happen. Our professor said this “I don’t want to teach you this because if everything is repealed then I would of lied to you.” So instead we ended up having a class discussion involving everyone’s opinion about healthcare in the U.S after Trump’s election. It was a great discussion, and like you I also think it’s really important for teachers to be more open to bring up social issues that impact us all, to the classroom when it’s needed.
I have not seen the video mentioned and won’t watch it. I am fairly well educated on the feminist anti porn movement. I know that if I had that class the day after the election I would have walked out or probably yelled a lot. I am very pro porn in that I am very pro sex work. Donald Trump on the other hand is very anti porn (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-pledge-against-pornography_us_57a00928e4b0e2e15eb701fc).
Donald Trump is not a feminist and has proved himself over and over again to be someone who enjoys and promotes violence against women. So how is he against porn if its a violence against women? The basic answer is that it is not. Porn does very little to contribute to America’s complicated and harmful relationship to sex. Porn is more of a symptom than a cause. Blaming porn and attacking porn will only remove income for the marginalized people (POC,LGBT,Disabled) that disproportionately do porn. There is also a ton of feminist porn that exists because porn is such a vague term for such a nuanced industry. I encourage everyone to look at all sides of something as well as look at who is supporting what before making quick judgements.
I do agree with you in that we must look at all sides of the argument before making judgement. That is why I am unsure on my stance on porn in general. I am neither pro porn or any porn. The reason being I just do not have enough information.To the point of the video, that documentary focused specifically on a branch of porn they call “torture porn or gonzo porn”, which from what I have saw, I have to say I am against.
You point of porn being “more of a symptom than a cause” is interesting and I’m going to have to research more about it. I do think I do need to do more research on this topic, like you said, before I can have a clear view and stance but I think even then I might not have a clear stance.
But thanks for your response! It definitely gave me something to really think critically about and learn more about.
This post is really interesting to me. The day after the election, I chose to skip the one class I had that day because I knew that we would talk about what happened and that I would cry – which I didn’t want to do in front of my classmates. Later that day, I was talking to one of my best friends who goes to Beloit in Wisconsin. She told me that in one of her classes that day, her professor walked into the room, saw that one of the students was wearing one of those terrible Trump hat things and then started crying. The professor than led a discussion asking ‘what do we do from here?’ even though she and some of the students in the class were crying. Over the next few days, I talked to friends in other schools and they either said similar things happened, or that at the very least, their professors allowed time and space for their students to discuss the outcome and their feelings. I experienced that myself in the classes I take in this school. I guess the reason I writing this is because this whole thing has been overwhelming and scary, but at the very least, I know that my professors and my friends professors are understanding and willing to show us how important it is that we talk about this and our feelings.