The Tranimal

by John Stevenson

For my April 19 column, I thought I had uncovered the ultimate absurdity.  “You Won’t Believe This One,” described the removal of a scale from a college gym so that one student would not be caused anxiety over her weight.  Well of course I was wrong, as confessed in my May 31 offering “Trust Us, You Are Beautiful” concerning the covering of mirrors in order to shield some students from the presumably ugly truth.

Well, it turns out there’s always (and perhaps always will be) another winner of the sweepstakes of the absurd.  The current leader in that contest is a visiting PhD student at the University of Arizona.  Hang onto your hat.

This student is apparently a female who identifies as male.  Thus she is a “transgender man.”  Since biologically she is now and forever will be female, I would normally call her “her” or “she.”  However, I must quote below from sources all of which use the politically correct but biologically wrong “him” or “he.”  So I will do the same so as not to inject needless confusion into this story of an already confused person.  OK so far?

On the University of Arizona’s web site, the Gender and Womens Studies Department and the Institute for LGBT Studies jointly welcomed their visiting scholar “…a French student who just started his PhD this year at Universite Paris 8. He works at the intersection of Trans Studies and Animal Studies, focusing on tranimal body modifications, practices and subjectivities. He is beyond excited to be in Tucson for the Spring semester, benefit from all the department’s and the Institute’s activities, conduct fieldwork in the US, and meet everyone!”   

Apparently not satisfied with his gender transition, he has forged onward to now identify as a hippopotamus.  His paper on this was published in “The Journal of Theoretical Humanities.”  An abstract of this scholarly work says: “Confronting transgender with transpecies, the author claims that his hippopotamus identity allowed him to escape…several sets of categorization that govern human bodies.”  And “The article then investigates the politics of equating transgender and transpecies, critically examining the question of the inclusion of xenogenders in the trans political movement.”  That should be useful after graduation.

In his own words, “…being a hippo makes me feel cute, confident, sexy and safe. I discovered that another self was available for me; being a hippo means that I don’t have to be a boy or a girl, a child or an adult, normal or strange.”  As if it’s not strange for a woman to declare herself male and then transmogrify into a gender-free hippopotamus.

Writing further about his newfound freedom from classification, he says “Unlike the somewhat checkered, locked-down, and policed space of transgender, the space of transpecies remained open, as it is not scripted yet.”   And also, that self-identifying as a hippo is “a political form of resistance to the (trans)gender policing of my body.”

As of this writing the welcoming statement remains on the UA website.  However, thecollegefix.com reports that a UA spokesman has told them that “…despite some early contact with the department, he was not a researcher or an employee of any kind, and he had no student status with UA.” 

So perhaps the kumbaya moment so eagerly anticipated by the Gender and Womens Studies folks and their LGBT soulmates was never actually consummated.  We can’t be sure, because thecollegefix.com reports that the tranimal did not respond to their inquiries.

This is a great loss to the academic excellence of the University of Arizona, because their Gender and Womens Studies Department and their Institute for LGBT Studies might have benefited greatly from the wisdom and scholarly contributions of the visiting ungulate.

“Exactly What He Deserved”

by John Stevenson

I’m pretty cautious about travel.  I go to friendly spots like Canada and western Europe. 

If the State Department recommends against going someplace, it’s likely I had already crossed it off.  Places not to go include: Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Zimbabwe, and a whole passel of other enticing destinations---like the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. 

As you have surely heard, 22-year old University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier went on an organized tour to North Korea (DPRK).   If I’d been invited to tag along, chances are pretty good that I would have had other plans.  But he went.  A bad decision, as it turned out. 

Warmbier stole a poster off his hotel wall, likely as a souvenir, was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to15 years at hard labor.  All done probably as quickly as it took you to read that sentence.  People are unlikely to survive 15 years in a DPRK prison.  And he didn’t.  We can only imagine the beatings and other horrors he experienced, but after a year of it he was returned to his family with severe brain damage and died shortly after. 

Politicians, pundits, folks across the political spectrum cried out for some redress of this injustice.  It was a terrible decision to go tourista in the DPRK.  But his death at the hands of that barbaric regime surely deserves our sympathy for him and his family rather than our criticism.  

But along comes 62 year-old Katherine Dettwyler, adjunct professor of anthropology at the University of Delaware.   Washingtonpost.com reported that Dettwyler’s subsequently-deleted Facebook post said Warmbeir was “typical of a lot of the young, rich, clueless males who come into my classes.” 

She also wrote: “These are the same kids who cry about their grades because they didn’t think they’d really have to study the material to get a good grade.  His parents ultimately are to blame for his growing up thinking he could get away with whatever he wanted.  Maybe in the U.S., where young…rich, clueless white males routinely get away with raping women.  Not so much in North Korea.” 

Campus Reform reports that in another since-deleted comment she posted:  “If you knew these kids you’d be appalled.  They think nothing of raping drunk girls at frat parties and snorting cocaine, cheating on exams, and threatening professors with physical violence.” 

So Dettwyler, who likely never met Warmbier and likely knows nothing about him except what has been in the media, links him to raping, drug use, violence, and cheating on exams.  Her abusive rants smear young white males in general, and Warmbier in particular.   Her writings reek of racism, sexism, and a callous disdain for the tuition-paying parents of her rich white male frat boy students.   

But her most odious comment was this:  “Is it wrong of me to think that Otto Warmbeir got exactly what he deserved?”

Responding to the backlash that followed, the University rightfully disowned Dettwyler:  “We condemn any and all messages that endorse hatred and convey insensitivity toward a tragic event such as the one that Otto Warmbier and his family suffered.  We find these comments particularly distressing and inconsistent with our values.  Our sympathies are with the Warmbier family.”  

Adjunct professors work on contract and are not tenured.  At the time of Dettwyler’s comments she was between semesters.  The University’s statement said Dettwyler “will not be rehired to teach at the University in the future.” 

Apparently Dettwyler’s hateful comments were not an anomaly.  The Review, a student newspaper, said that she had a reputation for being politically outspoken.  One student who had taken two courses from her said Dettwyler’s Facebook post was typical of her: “the most Kathy thing I’ve ever seen.”  So apparently she was known for doling out her ugly opinions in the classroom.

If she had not posted her despicable message on social media, Dettwyler’s behavior would probably never have been exposed.  Donors, parents, and alumni would probably never have learned of her existence, let alone her hateful mindset and statements.   So there would have been no public outcry and the University would never have had to denounce and terminate her.

What’s worse, she would still be in the classroom projecting her hatefulness.  And the parents she so despises would still be paying her salary to preach her loathsome opinions to their children.