September 22, 2004

Mediocrity in education, part II

While we're on the subject, Conservative English Major relates a hilarious anecdote about a fellow grad student's intended baseball-related "thesis". I'll bet the first name that popped into your mind was either W. P. Kinsella, or maybe Kevin Costner, right? Wrong:

She interrupted: "I'm not doing that. I'm doing Baseball. Bats are obvious phallic symbols. The balls clearly represent sperm, which comes from the 'balls' of men. The gloves are symbolic vaginas, which accept and then reject the sperm. The gloves are worn on the hands, indicating masturbation fantasies. It's all very male, and has to do with discourses initiated in an attempt to exclude the feminine other by appropriating the methods and means of reproductive symbolism."

Clearly, not only does she see nothing odd about this, neither does her dissertation committee.

[Full Text; see also Joanne Jacobs]

See, this is why I will never have a graduate degree in English. I'm just not thinking loftily enough, or even stupid enough.

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