A Utah College is Using Porn to Cultivate Critical Thinking Skills

Porn and college — sounds like something one would find in a PornHub tag, right? 

But for Westminster College, watching adult films goes beyond just being a private pastime. In fact, watching pornography is being offered as an elective that intends to cultivate critical thinking skills in any student who signs up for the course.

The course, FILM*300O Porn is described in Westminster College’s course catalog as such: 

“Hard core pornography is as American as apple pie and more popular than Sunday night football. Our approach to this billion-dollar industry is as both a cultural phenomenon that reflects and reinforces sexual inequalities (but holds the potential to challenge sexual and gender norms) and as an art form that requires serious contemplation. We will watch pornographic films together and discuss the sexualization of race, class, and gender and as an experimental, radical art form.”

Of course, one can only imagine the kind of reception such a controversial course received, especially online. 

Support and Backlash

Students from Westminster College itself didn’t seem to find the course a big deal at all. According to interviews from KSL News, students were supportive and fairly open-minded. They support the course for approaching the topic in a way that creates a learning environment. 

Similarly, students interviewed by KATV said that while the course description was attention-grabbing, they thought that it was a conversation that needed to take place. 

They believed that it would help them have a deeper understanding of sexism, racism, inequalities, and other topics that are otherwise considered taboo, or aren’t typically discussed in a classroom setting. 

In the online space, however, people took to Twitter to air their opinions on the matter. Conservative commentator Candace Owens was one of those who tweeted against the course, saying, “I thought this was a joke—it isn’t.”

Naturally, her tweet sparked a whirlwind of debates about whether or not viewing pornography as a college elective was appropriate for higher education. 

Many netizens expressed their outrage, which ranged from quoting the usual bible verses to outright accusing the college of simply doing this as a money-making scheme. Others made fun of the course, saying that porn is free online, so there’s no point in paying to watch it in the classroom.

On the other hand, many have also defended the course, saying that college students are adults who can very well choose whether they would like to sign up or not. 

Changing Landscape of Education

Westminster College has since responded to the criticism by reiterating that they’re a private liberal arts school that doesn’t shy away from examining offensive topics and their impact on culture and society. The course is still up, and whatever people’s opinions about it are, one thing’s for sure: college is definitely not what it used to be.