Fresno State Professor Peggy Gish Accused Of Showing 'Porn' To Class

Fresno State University public health professor Peggy Gish had to defend her curriculum when one of her students complained earlier this week that she showed a 20-minute pornographic film in class, website Campusreform.org first reported.

Called "Advanced Sexual Techniques, Volume One" the video contained both sexually explicit audio and graphic video. The complaint came as a surprise to administrators considering Giff’s course was about human sexuality.

A statement sent to The Huffington Post from Andrew Hoff, dean of Fresno State’s College of Health and Human Services, defends Gish and explained the 20-minute video segment was an element of a three-unit, semester-long Introduction to Human Sexuality general education course. The class explores "physiological, psychological, social, cultural and developmental considerations for life-long understanding related to sexuality," he said.

“It is not a required course. Students who take the course are advised, in advance, that they may find some content objectionable and that they may opt out at their discretion," said Hoff in the statement. "Since material is provided in a variety of formats, students have the opportunity to gain course content for assignments and exams without being required to view material they may find objectionable."

Gish’s Ratemyprofessor.com profile includes about 20 reviews with high ratings in each category.

An online synopsis of the video advertises, “Attractive real life couples explicitly demonstrate adventurous new techniques. Discover uninhibited positions that lead to pleasure, satisfaction, and closeness for a lifetime.”

However, Hoff writes the video wasn’t pornography.

It’s produced by the Sinclair Institute, a company that provides “sexual health products” to adults who want to improve their sex lives. The institute’s LinkedIn profile says, “Sinclair videos aid in adult sex education and help individuals learn about sexuality in the privacy of their home. Working with a diverse team of professional sex educators and therapists, we create products that work by fostering communication and creativity between partners.”

Hoff said, “The goal is providing relevant information so all students, no matter their learning style, are prepared to offer informed opinion and make critical determinations regarding issues raised in class.”

University-level courses typically utilize a range of materials to deliver course content, he adds.

The school isn't planning disciplinary action and considers the matter closed.

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Comments

[MissIndependentLady]

10:19 AM on 04/27/2012

This wouldn't be an issue in Europe. A lot of Europeans are more sexually mature than Americans.

[katnip everdeen]

04:08 AM on 04/20/2012

this is what porno all about! it's a craft and an Art. if you would like to see some of these you could check bangyoulater.com

[David Flint]

04:03 AM on 04/19/2012

This campusreform.org group is the real story. Sketchy religious group looking to inhibit academic freedom by working to attempt to censor those with differing beliefs than them. That is the true threat, not a woman showing movies about sexuality in a course about sexuality.

[BcemXAHA]

07:09 PM on 04/18/2012

Oh my goodness, a college student was upset by seeing "porn"....

Effed up society we live in!

[Esteban Cortez]

03:53 PM on 04/18/2012

I interviewed Peggy Gish yesterday and published her take on the incident in The Collegian, the Fresno State newspaper: http://collegian.csufresno.edu/2012/04/17/setting-it-straight-lecturer-accused-of-showing-pornographic-film-opens-up/

[squirrely girl]

04:27 PM on 04/19/2012

Thanks for the share :)

[Josef Aguilar]

01:52 AM on 04/18/2012

I loved that course, but I'm not sexually repressed or inhibited. But I didn't feel that the video was explicit in the least. In fact, I learned a lot about better positions for different ailments, bad backs, pregnant women, etc, and which position is more comfortable for different kinds of people. The class itself had a few nervous giggles, and the heat was turned up inside the class just slightly, but most people viewed the video very politely.

The student who objected should have done what another student did when we watched a video of a sex reassignment surgery, walk out of the classroom (and pass out, but thats a different story).

I wish a lot of people took this course and watched this video. Most people learn all their sex moves from porn or for trial and error. If we were more responsible adults, we could learn how to properly have safe sex without the awkward learning curve. We all have penises and vaginas, let's stop being ashamed about it and start acting like adults people.

[dtgringo]

08:55 PM on 04/17/2012

It's college. Even if it was porn, they are all big boys and girls now. They can handle it. Should they never show movies with dirty words either? Non issue. Let's all move on.

[dumocraps]

05:24 PM on 04/17/2012

Now that's an education they will not forget.

[supportinggish]

03:09 PM on 04/17/2012

As a student in this class, who watched this film, I can tell you that US tax dollars are not going towards showing college students porn. This class is highly education and discusses highly important topics that society loves to suppress. Sex is an important part of life, and something everyone needs to be properly informed on. Everyone in that class is an adult and had the option to stand up and walk out. Its a sexuality course, when I signed up for it I acknowledge that sex has a tendency to be explicit, and make people uncomfortable but I felt it was important to take this class. There is a difference between "sexually explicit" and pornographic.

[EdwardJames]

03:58 PM on 04/17/2012

"There is a difference between "sexually explicit" and pornographic" - really, please define it. You may have a hard time, as the courts have, as anyone has. The fact that people voluntarily joined the course says nothing - no one thought they were chained to their seats. The issue is the lack of responsibility on the part of the prof, who is supposed to know better.

[David Flint]

04:01 AM on 04/19/2012

Supposed to know better than what? She's a human sexuality college professor. What is irresponsible about showing sexual material in a sexuality course?

[Denise Hinshaw]

01:02 PM on 04/19/2012

She does KNOW better, that is why she showed it! The purpose of the class is to become more comfortable with one's natural sexuality through accurate education. And yes, I think there is a difference between explicit and porn. Porn, more often than not, is degrading towards women. Its purpose is to exploit sex not educate. The content itself is very different. This video wasn't about moaning and groaning and screwing. It was about educating oneself regarding different positions and techniques and even explains how and why those positions might be chosen or helpful. The participants of the video spoke, fully dressed, about positions they use and why. Sex is a biological function and it is OK to experience pleasure from it. Anyone who thinks different is a neanderthal... oh wait... even neanderthals weren't this inhibited! They KNEW sex wasn't anything to be ashamed of.

[NEConman]

04:03 PM on 04/17/2012

Dude, it's dressed up PORN. It still degrades women AND men and sexuality in general. Research the porn industry. See how it objectifies people. People are not objects to be used. Sexuality in not just a recreational pastime that some make it out to be. It has very real significance and repercussions for those that misuse it.

[supportinggish]

06:26 PM on 04/17/2012

We're either of you in the class with me? If not, than you must really not understand how valuable this course is.

[dtgringo]

08:59 PM on 04/17/2012

What industry doesn't objectify people? Anybody that works for any organization is just an object being used by that company. Do we not willingly agree to be used by that company in an agreed upon fashion in exchange for a paycheck? Does a person acting in porn not willingly agree to be used by the porn company in an agreed upon fashion in exchange for a paycheck?

[Natalie Longurl]

02:38 PM on 04/17/2012

Sounds like many Americans are sexually repressed hypocrites, voicing objections as they make online porn the number one business in the US. Prosepo has it right GROW UP!

[prosepo]

02:27 PM on 04/17/2012

I laugh at those who protest really loud. To be even offended or appalled by this I say grow up. Please. Most things in life are not worth being offended by it. Don't like it move on. But to be appalled or offended, Really? come on get a life.

[EdwardJames]

02:41 PM on 04/17/2012

What is appalling is so-called adults who think promiscuous sex is just fine. Basically, such folks have no moral code - or barely one. That of course measn they are not ethical - a part of philosophy. It is they who need to grow up, and not corrupt young students in the process.

[Phaze228]

12:53 AM on 04/18/2012

Consensual sex is immoral, or just lots of consensual sex? Is giving lots of people handshakes unethical too? What a vapid arbitrary line you draw for morality that a consensual (usually harmless) pleasurable act of genitalia stimulation is considered base. You're just self-righteous really.

[David Flint]

03:59 AM on 04/19/2012

Somebody needs to get laid....

[RLaitres]

08:45 PM on 04/17/2012

This is always the case, then parents wonder why, when little "John" or "Jane" hits the real world, they can't handle it. In conversation (a long time ago), and after hearing "mommy and daddy" bemoaning how hard it was for their little darling (21 at the time), and that everyone was so "unfair to her", after hearing that for almost an hour, one in the group turned to "mommy and daddy" as said the following (in French): When are you going to get your teats out of her mouth and let her grow up?" To me that question is a very good one. And many so-called "loving" parents should ask themselves the same question: At what point are you going to let your kids grow up?

[madcityy]

11:52 AM on 04/17/2012

fire this proffff for being lazyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

[David Flint]

03:54 AM on 04/19/2012

You don't quite understand how a professor's job works, eh?

[Matt Blanc]

11:24 AM on 04/17/2012

I agree with some postings that the kind of courses offered at many institutions certainly seem to be less than significant and sometimes appalling. I'm probably more concerned that literature professors are offering classes that analyze television shows and comic books than I am on a public health lecturer dealing with sexuality.

[Samuel Sinclair]

09:40 AM on 04/17/2012

Long term relationships don't mean boring sex. 5 tips to better sex http://www.sinclairinstitute.com/index.php/sex-info/love-relationships/relationships-and-boring-sex.html

[EdwardJames]

09:38 AM on 04/17/2012

Is any example of the thorough corruption of of our colleges possible? Taxpayer subsidized pornography. Obviously the teacher should be fired and charged with contributing to the delinquency of minors, and since she was not, the entire administration of this joke of a college should be fired and its accreditation revoked. Nothing but pandering to the hormones of college kids too dumb not to waste their student loan money on such trash. This is the opposite of education of the mind. It is encouraging slavery to the passions.

[Denverpro1]

10:04 AM on 04/17/2012

...except for the fact that most college students are NOT minors. They are adults.

[EdwardJames]

02:23 PM on 04/17/2012

Generally 21 is not longer a minor, sometimes 18. The point isn't their legal standing, but that they are very young and don't need idiotic college profs corrupting them.

[RLaitres]

10:36 AM on 04/17/2012

Quite obviously, the poster is the one obsessed with sex and thereby cannot look at things objectively without emotion. Many suffer from that malady. Some of us have seen pornography (real pornography) and have one word for it "boring". Now if the poster beilieves it to be otherwise, perhaps he is the one with the problem and the one obsessed with it. Such people will quite frequently "cruise" porn sites and "tish tish" about "how awful" it is. And, when one is attending a college or university, one should have learned to divorce ones emotions from subject matter, or they don't belong there in the first place.

[EdwardJames]

02:26 PM on 04/17/2012

Well, interesting pop psychology, and dead wrong. If you expect teens to have their passions (not emotions - different) under control in the face of hard core pornography being pimped by a college you are quite naive indeed - it is utterly irrespponsible, morally reprehensible and plain foolish.

[David Flint]

04:07 AM on 04/19/2012

Why should somebody divorce emotions from subject matter? That sounds like the opposite of what they should do. Ideally you should be very passionate about your studies