I cannot stand the Beatles. Not a single note.
Yes, I recognize the band’s cultural significance. But I always viewed them as a Baby Boomer notion forced on every generation afterward. To me, the Beatles are what happens when a boy band doesn’t break up soon enough, and then decides to do too many drugs.
Now, I am a music lover, with one admittedly glaring hole in his collection, according to many. That one little opinion of mine has drawn plenty of ire and ridicule from friends and strangers alike. It is beyond unpopular, and often has people calling into question my personal credibility and beyond.
But I stand by it.
So, perhaps that’s why the Beatles popped into my head last week as I read about University of Toronto professor and author David Gilmour.
As you know by now, Gilmour created quite the stir when he offered publicly that he teaches only “the best” authors in his classroom. That means no girls allowed. Or Chinese people. Or gay people.
“I’m not interested in teaching books by women. … When I was given this job I said I would only teach the people that I truly, truly love. Unfortunately, none of those happen to be Chinese, or women,” he said in an interview with the publisher Random House. “What I teach is guys. Serious, heterosexual guys.”
After his comments exploded across Canada, he started backing down. Rapidly. He offered up a hasty – yet still classic – ‘non-apology apology’ for his sad and desperate cry for attention. He was “sorry for those people’s bruised feelings” about what they read in the newspaper. His joking manner, he said, was lost in the article.
“The inflection of our voices, and consequently the intent of our sentences, gets entirely lost in the blankness of the print. And that’s what happened here. It looked as if I meant this stuff seriously,” Gilmour told the CBC.
Ah, yes, he was only being playful; perhaps members of the media hate women authors and twisted his words to fit their narrative. In fact, some of Gilmour’s best friends aren’t women.
Fortunately, as a society, we are beyond being overly shocked when an out-of-touch Baby Boomer white guy says something idiotic about sex or race. Most of us have seen it too many times to be surprised. Social media helped fuel this recent controversy somewhat, as a younger generation got their first crack at this kind of ignorance.
But they will tire of it soon as well.
I hate he is a professor, as postsecondary has taken beyond its share of beatings recently. But nevertheless, I am not here to beat up Gilmour’s opinions. Plenty of better writers have taken turns doing just that. (Also, smart money might move off Gilmour’s chances for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in November. Just saying.)
While his comments are obviously lunacy, it’s the manner he reeled them back in that irritates me. Here’s a guy in obvious need of attention, tossing chum overboard for the amateur and professional punditry class, who then gets cold feet. Instead of either apologizing and moving on or owning his unpopular opinion, defending it even, Gilmour ran and blamed others – the media, in this case.
Seriously, if the guy’s writing is as lazy as his excuse-making, then CanLit is suffering more than I imagined.
Come on, David, you’re better than a rhetorical sucker punch. Don’t pick a fight then run away and blame someone else for picking the fight. What would your “serious, heterosexual guy” heroes say about that? You threw the punch, now take your pounding like the “serious, heterosexual guy” we know you to be. It’s intellectual cowardice to blame others for reactions to your opinions.
Listen, I understand unpopular stances. I have taken a few in my day.
And if you don’t like female authors, fine. Say it, defend it and then stand there and take the slings and arrows. That’s the joy of an academic institution. It’s built for the fight. Even in a losing battle like this, one where you find yourself far from the shores of reality, there is at least honour in suffering the consequences of your beliefs.
But blaming others only degrades you, and the profession associated with you by the public. It doesn’t represent “the best” of any classroom I know.