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Brainstorm: Lives of the Mind Mark Bauerlein

Teaching for Lust

crossposted from howtheuniversityworks.com

Youtube phenom “Hotforwords” raises the ante on the “teaching for love” canard. In the process, she schools us on how teaching really can realize the administration’s dream in the form of the ultimate “quality” process.

The 27-year-old Russian philologist is a former Ph.D. aspirant and high-school literature teacher with nearly 30 million views of her videos explaining various linguistic puzzles, such as — in the featured clip — how “dope” can mean both stupid and excellent.

One might ask the same about the term “quality,” which for administrators means, well, this.

Seriously, there’s no disputing her metrics. It’s teaching as “vaudeville,” as The New York Times’s Virginia Heffernan points out, but her curriculum is customer-defined and market-oriented. She is a self-funding responsibility center. She gets great student evaluations. Her teaching methods are susceptible to straightforward assessment instruments. There isn’t a “quality” complaint to make about her.

Oh yeah, and it’s totally exploitative, which makes a nice fit with all the outsourcing and permatemping.

Marina’s teaching for love (of fame) is not entirely divorced from the phenomenon that Michelle Masse analyzes as the feminization of the humanities — the reduction of whole fields of faculty work to second-class status by way of the gender economy: part of the cheapening and degradation of the work is the tacit recognition of it as women’s work, as a service, compensated by something other than wages. In connection with her forthcoming SUNY collection Ten Million Served with Katie Hogan, she observes how the call to “service” is one of the most compelling vectors of exploitation in academic life.

Masse points out that “secretary” and “nurse” used to name well-remunerated, well-respected positions for men. Kinda like “professor of language.” Now that it’s women’s work, it’s best done as a kind of lightly-paid volunteerism — for love, or, as in Marina’s, case, something closely allied to it.

Posted at 03:32:47 PM on March 18, 2008 | All postings by Marc Bousquet

Comments

  1. Great post Marc! What Michelle says makes sense.. that if one does their work for the love of it.. they are easily exploited with low wages and extreme hours! So true!

    I also know that it’s the love of doing something that allows one to persist for hours.. months… and years before seeing any financial results (as is the case in what I am doing). Plus it’s the other things, such as the responses from people thanking me for introducing them to etymology, women saying “thanks for breaking down the stereotype that you can’t be sexy and smart at the same time”.. and reading articles such as this seem to understand what it is that I am doing. Whether that is the love of what I am doing.. or if it’s the love of fame… I don’t know.. but I’d like to think that I am doing what I do for the mere fact that I love what I am doing :-)

    Will I be exploited? Hell no! I’m too busy “exploiting” the YouTube crowd by enticing them into clicking on a cute picture of a girl only to be (pleasantly) surprised by finding themselves unexpectedly learning a little etymology for the day!

    Marina (HotForWords)

    — Marina · Mar 18, 07:58 PM · #

  2. Hey, Marina. Thanks for writing. You certainly grasp the central importance to the economics of U.S. higher ed of getting others to work for non-monetary compensation!

    I’m sure you’ll have plenty of applicants for the TA positions you offer here: http://www.hotforwords.com/ta-app/

    The principle of encouraging others to work for the pleasure of hanging out with you and/or the love of linguistics is essentially identical to the principle employed by universities in getting teaching assistants and contingent faculty to work for wages and benefits worse than those offered by Wal-mart.

    I don’t know how far you got in your PhD program, but you seem to have learned the real lesson that most American universities exist to teach! Good luck to you.

    — Marc Bousquet · Mar 18, 09:29 PM · #

  3. The video is quite typical of all videos today—if you close your eyes you get 99% of the meaning. In other words, the video parts of the video are not essential and merely decorative. A lot of viewers are irritated by the video for this reason, but they should also be irritated by absolutely every other commercial video in existence, for in 20 years I have been unable to find any video where more than 2% of its meaning is conveyed by its visual contents. In sum, we have no real videos today, we have decorated audio tracks.

    Now, evaluating this audio track—she chose to explicate word histories and does a simple competent jobs, if not an extraordinary job. Indeed, if you close your eyes and ignore her bulging breasts, the impression of stupidity from her goes completely away. I tested this on students the other day, giving them the audio and giving a control group the video versions, and asking ratings of 50 randomly combined dimensions. A cropped video version without her breasts upped her non-stupidity score, nearly doubling it.

    — Richard Tabor Greene · Mar 20, 05:41 AM · #

  4. The above comments make so much sense that it would be vulgar, common, and just plain beneath one to point out that this gives extended meaning to the term TA. I think Marina is to be congratulated for this project. After all, would we criticize another instructor for using whatever talents she or he had to get the subject matter across? The academic cap and gown are long gone, and good riddance.

    — Dan Kirklin · Mar 20, 11:19 AM · #

  5. Highest aim of man`s life is decide to do some difficult thing. When I start to climb mountain or write an essay on some difficult subject,Iam getting pure joy, though cliambing on mountain is tried some but I enjoy it When I acieved my aim I get self satisfaction that moment is highest joy of my lifel. My 73 years experience tell me when I get pure joy and self satisfaction I feel that I lived true life

    — Ramesh Raghuvanshi · Mar 21, 12:48 AM · #

  6. To describe Marina’s passion for her work as “…not entirely divorced from…the reduction of whole fields of faculty work to second-class status…” is a cheap attempt to diminish the importance of the venue as a new paradigm that successfully mixes entertainment, education, community engagement and yes, sex – something everyone wants, but so many in academia are unwilling to admit.

    Her passion is brilliant and inspiring and I think those in academia who would criticize it as anything less should cut her some slack, pay closer attention and see what develops. She just might be on to something!

    P.S. Are you watching Arnold?

    — Edward Conway · Mar 22, 11:45 AM · #

  7. I’m not going to sound as eloquent as most of the people making comments on this article, but I have to say something. I’m a subscriber to Marina’s website and can say that I’ve enjoyed every video I’ve seen her do. Ok, I’m the first to admit that her appearance was the bait that drew me to the site, but an intense curiosity and a desire to know, basically, everything is what keeps me coming back, everyday, to see whats new. Who cares what small edge she uses to teach, the fact of the matter is that she’s teaching, an act that she deserves some praise for. That’s just my two cents.

    — Scott · Mar 26, 11:46 PM · #

  8. I’m another subscriber to Marina’s website, seen all the vid’s, entertained sure, educated yes, when the word “egregious” was used in a televised political debate I knew what it meant, but not all the candidates did. thanks Marina!
    On her website her students are free to request words and quite a bit of interaction does take place. Some seem to be very well educated and others are just tying to master english and feel free to comment and ask questions. This is the first time I’ve ever subscribed to any website, and i’ve noticed lately that traffic in the comments sections has grown exponentially.
    I’ve also seen and heard her interviews, which she posts at the website, and in my opinion” Marina” whether trained or not, is a teacher. She lights up like a beacon when she finds the interviewer has learned something she taught. A teacher can’t help but teach as Mozart couldn’t help but be a musician.
    Sounds now like a book is in the works, go girl.
    Political correctness is not on her radar and thanks to a cultural difference she is refreshing and respectfull. In a very short time the quality of the videos she has produces has improved, but her personality is what “hooked me in” earlier. Ah the “womens dictionary”, flagged by the youtube community since, curiously enough, was featured and I clicked, as I’m sure many did, and now I look forward to “another lesson”.
    Call me gullible if you want, I’m married and hard working. I wish all the financial succes that is due her. Having my own business for close to 25 years has made me appreciate doing things for the love of it, because with market fluctuations financial compensation is not always an option. So “pay attention and quiet in the back”.

    — BillyB · Mar 27, 01:33 AM · #

  9. Is the best,she is really clever,intelligent etc.
    I live in London and i like only British podcast ….

    — Rolando Garcia · Mar 27, 11:22 AM · #

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