fandomhigh | Philosophy classroom: Ethics class #2, Monday, 2-4pm

Tara looks more nervous than excited as students take their seats, but tries hard to school her face into a confident mask.

"Okay, first off - you've probably heard about the assignment. From the radio, if nothing else. I promise you, it's not anywhere near as bad as you're imagining. I won't keep people in suspense - we'll do the debate last, because I suspect no-one will be able to focus until this is out of the way.

Before I explain that, however, I need to make two announcements.

"First, Teacher's Assistants have been chosen. I have a carrot - Major K! - and a stick - Angelus. If you're having trouble grasping a concept, talk to Major K!. He'll guide you through the thinking. If you think you've got a hold on it, talk to Angelus. He'll challenge your thinking, give you the opportunity to clarify your position.

"Second, and related to the latter - this class is not an easy A. At some point in this course you will find yourself challenged and confronted. For many of you, that will be today. If you walk out of this classroom before class is over, and without checking it with me, I may be understandably upset. However, I recognise that if you get angry or upset, you may need some time alone, or away from the group. To that end, I present to you the ~~Emo Closet~~ Time Out Room." She walks to the back of the classroom and opens the door to what previously was a supply cabinet. Inside is what looks very much like a white padded room. "This room is soundproofed. You can cry, scream and punch things all you want, and I will not penalise you for leaving the class or the discussion. Major K! or I will come to check on anyone who goes to the Emo Closet Time Out Room, in case you need help or support. Feel free to tell us to leave you alone.

"Now on to the assignment. Yes, it's a Master/slave exercise. Please don't jump to conclusions about that. There is a difference between slavery and abuse, although the two do often go hand in hand. The rules for this assignment prevent any form of abuse - both Master and slave must have a safeword so that they can stop things at any time. What we're exploring here is slavery. That's all, and that's quite enough. Please, please try not to confuse it with other ethical issues, even the ones that often attend this one.

"The TAs will be handing out to you a copy of the rules, and the guidelines for your role, as well as a badge that will either declare 'I am an Ethics Class slave' or 'I am an Ethics Class Master'. These badges must be worn when you are in your role. If you're not in your role, life continues on as normal. As a further distinction, I urge all of you to adopt another name or title for the role you are playing. To that end, you may call me 'My Lady', Angelus 'Daddy' and Major K! 'Rabbit'."

Jonathan, Kitty, Chiana, Angela, Six, Allie, Lindsay, Shane and Veronica are given Master rules by 'Daddy'
Sydney, Stark, Rory, Archie, Hotaru, John Connor, Paige, Chloe and John Sheppard are given slave rules by 'Rabbit'.

"The pairings are as follows, Master listed first:
Jonathan/Sydney
Kitty/Stark
Chiana/Rory
Angela/Archie
Six/Hotaru
Allie/John
Lindsay/Joan
Shane/Chloe
Veronica/Lisa Cuddy (from Friday's class)
Piper (from Friday's class)/John Sheppard.
Quinn/Bridge (from Friday's class)

Please go with the relevant TA to discuss any concerns you have about this project, or clarify your instructions. In light of the furour from Friday's class, this will serve as today's discussion topic."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

OOC I think it's completely inappropriate to a high school setting, especially given the extended time frame. CJ's trust games were confined to a single class session with her constant oversight; Drusilla is canonically crazy. But if you got admin approval on it, my opinion is just peanut-gallery stuff. (Also, I agree that it could lead to some really interesting writing and situations, and I can almost justify it from that POV.)

That said? It's not Angela's favorite assignment ever, but she'll deal. it will probably be extremely half-hearted mastering, but she'll make the attempt.

Alternatively, she can choose not to do the assignment. Some have, and there's replacement work available.

Eh. I'm not sure I'm ready to do that. For one, I don't know Archie, IC or OOC, and I'd like to at least talk to him before making a decision.

K. Let me know.

Hey. No problem on the rambling.

My health class didn't do that assignment, though I know variations of it are common. Still, whatever you do with the egg in your example, it doesn't have any potential to hurt anyone else. This does, regardless of the ground rules -- in fact, I'm sure people *will* get hurt. Assignments where two students are paired as parents to care for the "baby" are a little closer, but that doesn't have the dynamic placing one student in control of the other. (Plus, does anybody do it that way outside sitcoms?)

I get what you're getting at with your second point, and I think it is what Tara's hoping students will learn. But I think there would be ways to illustrate that concept without bringing up the fetishy stuff.

But like I said -- my concern is entirely peanut gallery stuff, and therefore irelevasnt.

You know what, can we agree to disagree? I'm not saying that to blow you off -- it's just that I've read the arguments defending the assignment, and they don't alleviate my sense the whole thing is Wrong, and I don't think anything anyone could say would. But I also don't want to throw a huge fit about it.

I will say, though, that I'd be slightly more comfortable with master/slave as useful shorthand if people weren't using Fetish Caps and Fetish Names. The whole thing you see in BDSM journals where it's all "And then I drew His bath, and He told me that i was a good slave"? Squicks me more than freaking anything -- it's like you can't even get outside the bedroom roles enough to type properly.

...yeah, this is probably *my* issues coming through.

*hugs back anyhow*

The thing is, sex isn't just (or even mostly) penises and clitorises -- the whole "the most important sexual organ is the brain" thing. I think it's safe to say people don't get into d/s relationships if the idea doesn't get them off in *some way.* Whether they get orgasms out of it is secondary, and I was using "bedroom" as shorthand for that reason. Now, if there are people who are great platonic friends and just happen to enjoy the dynamic, with absolutely no sexual overtones whatsoever, I apologize to them for this mistaken impression.

And I'll shut up now too, but email me if you really want to talk about it more.

And, really... I think people are tending to kind of see the words 'Master' and 'slave' and tack the more fetish-y connotations to them

Agreed. The rules as written are actually very, very limiting to the Masters.

Angelus is waiting to tell Tara to give extra credit to anybody who can crack the rules as he wrote them and figure out what's really going on.

Angelus does not even want to *see* Tara's stack of notes for grading this assignment.

Heh. Angelus is very happy that he does not have to grade this assignment, he just has to write up the Cliff's Notes for later. He's still waiting on seeing how everyone reacts to it though. One or two students are giving him hope.

BTW, the Dru thing? I checked with all the players who would be hypnotized a day beforehand and made sure it was okay with everyone OOC. I didn't touch anyone that didn't okay it, and the admins knew about it beforehand.

That's a good point, and I remember that. I was just trying to think of vaguely similar assignments, and what I meant was that (beyond the OOC concerns) Dru gets a little bit of a pass because you expect her to screw with her students. Not so much Tara.

Oh, well, if you want to put it that way and make me realize I totally missed the point... :)

NAh, I was mixing OOC and IC stuff a bit to start with. No worries.

Philosophy classroom: Ethics class #2, Monday, 2-4pm

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