Attacking Moral Beliefs in Creative Writing Class · 06 September 2005
Attacking Moral Beliefs in Creative Writing Class
By Amanda Hamlin--09/06/05
I am a recent graduate of Carnegie Mellon. In my last semester I took a creative writing class with Prof. Hilary Masters, who regularly criticized the moral principles inherent in my writing and gave me a grade of B despite giving higher grades to students who had fullfilled the course requirments less well. I lodged a complaint with the English department but was told that they would take no action, despite the fact that they were aware of this professor discriminating against students for their moral and political views in the past. Here is an excerpt from my letter to the university administration.
Excerpt from Letter:
I made a request to you that a grade of mine be altered because I felt Professor Masters had unfairly decided on my grade under the influence of his personal feelings towards me. Now I learn that you classify him as a "repeat offender" in this kind of activity. In light of this revelation I am appalled that you did not honor my request. Even, if I alone, did not provide enough evidence to prove his actions in my individual case, as you seem to be implying, my story should have been given credence because of how closely it corresponds with his past record, of which, by the way, I was completely unaware, until after I sent you my appeal.
Now, I will explain why receiving some form of concrete, permanent reparation is so important to me. What we are dealing with here is not simply an unpleasant or hostile classroom experience, or an unjust bad grade (though I will explain why the grade is important later) but a situation of discrimination and harassment. The purpose behind my writing is to portray and express my philosophy on life and the circumstances and ramifications of my personal moral code, nor do I see why this is a bad thing to do. My personal moral view in question is how I regard romantic/sexual relationships. To me true love is the highest ideal there is and this ideal means life-long monogamy. I feel that one's first relationship should be one's last, and therefore casual dating and sex "for fun" are great evils which should not be, or, at least, which should not be held up as ideals as they are in our society now. These principles have been central to my life and identity for many years. I believe in them with the same devotion and conviction people feel towards their religious faith. This is a lifestyle choice I feel irresistibly compelled to make in the same way a homosexual person feels helpless to determine their sexual orientation.
These views are not accepted by the general population and from a young age I have been subjected to the hostility of my peers because of my moral beliefs. Partly for that reason, I attempt to express my view of the world through writing, by creating main characters who are confused with, hurt by, hostile to, etc. the current romantic and sexual mores of our society. This aspect of my stories was subject to scathing criticism both from the Professor and more so from other members of the class which I view as being with the Professor's permission since he never gave an indication that he found their comments inappropriate.
One of my stories focused on a shy, chaste young woman who had never really had a relationship because she was uncomfortable with our society's sexual conventions. During the course of the story, she finally meets a man she can relate to and wants a relationship with him. But they are uncertain of the fact that they are right for each other so they separate for a time, which makes her very sad. In the end, however, they decide they truly want to be together and experience a joyful reunion. The class as a whole liked the story all right, although one student, the professor's favorite, said that the man's old fashioned values made him "creepy." However, many people strongly recommended, and the professor demanded, that I end the story while they were separated, since the joyful reunion was "sentimental and unrealistic." This, of course, would have totally destroyed the entire purpose of the story, which was to portray a sweet and old-fashioned love as both achievable and a worthy goal. Changing the ending in this way would have resulted, instead, in a message that this kind of love was not possible and foolish, exactly the opposite of the message I wanted to convey. I submitted the changed story, which caused me a great deal of agony, but I did it because I was under the impression my grade depended on it (needlessly as it turns out, since I got a bad grade anyway). In response to this "revision" the favorite student complained that it contained no evidence that the main character became "more sexual as a person," once again showing a complete refusal to acknowledge or respect my intent in writing the piece.
An even more blatant and horrible example of this kind of behavior was exhibited in response to another one of my stories. The aim of this story was to portray and defend my beliefs regarding the value of faithfulness.
In it the main character's best friend breaks up with her boyfriend because he refuses to stop checking out and flirting with other girls, then eventually kills herself because no one will understand why she broke up with him. One of the favored students in the class said of this character, who was supposed to represent me, "You act like this is the boyfriend's fault. It's not his fault, it's hers. She's just nuts." I ended the story, in an attempt to show proper character agency, by having the main character come to understand her best friend's agony and, therefore, decide to change her behavior by refusing to flirt with a guy whom she knew had a girlfriend. Another favored student said of the ending, "You solved the story by making her into a saint and that just doesn't happen." In his comments on my story, Professor Masters wrote that "the reasons for her death are trivial." He also said, both in his comments and in class, that I should find something to write about besides "policing men's sexual desires." I fail to see why that is his call to make. What if I believe (and I do) that men's (and women's) sexual desires need to be policed? Why should I be forbidden from and mocked for expressing my personal moral beliefs in my writing?
For these reasons I feel that the treatment I received in class is tantamount to a homosexual student writing a pro-gay story to which the class and instructor responded by saying, "You shouldn't write that because normal people aren't gay," or a Muslim student writing a positive portrayal of Islam and being told that it was unrealistic because Muslims are evil and crazy. I expect the department and the university to treat my concerns with the same gravity and pursue the same course of action as they would in the above situation. My beliefs and lifestyle are just as valid as anyone else's. Nor are they unrealistic, as they class claims, since I have managed to live them successfully for the past three and a half years.
Anyway, the point here is that comments made were more that just harsh criticisms of my writing style, they were attacks on the very core of my being from people who do not agree with the principles under which I live.
In conclusion, the reason my grade matters to me so much is this.
As the main body of this letter says, the majority of the criticism I received in his class pertained to the "inappropriate" moral content of my stories. Therefore, I view my grade as a grade on my moral views as much as on my writing. I feel that my bad grade justifies Professor Masters's moral view and nullifies mine, because he was successfully able to penalize me for my values. I do not demand that the department change my grade; however I do insist that some form of concrete action be taken to make it clear both to the professor and to the university community as a whole that my beliefs and lifestyle are as real, valid, and deserving of respect as any religion, sexual orientation, or other social division.
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