Christopher Dummitt’s ’Mea Culpa’ Document and Andrei Șerban’s Resignation

Authors

  • Cristian Stamatoiu University of Arts Târgu Mureș

Keywords:

confession

Abstract

The founder and promoter of gender studies, Christopher Dummitt, ended up denying, in 2019, his theory launched with unexpected success over two decades ago. He confessed that he had trafficked insignificant data in order to use it to successfully support a doctoral thesis in the perspective of a university career. Later published under the title ”The Manly Modern: Masculinity in Postwar Canada” (2007), the work had become in the meantime the ”bible” of postmodern gender studies, claiming that the sex of the individual is not an anatomical reality but a psycho-social construct that can be modified at any time. By becoming a pillar of postmodern society and Sexist-Marxist egalitarianism, the ideology initiated by him made history. Still, it also made collateral victims, such as the director Andrei Șerban. Forced by a high professional conscience, he resigned from Columbia University in the same year (2019) due to the mentalities induced by the respective theory and dogmatized in the “politically correct” form. And suddenly, the great director discovered that the world of competition and the freedom of expression has reached the highest level of art, to the point where the ideological criteria would prevail in front of the aesthetic ones, leading to a degradation of the artistic expression. Namely, it is about the shocking reencounter for Andrei Șerban precisely with the censorship mechanism he had fled from in his youth from the communist East towards the then free world of the West.

References

ARON, Raymond (1997), Plaidoyer pour une Europe décadente [Advocacy for a decadent Europe fr.], Robert Lafont, Paris.

CRISTESCU, George-Andrei (2019), Director Andrei Șerban explains why he left Columbia University: “I cannot believe that he can play Juliet. This boy who became a girl three years ago”, in: https://adevarul.ro/cultura/arte/regizorul-andrei-Serban-emisiunea-eugeniei-voda-nu-cred-juca-julieta-baiat-devenit-fata-trei-ani-1_5dc2e8f65163ec4271 bfc085/index.html, 6.11. 2019.

DUMMITT, Cristopher (1998), Journal of the Canadian Historical Association, vol. 9, nr.1, pp. 3-310.

DUMMITT, Cristopher (2007), The Manly Modern: The Masculinity in Postwar Canada, University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver, Canada, 232 p. 5. Ibidem (2019), https://quillette.com/2019/09/17/i-basically-just-made-it-up-confessions-of-a-social-constructionist, „Le Point” online: https://www.le point.fr/debats/theorie-du-genre-confessions-d-un-homme-dangereux-03-11-2019-2344979_2.php ?M_BT=1141671561463#xtor=EPR-6-[Newsletter-Mi-journee]-20191104, la 3.11.2019.

ȘERBAN, Andrei (2019), interview conducted by Maria Vodă, moderator of the TV show “Professionals”, TVR1, 26.10. 2019.

VACANTE, Jeffery (2019), https://networks.h-net.org/node/34.

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Published

2021-07-16

How to Cite

Stamatoiu, C. (2021) “Christopher Dummitt’s ’Mea Culpa’ Document and Andrei Șerban’s Resignation”, Symbolon, 21(1(38), pp. 47–52. Available at: http://uartpress.ro/journals/index.php/symbolon/article/view/221 (Accessed: 7 October 2024).

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Section

Articles