On Twitter, a student explains that she made remarks “inappropriate throughout the course”, calling her “sexist” and “homophobic”. According to other students, she refused to have men dance together, and women together. “She put forward the notion of seduction between a man and a woman and said that she found it ugly for two women to dance together”, explain young people interviewed by the Parisian.
I am one of the students. who complained. A sexist and homophobic teacher, who made inappropriate remarks throughout the course. A glaring lack of professionalism, which made many of us uncomfortable. Thanks @sciencespo ❤️https://t.co/1MUAnkefQz
— romeowiththeaccent (@avecromeo) December 8, 2022
“Several students enrolled in a dance class, made up of 20 students, complained to the administration of Sciences Po regarding sexist, discriminatory, degrading remarks and minimizing sexist and sexual violence, repeatedly made by the teacher”confirmed the institution in A press release.
“The administration contacted the professor asking her not to repeat this kind of remark”explains the establishment to AFP. “We asked her to come back to it, she did not want to do so and decided not to renew her course.” Contrary to what some media claim, the professor was therefore not fired, she decided to leave on her own.
The professor denies the accusations
The teacher, she denounces the “political correctness”, and claims to have never made the slightest homophobic remark or minimizing the sexual violence suffered by women.
Asked by Le Figaroshe explains that Sciences Po asked her, among other things, to change the title of her course and to replace the terms “man” and “woman” with “leader” and “follower”, which she refused to do. “In all the manuals, the terms man and woman are used. It is a framed discipline”, she explained. “I was warned regarding the change in terms in September, without asking my opinion. But I don’t want to use ‘leader’ and ‘follower’, because that implies that there is a notion of submission between the two roles, which is not at all the case (…) Sciences Po told me ‘either you accept and we continue, or you refuse and we stop’. So I made the decision to stop” , she explains.
Note that the school did not provide additional details or its version of the facts. The students were warned a few days ago that she would no longer be teaching them.
“Discrimination will never have a place at Sciences Po”concluded the establishment.
A controversy that seizes the personalities
Some journalists and politicians were quick to react, denouncing Sciences Po’s “wokism”. “This drift of Sciences Po is an aberration to which we must not give in”reacted among others Laurent Wauquiez (LR).
This drift of Sciences Po is an aberration to which we must not give in. In Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, faced with the wokist madness of Sciences Po Grenoble, I stopped all funding from the Region.https://t.co/6PtprE9xKW
— Laurent Wauquiez (@laurentwauquiez) December 9, 2022
It is this woman who must file a complaint once morest Sciences Po. Freedom once morest infamous stupidity is a fight. https://t.co/sXSvUJwSFe
— G-William Goldnadel (@GWGoldnadel) December 8, 2022
We dream.
She refuses to change the terms “man-woman” for “leader-follower”. After complaints from students, Sciences Po Paris dismisses its “sexist” dance teacher https://t.co/5tXp1P4ZVC— Eugenie Bastie (@EugenieBastie) December 8, 2022