Porn director and producer Nica Noelle lectures at Yale and Columbia. Conservative media tries, fails to generate outrage
On November 15 and 16, Adult film producer Nica Noelle spoke at Yale and Columbia University. At Yale, the talk took place in a lecture hall, with approximately 90 students in attendance–more than twice the anticipated turnout. Organizer Dani Salka called it “an extremely successful event.” The Columbia event was more low-key, held in a student center with the all-female group sitting on sofas around the room.
In the days before the event, the Sexual Literacy Forum At Yale (SeLF) distributed impressionistic flyers emblazoned with a Rorschach-looking image and asking the question “Why Do We Watch Porn?” Early in the week, blogger Alec Torres of the National Review Online “broke” a story on the upcoming talk. Torres’s piece also ran in the conservative newspaper The Washington Times, with the sarcastic headline, “Higher Education.”
Nica Noelle
Judging by the comments on the National Review site, readers had trouble finding fault with the topic of the presentation. One commenter yawned, “Another exciting article seemingly aimed at curtailing the rights of free expression and association by consenting adults.” Another objected to the piece on conservative grounds: “So? Is Mr. Torres advertising for Yale? Or is he implying that it’s the business of persons who aren’t stakeholders in Yale what some private college in Connecticut does?”
Yale’s Dean of Public Affairs, Melanie Boyd, became concerned when it became clear that turnout would be much higher than anticipated and that there would be reporters from several campus newspapers present. After a last-minute meeting with students, Noelle changed the format of the talk, to the satisfaction of Yale’s administration.
Following the spirited back-and-forth with students. Noelle Tweeted, “Yale students deserve their reputation for being the best and brightest in our nation. The future is in good hands.”
