Unit Two Post - "A Perfect Courtship in My Alternate Life" and Forwarding: The Sexy Male Teacher Trope

In Mindy Kaling’s essay “A Perfect Courtship in My Alternate Life” and the included short romantic comedy, Kaling explores the stereotype of the serious, male teacher, and the woman who ends up falling for him. It is without a doubt that (at least for me!) this short was deliciously fun to read, but it is also made me think about Harris. Kaling did not create the serious, sexy teacher trope. So what pieces of pop culture is she borrowing from or, to use Harris' term, "forwarding"? Why is Sam attractive, despite his lack of ability to text? Why do we love male teachers? And in an age when authority has never been less "cool", why is the authority of the male teacher still sometimes sexy? 

Harris uses the metaphor of a long conversation to explain forwarding. In the conversation of pop culture, many sexy teachers came before Sam. I will explore the above questions through a study of sexy male teachers in pop culture, all of which Kaling may have been implicitly forwarding. 

First in our line-up is the original sexy teacher: Sydney Poitier as Mr. Thackeray in To Sir, With Love. 

Mr. Thackeray has high hopes when he begins teaching at a secondary school in the East End of London, but soon realizes that his students come from a rough neighborhood and his planned lessons are too ambitious. In the end, he does not teach them traditional subjects like geography, but instead practical skills, like how to make a salad. His students learn a few things about how to be adults, and more than one of his students falls in love with him (as did everyone watching!). He also has great dance moves. 

Mr. Thackeray is attractive, like many of our beloved male teachers, because he has a rough exterior but a soft and melty inside. Although he gets angry when his students misbehave, he loves them and he is a good man. He even chooses to stay on as a teacher when he is offered a better job in his original field. Additionally, he is a good, honorable teacher, meaning he would never sleep with any of his students. Therefore, the fact that he is unattainable makes him even sexier to them (and to us!). 

Another beloved sexy teacher (or rather, professor), is Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Although teaching is just one of Indy’s pastimes (he is as comfortable on a motorcycle as he is in the classroom) his students are big fans. He helps save priceless artifacts, and always kills the Nazis so he is basically an all around good guy. All the girls in his class are in love with him. 

Indy is attractive as a professor because when he isn't teaching he is out saving the world. Also there is just something about that bowtie and glasses. In Mindy's story we are not told what Sam looks like, but I bet he wears glasses. 

Although not necessarily fetishized by women within the film, any list of sexy male teachers would have to include Robin Williams as Mr. Keating in Dead Poets Society. 

As well as educating his students that poetry cannot be measured by a mathematical equation, Mr. Keating teaches his students to be individuals, and earns the right to be referred to as “Oh captain, my captain.” I mean, come on. Honestly I have always wanted to greet my significant other by referring to them as "My captain."

Lastly in this list (although many more could be included), is David Thewlis as Professor Lupin in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. 

   

Although he is a werewolf, Lupin teaches his students that Defense Against the Dark Arts,

and life, are not so scary when you are equipped with knowledge and good friends. Plus, the werewolf part makes him kind of a bad boy, which is way sexy. 

Mindy, and many of us pop culture consumers, love a good teacher (just never when coupled with underage characters - because that is unethical!). Like Sam, the knowledge and authority of such a figure make us feel safe. In addition, knowledge is sexy! And, without sexy teachers who represent authority, like Sam or Mr. Thackeray, protagonists like Mindy have nothing to rebel against, or be juxtaposed to. And since women in professional careers are fetishized all the time, Kaling's act of slightly fetishizing the older male teacher is in some ways a feminist action. Additionally, I argue that in popular culture, the sexy teacher usually learns something from his students / and or the figures who are not traditionally "wise"; Mindy is an example of this. She "teaches" Sam that he doesn't have to be so serious all the time. By implicitly forwarding the sexy teachers of pop culture, Mindy's story about Sam becomes richer, because the reader is drawing on their previous experiences of teachers in pop culture, and adding those connotations to their reading. How academic!