Plans for a Festschrift for a prominent medievalist have been in turmoil ever since a blog post he wrote about feminism was discovered earlier this year, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports. (The story by Gabriel Sandoval is behind a paywall.)
The collection of essays in honor of Allen J. Frantzen, retired professor of English at the University of Loyola Chicago, has been underway for several years. Now, however, three authors have withdrawn their essays and others are inserting footnotes averring that they don’t share his views. One professor resigned from a medieval center in protest against Frantzen’s blog, which “spews sexist nonsense,” she said.
One professor quoted in the Chronicle story compares Frantzen to Ezra Pound and O.J. Simpson (the idea being that he can like how they perform but not who they are).
The Festschrift will go ahead, but Frantzen’s name will be taken out of the title.
Now what did he do that was so terrible?
Frantzen’s post, “How to Fight Your Way Out of the Feminist Fog,“ has been taken down, but a Chronicle article described it this way last January:
[It] attacks feminism, alluding repeatedly to “anti-male” propaganda, paints men as victims, and offers advice on how they should “clear the fog.”
And:
The post borrows terminology often associated with men’s-rights activism, including encouragement for men to take the “red pill” of reality, not the “blue pill” of illusion, and to break away from the feminist fog. The fog, Mr. Frantzen explains, represents how feminism hangs over society — in a “sour mix of victimization and privilege” — and intimidates men into accepting its perspective.
So this should derail a professional reputation? Or, to use the Chronicle’s terminology, turn a “pioneer” into a “pariah”? That seems to be what’s happening. By the way, another aspect of this story is that Professor Frantzen is gay and the author of Before the Closet: Same-Sex Love from “Beowulf” to “Angels in America.”