Psych 250: Sexology: Sexual Deviance or Sexual Culture
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| Psych 250: Sexology: Sexual Deviance or Sexual Culture | |
|---|---|
| Author | Professor William Taylor |
| Format | University course |
| Universe | Subconium Shared Universe |
| Genre | Psychology; Human sexuality |
| Published | Ongoing (second year as of Fall 2022) |
| Status | Active |
About
PSYCH 250: Sexology: Sexual Deviance or Sexual Culture is a psychology course at Eastern Tsuga College taught by Professor William Taylor. It is one of ETC's most provocative course offerings, exploring societal responses to sexuality and how those responses shape individual identity. The course fits squarely within ETC's ethos of challenging societal norms — and provides Taylor with a steady enrollment of students who arrive already predisposed to openness and self-examination. It is the entry point for every student Taylor has drawn into his independent study arrangements.
Course description
The course examines the line between sexual deviance and sexual culture, asking whether behaviors labeled deviant by one society or era are simply cultural expressions that exist outside the mainstream. It encourages students to interrogate their own assumptions about sexuality, normality, and social construction. The course title itself poses the central question: is deviance a meaningful category, or is it just culture by another name?
It typically has 28 enrolled students. Taylor makes heavy use of pop quizzes.
Taylor's use of the course
The course functions as a legitimate academic offering and as a cover for Taylor's private research into the psychology of sexual blackmail. Pop quizzes serve a dual purpose: they assess student comprehension, and they create the conditions Taylor needs. A missed quiz becomes a point of leverage. A failed retake becomes an escalation. The course's subject matter, which includes open discussion of sexuality, deviance, submission, and power dynamics, normalizes the conversational territory Taylor needs to operate in.
Bridgette Hutchinson is identified as Taylor's best student in the course. Kelly Spaihts misses a quiz in the course, setting the events of Making the Grades: Kelly's Unveiling in motion. In Making the Grades: Allie's Descent, Allie misses the third session of the semester and enters Taylor's orbit through a similar mechanism.
The sexuality assessment
A key tool in Taylor's independent study arrangements is a sexuality assessment he administers to students who enter remediation. The assessment runs to approximately 500 questions across two sections: an early factual section covering history, frequency, and yes/no responses, and a longer Likert-scale section covering preferences, desires, and reactions. Taylor uses the results to identify a student's genuine interests and the gaps between what they admit and what they feel. He identifies peaks the student has suppressed and uses them as the framework for the independent study that follows.
Known students
- Kelly Spaihts — missed a pop quiz; entered remediation; protagonist of Making the Grades: Kelly's Unveiling
- Bridgette Hutchinson — Taylor's best student; negotiated her own terms with Taylor in Book Three
- Allie Branigan — missed the third session; entered remediation; protagonist of Making the Grades: Allie's Descent
- Cassandra Blake — prior student; details of her arrangement partially established in canon
Connection to the SSU
PSYCH 250 is the structural hinge of the Making the Grades series. Every book begins with a missed quiz or missed class in this course. The course's subject matter provides the intellectual scaffolding Taylor uses to justify his arrangements to himself and, to some extent, to his students. It also attracts the kind of student — curious, open-minded, slightly outside the mainstream — who is most susceptible to Taylor's offerings.
The Hemlock Veil almost certainly amplifies the course's effects. Students arrive at ETC with inhibitions already subtly lowered. A course explicitly designed to examine and challenge those inhibitions further compounds what the Veil has already done. Taylor believes he is observing natural human behavior in a permissive environment. He does not know the environment has been pre-modified for centuries.
Canon notes
- The course's full syllabus and reading list have not been established
- Whether the course predates Taylor's arrival at ETC or was created by him has not been established
- The full enrollment beyond named students has not been detailed
- Whether the course will continue after Taylor's eventual departure from ETC has not been addressed