The issue of whether college professors can perform as adult entertainers has surfaced again in the case of a psychotherapist who alleges she was fired from her job at a California school because she performed in a burlesque show.

"Professor Shimmy"

The president of John F. Kennedy University, an adult education school, told Dr. Sheila Addison she had violated her employment contract, “which states that the core faculty member shall not engage in acts ... that would tend to bring public disrespect, contempt, or ridicule on the university.”

Addison, who taught family therapy at JFKU's Pleasant Hill campus, performed burlesque skits in “Hubba Hubba Revue” under the pseudonym Professor Shimmy.

But her firing smacks of a double standard. In the wrongful termination lawsuit she filed last month, she alleges that while she was performing in “Hubba Hubba,” a male colleague was performing in an off-campus, one-man play “which included disrobing and partial nudity on stage.”

“[T]he male professor was held to a different standard because of his gender and was not disciplined for his performance,” the suit says.

In a similar case, the University of New Mexico found that an English professor did not violate any law or policy by moonlighting as the phone-sex dominatrix “Mistress Jade.” Lisa Chávez even posed in promotional pictures sexually dominating one of her graduate students.

Addison had been performing in “Hubba Hubba” since she began working at JFKU in early 2007. She says the revue “provides political and social commentary on gender, sexuality, and body image stereotypes” and her own performances “have content related to human sexuality and feminist theory.”

JFKU President Steven Stargardter fired Addison in June 2010 even though she did not perform under her real name or identify herself as affiliated with the school. Videos of her performances, he noted in her termination letter, had been posted on YouTube, making her conduct “widely known.”

“This has seriously impaired your credibility with students and has severely impacted your effectiveness as a teacher,” he wrote.

In her suit, Addison alleges JFKU is liable for breach of contract, sex discrimination and violating a California law that protects the “fundamental right” of employees to engage in political activity without interference or threat of retaliation from employers.

“Maybe it's not their cup of tea,” her lawyer told SF Weekly. “But from our perspective, this is about the right of people to engage in this kind of expression on their own time — without mentioning the university."

The academic freedom principles of the American Association of University Professors and the Association of American Colleges and Universities say teachers “should remember that the public may judge their profession and their institution by their utterances” and “should exercise appropriate restraint.”

But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has broadly interpreted academic freedom, finding that  “[t]he desire to maintain a sedate academic environment ... [does not] justify limitations on a teacher’s freedom to express himself on political issues in vigorous, argumentative, unmeasured, and even distinctly unpleasant terms.” Adamian v. Jacobsen, 523 F.2d 929 (1975).

The University of New Mexico's decision not to discipline Chávez sparked a firestorm of controversy. Some faculty members sued the school, alleging it retaliated against them for complaining about her "Mistress Jade" activities.

“The gray area for women [in academia] is much smaller,” Lisa Maatz of the American Association of University Women told USA Today. “Good girls get rewards and rebels or people who speak truth to power aren't necessarily appreciated.”

By Matthew Heller
4/1/11