READ: Every shameful detail of custody hearing where killer heiress lost daughter, 4, to private equity lawyer ex
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heiress → read → ex
Stanford University's decision to host a dominatrix and author as a guest speaker has divided students, with one claiming that he struggles to see how her 'expertise in dominating men' is relevant.
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expertise → host → men
Brittany Newell, 31, spoke to Stanford’s Structured Liberal Education (SLE) students at the prestigious university last week.
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Newell → speak → university
The SLE program emphasizes artists and intellectuals and is designed to provide a 'liberal arts college experience' focused on philosophy, religion, literature, painting and film.
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program → emphasize → philosophy
Students said Newell was invited to give a guest lecture after the release of her book, Soft Core.
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Newell → say → book
Newell graduated from Stanford in 2016 with a degree in Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Comparative Literature, according to the university.
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Newell → graduate → university
The Stanford Review, a conservative student paper, questioned Newell's presence on campus, writing: 'Does SLE mean to tell 18-year-olds that profiting off of others’ vulnerabilities and shame is preferable to working 50-hour weeks at a big company?
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profiting → question → company
Is it okay with the idea that men should pay for expensive, temporary “intimacy” instead of trying to address the root cause of their problems with a licensed therapist?
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men → pay → therapist
Or, more broadly, is the solution to depression simply giving in by appeasing desire through drugs, fantasy, and sex?
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solution → give → drugs
'In short, I struggle to see how Newell’s expertise in dominating men—and not the pen—is relevant to SLE and its purported goals,' the opinion piece concludes.
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piece → struggle → SLE
'SLE is a respectable program with noble aims, and it has the right to choose which speakers it wishes to platform.
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it → have → speakers
I believe it should, and can, do better.
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it → believe → ?
She graduated from Stanford University in 2016
Newell has written two novels.
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Newell → graduate → novels
She published Soft Core last year, and Oola came out in 2017, when she was 21.
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she → publish → 2017
Her third novel, Blue Movie, is set for release in 2028.
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novel → set → 2028
Newell studied Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Comparative Literature
She also works as a professional dominatrix and performer in San Francisco.
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She → study → Francisco
Last year, Newell told the San Francisco Chronicle that she never took a writing class while studying at Stanford.
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she → tell → Stanford
She recalled being introduced to a literary agent at school and making something up on the spot, which later became Oola.
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which → recall → spot
Newell told the Chronicle that she worked in food service after graduation and decided to make an account on Seeking Arrangements, an escort website for younger women to meet older men.
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women → tell → men
'They’re rich and they’re powerful, but they’re so spiritually void.
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they → ’re → ?
And I think they would buy anything that promises to make them feel better,' she told the Chronicle about her escort experience.
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she → think → experience
'This is just another thing that promises to fill them up.'
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that → promise → them
She then started working at a BDSM house and still performs as a dominatrix.
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She → start → dominatrix
Soft Core is fiction but was inspired by her experiences in sex work.
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Core → inspire → work
The book received mixed reviews.
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book → receive → reviews
The Guardian praised it as a 'wonderful portrait of San Francisco, “misty, bookish and debased."
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Guardian → praise → Francisco
Brittany Newell released her novel, Soft Core, last year.
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Newell → release → novel
The book was reviewed by The Guardian and The New York Times
Oola, Newell's debut novel was released in 2017
The New York Times called the last pages of Soft Core a 'satisfying kind of crescendo'
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Times → review → crescendo
The New York Times said: 'Does “Soft Core” come together?
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Core → say → ?
Subplots peter out or climax abruptly.
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Subplots → peter → ?
But the last pages offer a different and more satisfying kind of crescendo — open-ended, strange, joyfully loose.'
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pages → offer → crescendo
Despite The Review's critique, the university's other student paper, The Stanford Daily, defended Newell's lecture.
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paper → defend → lecture
The paper said that according to several attendees, Newell's lecture focused on how to get a book published and did not delve into her work as a dominatrix.
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book → say → dominatrix
The Daily also noted that several philosophers that Stanford students study have checkered pasts, citing Ludwig Wittgenstein, who was accused of beating students until one boy was unconscious.
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boy → note → students
'Evidently, an author’s character and choices have nothing to do with the quality of their works.
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character → have → works
Thus, any emphasis on Newell’s profession serves little purpose but to shame a woman for her sexual choices,' The Daily wrote.
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Daily → serve → choices
The paper encouraged students to approach literature with a 'lens of intellectual humility' instead of 'moral condemnation.
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paper → encourage → humility
The Daily Mail has reached out to Newell, her publisher and Stanford University for comment.
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Mail → reach → comment
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