Hot for Teachers Strike Not a Laughing Matter
By Jim Vail
“Fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke, you know?”
Thus states the author of an erotica book entitled The Teacher's Strike about an illicit affair between a teacher and her student.
The writer is pissed that the Chicago Teachers Union asked that the similar looking CTU logo be removed from the book's cover. The story's plot takes place in Chicago during the 2012 teachers strike.
Now, I agree that one needs a sense of humor here. You can't milk the cow as our union leadership has and take credit for waging the first immensely popular teacher's strike in the city in over 25 years, and not laugh when a lowly writer out west wants to cash in via erotica.
The porn industry built itself on parodying blockbuster movies with wonderful titles like Hannah Does Her Sisters, King Dong, Lost in Penetration, Sperminator, or my favorite, Lord of the G-Strings (or Whore of the Rings).
I mean, whether you like it or not, it is funny.
So why is the CTU so up in arms over something so seemingly harmless?
“The Union hasn't consented to use of its logo for this or any other commercial purposes,” CTU lawyer Robert Bloch told Second City Teachers.
Well, I will say this. While the author accuses the CTU of being pious and puritanical that they "can't find humor in the idea of a 'spanking novel' romance between a student and teacher set in the backdrop of a political strike?" - the fact of the matter is, we do indeed live in a 'pious and puritanical' society.
Second City Teachers helped win the job back of one Lane Tech teacher and award-winning girls swim coach who was unfairly accused of having sex with a star swimmer. The fact that he was exonerated didn't result in getting his job back at Chicago Public Schools, because his case was televised. We along with the parents had to shame CPS into giving him his job back.
Then there is the case of Jennifer Fleicher, a teacher convicted and sentenced to 22 years, let me repeat that 22 YEARS in PRISON! - for having sex with three 17-year-old students in Flordia. Had she been living, and fucking, a bit further north, she would have merely lost her job but not been deemed a pedophile rapist because there are plenty of states that declare a 16 year old is an adult.
The only real outrage her case sparked was in a land where our reporter Stephen Wilson writes - Russia. The Russians even started an online petition to free her from a sentence that even real rapists and murderers don't get.
Yes, siree - the good ole' US of A is about as a pious and puritanical as they can get.
Remember the Monical Lewinsky scandal. Where 'pious' politicians like Bob Barr preach holier than mighty and lead an impeachment trial against President Bill Clinton for having sex. The fact that Larry Flint of Hustler proved Barr bangs chicks while holding public office made the whole thing a farce.
In fact, Clinton's ratings went up. He defied American's puritanical idiocy and continues to be rewarded richly for that.
Perhaps the Chicago Teachers Union should do likewise here - laugh it off, support our teachers right to find romance where he or she finds fit as long as it's funny and tantalizing by ignoring it all.
Then again, it's a risk. Fleicher is still sitting behind bars.
Who knows?
Hot for Chicago Teacher Strike Erotica?
Picture this: It’s 2012. Chicago teachers are on strike. Faculty at roughly 675 schools are protesting. The country’s third-largest public school system, and the hundreds of thousands of kids it serves, is paralyzed.
Sounds like the perfect setting for an erotic novella, right?
Writer Gabby Matthews thought so when he penned The Teacher’s Strike, an 87-page sexpot of a tale about a student striking up a relationship with his teacher.
The Amazon description reads: “School administrators pegged Telly Jorgenson as a ‘troubled’ teenager—in and out of six local high schools in two years. The walls of his current school didn’t seem any likelier to hold him. Not until Clair, his former classmate and new young teacher, walked back into his life.”
Using the backdrop of the teachers’ strike, the novella is meant to provide educational lessons “and some classroom spankings.”
While there are no Amazon customer reviews yet, the Chicago Teachers Union was not singing the e-book’s praises. CTU spokesperson Stephanie Gadlinrequested that the publisher remove a logo on the book cover which she thought too closely resembled the union’s insignia. Robert Bloch, a Chicago lawyer who represents the union, also wanted all print copies to be recalled. The current cover of the novella on Amazon appears to still have the words “Chicago public schools” in the background.
Matthews, the 31-year-old Arizona based author, has taken the criticism in stride.
“Fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke, you know?” he said in an email exchange with The Daily Beast. “I suspect a political reason may be some sort of purist rubbish, those who can’t or won’t find humor in the whole thing. I mean, are they so pious and puritanical that they can’t find humor in the idea of a ‘spanking novel’ romance between a student and teacher set in the backdrop of a political strike? Come on, that’s funny!”
Matthews said the idea came naturally to him while living in Chicago during the calamitous strikes.
“I was living in Chicago summer 2012 during the build-up of the 2012 strike,” he said. “I got the idea for the book’s plot during that time but sat on the project until this past winter, when I finally had some time to sit down and write the text. Once I thought of the double entendre (the ‘strike’ both in sexual and political terms), I just had to do it, even if it took me a while to get around to it.”
Blushing Books, a Virginia-based erotic publishing company released the novella in July. Other titles on their website include No Sugar Added, Maid for a Lord,Spawn of Babylon, and Spontaneous Combustion: Billionaire Cruise, Book One.
According to our email exchange, Matthews actually reached out to Gadlin to help spread awareness of his work.
“Dear Stephanie and CTU,
It’s with immense pleasure to notify you (if you haven’t heard already) about my breakthrough novel titled The Teacher’s Strike, a historical fiction based on your admirable work in the 2012 event,” Matthews wrote on August 5. Gadlin then requested a copy of the book and was not amused by its contents.
“We wish Mr. Schivone [the author’s alleged real name] or Mr. Matthews well with his book, but we do not seek to engage in his public relations strategy to drive book sales and public interest,” Gadlin told The Daily Beast. “We are concerned about the appropriation of the Chicago Teachers Union’s logo in the book’s cover art, and we’ve asked that it be removed or undergo modifications.”
Whatever ends up happening to “The Teacher’s Strike,” Matthews already has plans for another novel…..about ISIS. “Before you ask, it’s not an erotica,” he assured The Daily Beast.
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