Seven academic journals recently published papers that were actually hoaxes designed to show the absurdity of academic fields like gender studies, race studies, queer studies, etc.
The hoaxers intentionally submitted papers that were ridiculous; one included gibberish about rape culture in dog parks. Another was a section of Hitler’s Mein Kampf re-written with feminist buzzwords.
Six journal editors would not talk to Stossel, but one -- Roberto Refinetti, editor in chief of Sexuality and Culture -- agreed to an interview. He condemns what the hoaxers did: "You’re deceiving people without much of a reason." He complains, "If you're going to do your research with people, you have to propose your research, submit to a body called an Institutional Review Board."
One of the hoaxers, Peter Boghossian, was found guilty by his employer (Portland State University) of violating their rules requiring him to get approval for the hoax. Of course, since the Institutional Review Board would have insisted that the researchers inform the journals that they were being tested, the test wouldn’t have worked.
Stossel says he thinks the hoaxers had good reason not to go to the review board first. "Their hoax woke us up to the fact that some academic journals publish nonsense," he says. Refinetti's journal, for instance, published the hoax paper titled, "Going in Through the Back Door: Challenging Straight Male Homohysteria, Transhysteria, and Transphobia Through Receptive Penetrative Sex Toy Use." The paper touted "encouraging male anal eroticism with sex toys" because it would help make men more feminist.
Sexuality and Culture published that paper after its reviewers praised it glowingly. One called it, “an incredibly rich and exciting contribution… timely, and worthy of publication.” Refinetti defends his journal, saying that it publishes mind-expanding questions.
"What is the problem with [the subject of the paper]? I don't see a problem... It's nothing really absurd or unusual," Refinetti says. He also says: "Let's question our assumptions, because maybe we're making assumptions that we shouldn't be making... When homosexuality was considered a mental illness. People pushed, the psychiatrists got together, and said... 'it's a perfectly fine thing to choose and not to call it mental illness.' So that's the type of thing that a journal in sexuality and culture does, is discuss."
Discussion is good, Stossel agrees. But in journals today, he says it seems that only certain conclusions are permitted.
The hoaxers complain that in many university fields, "A culture has developed in which only certain conclusions are allowed, like those that make whiteness and masculinity problematic."
