Lit Professor Thinks Women and Queer Writers Suck, Sorry

If you’re into books written by women (HAHAHAHAHAHAHA what’s that) don’t take University of Toronto professor David Gilmour’s fiction class; he’s “not interested” in teaching women authors (except Virginia Woolf, who somehow manages to entertain him). “What I teach is guys,” he says. “Serious heterosexual guys.” Got it.

Here’s what Gilmour told Hazlitt re female writers, queer writers, and Chinese (?) writers:

I’m not interested in teaching books by women. Virginia Woolf is the only writer that interests me as a woman writer, so I do teach one of her short stories. But once again, when I was given this job I said I would only teach the people that I truly, truly love. Unfortunately, none of those happen to be Chinese, or women. Except for Virginia Woolf. And when I tried to teach Virginia Woolf, she’s too sophisticated, even for a third-year class. Usually at the beginning of the semester a hand shoots up and someone asks why there aren’t any women writers in the course. I say I don’t love women writers enough to teach them, if you want women writers go down the hall. What I teach is guys. Serious heterosexual guys. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Chekhov, Tolstoy. Real guy-guys. Henry Miller. Philip Roth.

Judging by his Rate My Professor profile, a passion for “real guy-guys” can only get one so far:

Would not recommend this class AT ALL. Although if you make yourself palatable he will give you a good mark. Otherwise… useless, opinionated, and discriminatory person.

Very full of himself. Painfully obvious that he favours the guys in the class. When asked why there were no female authors on the syllabus said “I don’t believe in ‘good for you’ literature”. Some students love him, but I honestly think while he might be intelligent he hasn’t matured past adolescence.