A Beautiful Mind

A Beautiful Mind

A recent survey in America has found that a consideration of aesthetic appeal is an important influence on how students rate the merits of their university professors' academic and teaching skills. On average, lecturers considered "handsome" or "beautiful" scored a full point higher on course surveys than those lecturers who were described as "homely".

This is not exactly a surprise; I just wish there were more beautiful or handsome academics at my university -- academics like, say, Brad Gooch. Gooch is over 50 years old, but he looks like he's just hit his 30's. He's a former model, having appeared in the ad campaign for Chanel's Allure. He's also a former porn film reviewer for a New York gay magazine. Shortly after he completed his graduate degree in English at Columbia University, he worked for a time as locker room boy in a gym. Now a tenured professor at a university in New Jersey, he's written several books, including two novels and one tell-all biography of New York poet Frank O'Hara. Recently, he's worked on two gaycentric self-help books, provocatively titled Finding the Boyfriend Within ("Oh there you are, Boyfriend! What are you doing in there?") and Dating the Greek Gods.

A few years ago, I was sitting in a seminar, listening to my lecturer talk about Brad Gooch's book on Frank O'Hara. I'm certain I wasn't imagining the lustful gleam in the academic's eyes as he uttered the author's name, with a prolonged emphasis on the 'oo' in Gooch. I didn't know who Brad Gooch was at the time, but having now seen the pictures of him, I completely understand both the gleam and the emphasis.