Student goes naked in class over Professor's Comment on her Dressing During Her honours Thesis

Students and their teacher were left confused after a Cornell University New York, senior Letitia Chai, delivered her honours thesis after stripping down to her bra and underwear in the class to protest against oppressive beliefs and discrimination.

At least two dozen of the students also undressed in solidarity.

Chai removed all her clothes except for her undergarments during her “Acting in Public” presentation Saturday as a demonstration against her professor, Rebekah Maggor, who questioned her attire during her talk about refugee relocation.

“When I got up to start, my professor said: ‘Is that really what you would wear?”

“Your shorts are too short.”

Chai, who said she was filled with “rage and disbelief” after the incident, took to her Facebook to write about the confrontation.

She recalled wearing a “long-sleeve blue button-down shirt and denim cut-offs,” which she alleges her professor told her was “inviting the male gaze away from the content of my presentation and onto my body.

“An international male student agreed with the professor.”

Chai said Maggor tried to justify her question by explaining she was addressing her from the point of view of a concerned mother, to which Chai replied, that her mom “is a Feminist, Gender, Sexuality Studies professor” who would’ve been proud of her for her outfit.

In the class syllabus, students’ “dress” is one of the course requirements.

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