This story is within The Lessons series as it occurs at Templeton, but to help persons find the themes they are interested in (and avoid themes that they dislike) I thought it best to provide a more explicit title. My thanks to Sack for the basic idea of this story; my apologies to him for any failure in not developing it well. I would like to warn that it does develop more slowly than my other stories. However, I do hope you still like it!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Miss Bixley taught Advanced Fashion Design at Templeton College (as well as an introductory fashion design, romance languages, and other fine arts courses). Throughout the year her students had worked with a variety of traditional garments: dresses, suits, slacks, and even lingerie. Lingerie was in fact one of the more popular studies, as there was always a strong market for new, fashionable feminine undergarments, and, admittedly, it was one of the assignments the students enjoyed the most.
There were five girls in the course; no boys. Miss Bixley could not even recall a boy ever enrolling in any fashion design course, at any level. This was one reason that lingerie projects were not of any particular concern to the college administration. Miss Bixley could hire students to model the lingerie, or the girls might even model their designs themselves. Templeton was a highly conservative institution, but the lingerie modeling never raised any eyebrows. If there had been any boys in the class, well, that would then be an entirely different matter.
However, the girls were getting tired of being confined to studying and creating only garments for women and girls, when in fact there was a lot going on in the industry with respect to male undergarments. Miss Bixley could not argue with this, nor did she want to. She fully agreed. In fact, she often had graduates who returned for homecoming tell her that their vitae were frankly limited in having virtually no experience with masculine apparel, especially undergarments. Graduates from other programs had not been nearly so educationally handicapped.
She was becoming very frustrated with the conservative and cautious traditions of Templeton. The administration felt that good girls, no matter their age, should not be exposed to such things, and certainly not male models wearing only their undergarments. It did not matter to the administration that all of the students were above the age of 18, and some were in fact above the age of 21. The administration felt that it was their responsibility to continue to manage and govern their students' personal lives so that they would become adults of outstanding moral character. This attitude was quite embarrassing to Miss Bixley. She could hardly stomach the sympathetic but patronizing grins of her colleagues when she attended professional conferences and spoke of the policies and constraints of Templeton. It was true that many of the students of Templeton were quite naive when it came to adult sexuality, even male students. She knew that at least a few of the girls in her class would find it quite provocative to see a semi-nude male model. But, she felt that the infantile way the students were being treated, or perhaps more accurately sequestered, only made the problem worse. If they couldn't be treated as adults when they were of legal age, what could be expected of them when they left the protective shelter of Templeton and entered the real word?
It was perhaps time to take things into her own hands. She first consulted with Mr. Peters. He had been very helpful when she had been confronted earlier with a difficult disciplinary problem (see The Lessons, Chapter 17) and, rumor had it, dishabille within the classroom was a matter not entirely foreign to Mr. Peters.
She found Mr. Peters to be fully supportive. However, he did indicate that he had a special allowance to pursue whatever means were necessary to improve the discipline of Templeton students. His job was in fact to further strengthen the moral character of the Templeton student, even if that meant corporal punishment. Miss Bixley's situation was quite different. He doubted that the administration would endorse unclothed students simply for the purpose of fashion design. He suggested that she speak to Miss Harding, as Miss Harding was more experienced with pursuing innovative class exercises.
Miss Harding proved to be even more encouraging than Mr. Peters. She revealed, in confidence to Miss Bixley, that she had once even used, unbeknownst to the administration, full frontal nudity within one of her advanced courses (see Chapters 5 and 9) and had (at least as yet) experienced no repercussions. Miss Bixley felt emboldened.
Miss Harding though did not share with Miss Bixley the precise nature of her pedagogical practices with male students. Truth be told, Miss Harding's motivations were not entirely above board, and Miss Bixley, in contrast, had a reputation for being rather inhibited, if not prudish, when it came to sexual activities. She was still single and no faculty member was even aware of her dating in the 12 years she had been at Templeton.
It wasn't that Miss Bixley was unattractive. On the contrary, the Andy Griffith Club (a rather esoteric, if not geeky, Templeton club) had given her the sobriquet of Thelma Lou. It was an affectionate appellation. Thelma Lou was a character of the Andy Griffith Show (played by Betty Lynn). Miss Bixley looked a great deal like Thelma Lou. She had the youthful facial appearance, sparkling eyes, short brunette hair, cute bangs, dimpled cheeks, diminutive height, angelic voice, and modest, prim attire. Many of the male members of the Andy Griffith Club had a crush on her. The popular choice might seem to be Helen Crump (Andy's longest girlfriend and eventual wife), but the club members felt that Thelma Lou had more erotic appeal. Helen Crump would probably be quite boring in bed whereas Thelma Lou appeared to be chaste only because she was too nervous and shy to be assertively sexual. In public she came across as very innocent and sweet, but on a date with Barney she would cover his entire face in lipstick kisses, reducing him to a quivering mass.
Miss Harding even had a suggestion for such a model: Alex. Alex would seem to be an excellent choice. He had already experienced what it might be like to be nude in front of a class (see Chapter 5).
However, Alex wasn't at all interested. He had enjoyed Miss Harding's class exercise, but he was now dating Mary Lou and he wasn't so sure that she would like it if she knew that he was displaying himself again within another class. Miss Bixley tried to reassure him that there would be nothing sexual about this. It was just standard male modeling. However, Alex wouldn't be convinced.
Miss Bixley then consulted with Ms. Patricia Parker, the fine arts instructor. Ms. Parker used male models within her drawing class, although there was certainly no actual full nudity. Ms. Parker was also quite sympathetic with Miss Bixley's dilemma. She was herself frustrated by the fact that the ladies in her class were allowed to draw fully nude female models, but never nude male models.
She even recommended, in fact encouraged, Miss Bixley to consider Daniel Adams. The young Mr. Adams played tight end for the Templeton football team. He had called Ms. Parker twice during the semester seeking additional modeling duties. He needed the money. Daniel was an unusual student for Templeton. He was not from a well-to-do family, as were most of the Templeton "family." He did have a football scholarship but at Templeton this covered only his tuition. He had to work odd-jobs to cover books and lodging. He was always looking for ways to help cover his expenses, and modeling paid better than fast food work.
Plus, Ms. Parker knew him to be very respectful and courteous. Daniel was in fact a rather shy guy. You might have expected him to be very popular with the girls, being on the football team. But, his size did not translate into popularity with the girls.
Daniel lacked sufficient self-confidence. He was reasonably good looking, facially, if you liked a rural, country ruggedness. But, he just lacked the assertiveness to approach girls. He didn't think of himself as being particularly attractive and, frankly, he wasn't a real bright guy. It wasn't that he was actually unintelligent. He was, after all, in college. But, he did wonder if he got into Templeton largely because he was big and fast on his feet. His high school grades and SAT scores were not particularly good. His grades at Templeton were, at best, marginal. He knew that if it wasn't for football, he would not be there.
