Cultural differences

I worked in health care education in the 1980s. From time to time we would have a visiting scholar on campus. That generally attracted attention and the students really liked the sense of freshness. Somehow hearing the same thing from a stranger was more powerful that hearing it from resident faculty members. There were, however, times when the visitor was really the expert.

One particular visitor to our campus taught and practiced at a university in eastern Europe. He was a very interesting man with interesting theories about the muscular function of the body in response to minimal brain injury. I tell you this because it is at the heart of the story. His visit included a series of lectures and demonstrations. The lectures were very similar to how they would have been presented by one of our resident faculty members - perhaps with the exception that nearly all of the students listened. The demonstrations were, however, quite different than the way we usually did things.

During one of the demonstrations, the visiting professor asked for three volunteers to serve as his models so that he could point out just what he was trying to explain. Three young men raised their hands and were invited to the front of the room. With no fanfare or hesitation, the professor very matter-of-factly told them to strip to their underwear. He said it like one would ask someone to pass the potatoes at dinner. He did say "please," but it was the kind of "please" that a high school principle would use when asking, "would you please tell me what you are doing in the restroom with those cigarettes?" The "please" was superfluous; and, in that case, the answer was obvious.

The three young men looked at each other with surprise as they blushed. But, they took off their clothes. Now, there were three guys standing nearly naked in front of sixty or seventy people (young men and women) who were all secretly thanking their lucky stars that they hadn't volunteered. The professor proceeded to poke and prod each of his models as he attempted to explain how the body responds to his theorized brain function. The young models were getting used to being meat puppets and were beginning to relax. But then...

The professor asked the models to turn around so that their backs were to the audience. They all smiled and made faces at their friends as they began turning to face the wall. The professor continued with his presentation pointing to this muscle or that low shoulder on his live dummies. Then, without notice and without missing a beat, he pulled the underwear of one of the models nearly down to the guy's knees. You can imagine the response of the audience - shock, gasps, laughter, and real relief that it wasn't them. The model was freaked. His counterparts looked over at him with that "holy shit!" expression as they stood there waiting to see what would happen to them. It was as if they were in front of a firing squad seeing their friend go down, and then waiting for their bullets.

Meanwhile, the professor continued to poke and prod his meat puppet's buttocks as he had him bend from side to side etc. All the while, the model was praying that there was not a frontal demonstration coming next. Fortunately for the models the demonstration ended with only that rear view. It was funny enough. We just didn't do that here in America, at least with the same casual, we-do-this-all-the-time attitude.

I admit that I, too, was glad that I hadn't volunteered that day.