This morning I was in the library researching a book of photographs by Cole Weston. The book was beautifully designed on high-quality laminate paper to showcase the succinct color quality inherant to Weston’s sensibility. When I came to a Xeroxed page of the photo “Nude in Window, Arizona, 1979,” I was momentarily confused. Then I turned past the page to reveal scratches from an exacto in the shape of the window that, in the photo, the nude woman is seen through.
Cole Weston is, in terms of subject matter, sometimes disappointingly traditional. The beauty of nature and its high degree of order is so tried-and-true as to be pastiche. So, for a convential photographer to be rejected by the most convential thinkers (Kansans) is an indication of the narrow-mindedness that proliferates, even at the university level, which should exhibit the highest level of sophistication and tolerance.
This is no singular event, either. Rachel Crane, librarian of Art and Design at the Ablah Library, has commented that photography is a specific target of vandalism in the collection. That painted nudes do not suffer equally is perhaps an indication that photography is not considered to have the same interpretive element. There is not only no understanding of photography as an art form, but there is also the indication that students cannot distinguish the body in any context besides the sexually explicit. That is undoubtedly one of the contributing reasons that the Rhatigan Student Gallery on campus does not allow nude depictions on its display wall, observable to any passer-by.
I offer this in contrast to the recent stunt of Janet Jackson, which is merely ridiculous, as any grossly inflated event like the Superbowl becomes ridiculous by sucking on its own gluttonous juices. The Weston photograph clearly has a voyeuristic quality. The truncated torso emerges from the dark interior with the same sumptuousness of the Aphrodite of Knidos, or other depictions of Aphrodite lifting the back of her robe to reveal her lauded bottom. In this respect it shares a channeling of sensuality that Jackson obviously intended. But the difference is that the extent of Jackson’s exploration of that sensuality was, “Sex is cool. I really like it lots.”
As were the actions, no doubt, of he who excised the nude.
I think, sadly, you give too much credit to the “censor” of the Weston photograph. More likely, it was cut out by a horny, pimply, loser of a college student whose intentions were more prurient than mistakenly altruistic.
Pardon my riff, but this is exactly what porn is for: get these people out of the libraries where they can damage art and into the local smut store where all they’re hurting are their own pocketbooks, and, later, perhaps, their own palms.
Right, but judging from other vandalism apparent in the library, namely defacement of the cubicles and study desks, I have been just as likely to read “Jesus is the way to salvation” or “Look to Christ for mercy upon thy sins” as “RB + MF = Together Forever” or “S is a sexy bitch.”
The attempt by some in the community to censor or at least divert attention from “non-Christian” ideas even shows up in our big-chain book stores. Philosophy books based in agnosticism or atheism often have church pamphlets placed in their sleeves.
. . . and while it’s disturbing to see, it is a brilliant little bit of geurilla marketing, don’t you think?
This is where we progressives have given up: we have been too willing to cede Madison Avenue, A.M. radio, and now even “the streets” themselves to the neo-conservative counter-revolution while we hide in academe because, well, quite frankly, it’s safe. Here we have medical benefits and a 401k. We can feel that we are fomenting revolution by the fact that we’re preaching yesterday’s warmed-over radicalism from the pulpit of the classroom lecturne, while knowing at least on an unconscious level that our students disregard the validity of everything we say, having been taught to do so, ironically, by vestiges of our own paradigm. They have reinterpreted “Tune in; Turn on; Drop out” as just “Tune out.” Much easier to remember, after all. And, of course, they’ve been helped along by school boards dismissive of such “unproven” ideas as evolution and a marketing strategy that tells them only inner-city thug culture is really cool.
If we want to win, we’ve got to outmaneuver them.