No titlepingback_botSeptember 6 2010, 16:50:47 UTC
User copperbadge referenced to your post from No title saying: [...] it was Monday and therefore RADIO FREE.
But it's not like I made a bunch of other posts or anything, so that's all right. :D
BOOSTS!
About a year ago I signal-boosted a call for photography models for a project of 's, and the project won her a photography scholarship. As she told me in her email, "The body of work I created for that scholarship is a very honest look at beauty, femininity, and womanhood." Currently her work is on display at the Bath House Cultural Center in Dallas, but has been heavily censored, she suspects due to the subject matter of the images as well as their size. She's not asking for a letter campaign or a petition signing; she just doesn't know what to do. She's asking for suggestions [...]
Here via [lj_user]copperbadge. I'm so sorry this happened to you. I just wanted to send you a hug from Canada (we give big warm comfy hugs up here), you sound like you need it. *hugs*
About a year ago a signal-boosted a call for photography models for a project of 's, and the project won her a photography scholarship. As she told in her email, "The body of work I created for that scholarship is a very honest look at beauty, femininity, and womanhood." Currently her work is on display at the Bath House Cultural Center in Dallas, but has been heavily censored, she suspects due to the subject matter of the images as well as their size. She's not asking for a letter campaign or a petition signing; she just doesn't know what to do. She's asking for suggestions [...]
Here via copperbadge too. I don't have any useful suggestions, alas, but like bare_bear, I am really sorry that this is happening to you and I am sending a warm Canadian hug. *hugs*
Also, thank you. Art matters, and what you're doing is important; it's important to show, respect and love women's bodies the way they are, and not just the way society wants/expects them to be. So, you know: thank you.
Thank you for the hug and support. <3 Just knowing that people outside my immediate circle of contact care helps tremendously.
I don't know that I could say you're welcome for the art, but not because I make it unwillingly. I honestly can't think of another project I could do. It's an honor for me every time another woman takes part in this project, so I feel that I should (and I do) thank everyone else for this body of work.
Thank you for stopping by and being supportive. I think at this point, the best, most direct course of action is for the Bath House director (and possibly local media, not sure on that) to receive polite letters, expressing confusion and probably dismay at a show being censored in this way. I don't know what else to say in it, truthfully, but it would seem to me that something along those lines would get the point across. As the show is hanging and open, I'm not expecting any apology or un-censoring, but preventing this from happening in the future is the main goal.
Censorship is... tricky. You can claim that the gallery has violated your right of freedom of expression, as protected by the right to free speech in the first amendment, but that also depends on the ground rules of the gallery and what is explicitly stated in any paper work they had you sign. This is also usually an option (as far as I know) that pretty much only gets backed up by you suing the gallery
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Censorship is... tricky.Too true. The suggestions and points you make are the considerations I've been weighing the past several days, coming to much the same conclusion. My professors seem set on bringing attention to the situation, but it definitely has to be handled carefully because I am just a student still and have my reputation and future career to look out for
( ... )
So, out of curiosity, ever heard of Robert Mapplethorpe? There's a very interesting court case about censorship and freedom of expression and what qualifies something as the difference between pornography for the sake of pornography and pornography that is artistic involving his work, sometime back in the 1970's, I think.
Because while I've never seen your work (I linked over here from copperbadge), I can't help but draw similarities between the reaction to your work (which sounds like it might be sexual--I know it contains nudes and challenges the gender binary, but those are not necessarily sexual things) and the reaction to Mapplethorpe's show.
And.. uh... if you google his work, it is most definitely NSFW.
So, good luck with everything, and do your best to enjoy the show!
Oh, definitely familiar with Mapplethorpe! While this body of work doesn't draw direct inspiration from his images, I do have several books of his work on my visual reference shelf. (Also, totally nerdy moment: I have the same birthday as he.)
You make a good point, though, about sexuality playing in the images even though they are not intended to be overtly sexual. Nudity tends to imply sexuality, regardless of body language, and some people aren't able to ignore the naked=sexual reaction and actually see what's there.
Now that the show is up, it's very exciting to see it all together. I doubt too many people would notice the absence of the nudes I did, and I overheard no comments about the sizes of my pieces. So at least this doesn't seem to have negatively impacted the rest of the show. :)
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But it's not like I made a bunch of other posts or anything, so that's all right. :D
BOOSTS!
About a year ago I signal-boosted a call for photography models for a project of 's, and the project won her a photography scholarship. As she told me in her email, "The body of work I created for that scholarship is a very honest look at beauty, femininity, and womanhood." Currently her work is on display at the Bath House Cultural Center in Dallas, but has been heavily censored, she suspects due to the subject matter of the images as well as their size. She's not asking for a letter campaign or a petition signing; she just doesn't know what to do. She's asking for suggestions [...]
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Consider this a boost of his post....
About a year ago a signal-boosted a call for photography models for a project of 's, and the project won her a photography scholarship. As she told in her email, "The body of work I created for that scholarship is a very honest look at beauty, femininity, and womanhood." Currently her work is on display at the Bath House Cultural Center in Dallas, but has been heavily censored, she suspects due to the subject matter of the images as well as their size. She's not asking for a letter campaign or a petition signing; she just doesn't know what to do. She's asking for suggestions [...]
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Also, thank you. Art matters, and what you're doing is important; it's important to show, respect and love women's bodies the way they are, and not just the way society wants/expects them to be. So, you know: thank you.
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I don't know that I could say you're welcome for the art, but not because I make it unwillingly. I honestly can't think of another project I could do. It's an honor for me every time another woman takes part in this project, so I feel that I should (and I do) thank everyone else for this body of work.
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Because while I've never seen your work (I linked over here from copperbadge), I can't help but draw similarities between the reaction to your work (which sounds like it might be sexual--I know it contains nudes and challenges the gender binary, but those are not necessarily sexual things) and the reaction to Mapplethorpe's show.
And.. uh... if you google his work, it is most definitely NSFW.
So, good luck with everything, and do your best to enjoy the show!
Reply
You make a good point, though, about sexuality playing in the images even though they are not intended to be overtly sexual. Nudity tends to imply sexuality, regardless of body language, and some people aren't able to ignore the naked=sexual reaction and actually see what's there.
Now that the show is up, it's very exciting to see it all together. I doubt too many people would notice the absence of the nudes I did, and I overheard no comments about the sizes of my pieces. So at least this doesn't seem to have negatively impacted the rest of the show. :)
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