Deviance, Politics and the Arts 

Photographic images by Dr. Andreas Schneider

 

Dubin, Stevens. 1992. Arresting Images. New York: Ruthlege

Censorship or Protection?

1986 National Obscenity Enforcement Unit

1986 Child Protection and Obscenity ACT

1988 Prosecutors extended the scope of the 1970 Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act to include pornography and popular entertainment (Rap music).

·       RICO cases risk long jail terms and forfeiture of assets.

·       forfeiture of assets is used to strip the defendant of resources

 

Questionable interpretations

A California statute forbids depicting the genitals, pubic or rectal area of those under the age of fourteen “for the purpose of sexual stimulation of the viewer”

·       What constitutes sexual stimulation?

·       How many classic works of art would be confiscated?

·       Even biblical works of arts.

·       What happens if you sent you baby bathtub photographs for development?

 

1996 Telecommunication ACT

 

Private Organizations:

National Organization for Women (NOW)

·       Engaged in book censorship: “The American Psycho”

Women Against Pornography

·       Sex is degrading

·       Women are victims of sexual encounters

ó Feminist Anti-Censorship Taskforce

·       Supports images in which  mutual desire is depicted

·       More and different images, instead of suppression

ó Rouge Feminists

·       Add the focus of protecting women in the sex industry

·       Promote the acceptance of high paying, independent, fun jobs in the sex industry

·       Promote professional pride


What is the Danger?

The link between pornography and violence

1970 Report to the President: “no direct relationship between sexually explicit material and antisocial behavior”  (p.140)

 

Media Content and Exposure

Since most of the customers seem to be interested in sex and/or violence the media tries to serve everyone well.

1        Presenting violent and sexual-erotic stimuli in close proximity blurs the borderline between both concepts.  This would be a basic behaviorist explanation.

2       We take actors in the media as models and mimic their behavior.  This would be an application of Bandura’s social learning theory.

3. Exposure Cross-culturally

 

 

What’s the Artist’s Job?

Compare the following two citations:

#1:  “It is not the function of art to wallow in dirt for dirt’s sake, never it’s task to paint men only in states of decay, to draw cretins as the symbol of motherhood, to picture hunchbacked idiots as representatives of manly strength… Art must be the handmaiden of sublimity and beauty, and thus promote whatever is natural and healthy.  If art does not do this then any money spend on it is squandered”

#2: “The self proclaimed, self appointed art experts would scoff and say, ‘Oooh, terrible,’ but I like beautiful things not modern art… There is a big difference between the ‘Merchant of Venice’ and a photograph of two males of different races (in an erotic pose) on a marble table top… If someone wants to write ugly nasty things on the men’s room wall, the taxpayers do not have to provide the crayons”

 

Please answer the following questions:

#1: What are the similarities between both citations?

 

 

 

 

#2:  What are the differences, if any

 

 

 

 

 

#3:  What, if any, are the arguments you agree with

 

 

 

 

 

#4:  What, if any, are the arguments you disagree with

 

 

 

 

#5:  Try to assign timeframe and potential source to both citations 

 

Another Opinion:

Tim Miller, a founder of New Yorks’s PS122 and Santa Monica’s Highway performance Space:

The “pursuit of life liberty and happiness is not easy, especially for the homeless lesbian and gay people, Latinos, women and African Americans who this society screws over and would like to make invisible.

When the government gets too big… and tries to tell its citizens what to think and feel, it is the job of an artist to speak truth to King George Bush in a challenging and angry way.”(p.155)

Artist can be seen having a social responsibility to address problems in their society.

 

Politics and Arts

National Endowment for the Arts NEA

National Endowment for the Humanities NEH

Chairpersons are nominated by the President

Nancy Hanks

NEA chairperson Nancy Hanks 1969 to 1977 swapped large NEA grants to symphony orchestras and museums in exchange for political support of their influential allies in Congress

This can be interpreted as a promotion of elite interest and a neglect of cultural democracy.

 

Frohnmeyer was nominated by George Bush.

Fronmeyer was not able to protect the interest of Arts consumers and the arts community from the attacks of the Congress.

Usually grants are assigned by committees of peers.  Fronmeyer overturned committee decision to comply with wishes of politicians.

Still, Helms attacked Fronmeyer for supporting work of Mapplethorpe and Serrano.

His famous quote: ”My great hope is to exit alive”

1992 George Bush finally received too much pressure from his opponent Patrick Buchanan in the Presidential primary campaign that he forced Frohnmeyer into resignation.

Robert Mapplethorpe's pictures still cause political debates:

His life

Some of his work:

Jack Fritscher 1994. Mapplethorpe : Assault With a Deadly Camera

 

Example for Political Engagement:

During his presentation in the Senate, Senator Alphose D’Amato melodramatically tore up a NEA catalogue containing Andres Serrano’s work.

He had two different form letters of reply:

One where the “Senator proclaimed his solidarity with the correspondent’s outrage over Serrano’s work”

Another which “highlighted D’Amato’s endorsement of diverse forms of art” (p.284).

 

Check' what on the hit list today:

The Conservative weekly: Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries  accessed Nov 05

Metal Music

overhead

Three Core Aspects

1)   psychological chaos

2)   nihilism/violence

3)   Themes depicting alternative religiosity and/or heatedly anti-Christian sentiments.

 

Communalities of Rock, Punk and Metal

·     Young generation expresses conflict with authorities.

Difference between Rock, Punk and Metal

·     Rock and punk genres address their conflict with the authorities directly, not in fantasies.

 

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