Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 08:22:51 -0400
From: Gordon Fitch <gcf-AT-panix.com>
Subject: Re: Fwd: Artist Censored By US Senate


According to report, other examples of nudity in art have been
or are present in the Senate office building (and not just
in the bottom drawers of the Senators' desks).  It's true I
don't have physical evidence of this, however.  Another
curious thing was that it was very, very difficult to get
the Senate committee staff to make a statement about why
they wanted the work excluded.  It would have been easy
enough for them to say "We can't have any nudes, because
this is the Senate office building and it's against our
customs" or something like that.  Which they finally did;
but it was like pulling teeth to get them to say anything.

In the straight world, discomfort about sensuality and 
sexuality among the disabled and otherwise nonstandard is 
pretty widespread.  I'm tld that in some jurisdictions, people
with certain disabilities (e.g. mental retardation) are
forbidden to have sex lives by law.

G.


Matt Teichman:
> What I found to be the more interesting part of the article was the idea 
> that the Senate was not as they claim disapproving of eroticism per se, but 
> more specifically some kind of "eroticism that includes the disabled" that 
> was too left-of-center for them to be able to handle.  I don't doubt this 
> in the least, but I wonder if there is anything you can cite as evidence 
> towards this kind of reading.  Have their been other exhibits that have 
> been accepted there because they were more in-line with mainstream 
> standards of beauty?
> 
> 
> At 09:20 PM 4/20/2001 -0400, you wrote:
> >So you're saying I (or the reporter) should have excluded any
> >indication that scoliosis might be a problem for a person
> >affected by it? Or what?  Ms. Ferguson liked what I wrote,
> >but another of my disabled friends didn't, much, because she
> >doesn't like disability politics.  But that doesn't seem to
> >be your objection.
> >
> >Gordon (screed author)


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