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October 10, 2006
Naked = Good
An excerpt from CNN.com caught my attention:
FRISCO, Texas (AP) -- Like the artwork that teacher Sydney McGee insists she was fired for letting her students study, her former school says there's more to her dismissal than is apparent at first glimpse.
McGee, who taught elementary school in this sprawling Dallas suburb, has drawn national sympathy and disbelief since claiming she was let go last month because a parent complained that their child saw a nude piece during a field trip to the Dallas Museum of Art.
Eighty-nine of McGee's fifth-graders toured the museum during the April trip, which McGee concedes likely included nudes but was arranged as a chance to see Picassos and Piet Mondrians.
"It's not a place of pornography, it's art," said McGee, 51, who has taught for 28 years and lists Oxford University among her graduate studies.
Her dismissal has stirred up familiar stereotypes of Texas conservatism run amok and the intemperate prudishness of suburban life.
The Frisco school board suspended McGee, with pay, on September 22 for the remainder of the school year and the superintendent has said he will recommend that her contract not be renewed. District officials have vigilantly maintained that the decision stemmed from separate personnel issues and not one child's exposure to a nude artwork, which has never been identified.
"We have a lot of sporting things in Frisco, with the soccer and the baseball," McGee said. "But not a lot of those kids go to the museum."
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I attended a rather conservative, private high school. As an individual who seriously wanted to pursue art in a competitive college setting, I asked the school to offer Life Drawing classes. Knowing the school's Christian background, I suggested that the class should be offered to only senior students who successfully completed x-number of drawing/painting courses or were enrolled in Advanced Placement Art. Not to mention that parents had to sign a waiver form giving their consent. Sounds fair, right? Well, that suggestion wasn't even considered. My friend and I decided to pursue a study of the human form on our own, by sitting in on a college life drawing class. I believe our work was very successful and beautiful. It was also the most challenging drawing assignment of my life! While the subjects were nude, the focus of the study was on the way muscle flexed, and overall dynamic poses that showed movement. Our work was promptly taken down from the student gallery by school officials. Why? Because they were deemed 'pornographic.'
I loved art from the time I was two years old. I looked at paintings as much as possible and saw a lot of naked bodies (such as the famous Venus painting). My family never hid those images from me or made comments about it being bad. As a result, nudity never seemed strange or disturbing. I just figured it was all part of the beauty in art. On a kindergarten field trip to a museum, my classmates erupted in laughter and screams at a statue of a woman's bust. Our teacher hurried us out of that room. She was mortified and apologized to a few of the parent chaperones. I was perplexed. What was wrong? Why was she apologizing? Obviously, someone had instilled in these children that nudity was a shameful thing.
The human body should never be considered pornographic. It is the CONTEXT that the body is situated in that determines whether something is pornographic or harmless. Parents should feel comfortable taking their children to museums of all places. Whether a child is 0-18 years old, there is no harm in seeing a naked body, especially in artwork. Sadly, people are not educated or open-minded enough to distinguish the difference between a naked stripper or a painting of a nude woman by a Great Renaissance master.
Posted by Kellie at 12:44 AM
October 02, 2006
Unnecessary Violence
• September 27, 2006: Authorities said Duane Morrison walked into the school, took six female students hostage and sexually abused them. Four were later released. When a SWAT team stormed the second-floor classroom where Morrison was holding the two remaining hostages, the gunman fatally shot 16-year-old Emily Keyes and then himself.
• October 2, 2006: A gunman burst into an Amish school where he tied up female students and shot them execution style. Story in progress...
Two school-related attacks within a few weeks have left traumatized and dead victims along with their familiies and communities.
This is a disturbing trend that I hope will never happen again. It is horrific to think about brutalities against children. But what has disturbed me and angered me even more are the specific target against females.
These incidents are reminders of the kind of abuse and hatred against women that scar our society. Lesser crimes like physical violence, gender discrimination, and harassment happen every day, unnoticed yet equally horrific and just as resonating as execution style shootings.
This mindset has to stop. How does society put an end to violence against women? What can we do as individuals to help?
Posted by Kellie at 08:36 PM