Back in my Art School days, in the 1990's, I think we spent about half our time working on projects, a quarter of our time talking about our projects and the remainder talking about censorship in the arts, it was a huge topic in those days. In the 90's Madonna caused controversy with her Sex Book and Sinead O'Conner ruined her career by ripping up a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live, Christian groups were outraged! In Alberta the newly elected Premier, Ralph Klein, took issue with a certain lesbian Art Exhibit, maybe it showed vagina's and my parents generation was swallowing their dentures everywhere just at the thought of it. The effect of the media outrage was to have Alberta cancel funding to the Arts. We all knew the Ultra-Conservative Ralph wanted to cancel Arts funding, all Conservatives despise the arts, too much freedom of expression I think, all he needed was an excuse and a media circus to do it. It's funny because I don't recall any outrage when Britney Spears was flashing her kooch any chance she got yet people were upset in my city when the lesbians held their own Pride Parade carrying signs like "Snatch The Pride", I thought that was clever. People always seem to be angry at lesbian lady parts and not angry at Spears, I guess if straight guys think they have a chance then they are all for freedom of expression?
Considering all the outrageousness of this day and age from Lady Gaga to anything your children are seeing on the internet, it's hard to believe Conservatives still look for this issue in our time. Case in point, a recent exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery,NPG, in Washington DC. For the first time the NPG is exhibiting works by Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trasnsgendered, LGBT, artists called, Hide/Seek, Difference and Desire in American Portraiture, featuring 105 artists including Georgia O'Keefe and Andy Warhol. Of course this is gold for the Conservative CNS News who is raising a fuss about a certain four minute video piece that depicts a crucifix with ants crawling over it entitled "A Fire In My Belly", intended to depict the suffering of an AIDS patient. So the Catholic League also had to jump into this and call it something along the line of assaulting Christian sensibilities. Now we have House Republicans demanding investigations and cutting funding to the Smithsonian, the NPG is a branch of it. In-coming Republican House Speaker John Boehner, said of the exhibit "American families have a right to expect better from recipients of taxpayer funds in a tough economy." Oh god, spare me the outrage please! Turns out the only funding the Smithsonian receives is for the building, upkeep, care of exhibits, and staff, funding for this and other exhibits comes from private and Corporate donors. Where is the call to freedom of expression rights we hear when the right-wing defends obvious racist slurs from Tea Partiers or the defense of Ann Coulters right to spew her hatred in my country? (Which probably breaks our hate laws). Yeah I know, we learned this during the Ground Zero mosque garbage, the right-wing has the Constitution behind them and they can do and say whatever they like, but if they don't like you or can make political hay out of it, then you don't have the right. You can't argue ignorance though.
To me, and many others, the Arts are essential to our culture, they entertain and inform, challenge belief and attitudes, reflect, encourage the very democratic and free exchange of ideas, all the things we hold near and dear in Western democracies. I do not give a flying fig what the Catholic League of whoever have to say about anything, please go deal with your own scandals right now, don't get me started on that stuff! I think both our countries in North America have long ago embraced the idea of freedom of religion, that also means freedom from religion, everyone is entitled to their own beliefs and is not subject to a government approved religion. So when I hear whoever religious group is enraged, or engorged, over an idea they find offensive it reminds me of one thing, cartoons. Remember when certain Muslim groups were so angry over a perceived cartoon of Mohammed? I think it ended in the murder of a Van Gogh descendant in Holland, a friend of mine thought World War III was going to start over this cartoon outrage. I don't think I'm wrong in thinking all of us who value Western ideas of freedom of expression were taken aback by the reaction in Muslim countries? This is also what I think when I hear about outrage over pieces of Art. I thought this was why we are at war with the Taliban, because they are dangerous religious extremists who hate criticism and ideas other than what they deem correct?
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