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Lesson Plans


Re: GAY RIGHTS & CHILDREN! musings

From: wendy sauls (wsauls)
Date: Sun Feb 13 2000 - 15:48:01 PST

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    if gay and lesbian issues aren't concerns of art education, i wonder why
    there is a division of naea (nat'l art education association) devoted to
    them?

    however, there are some definite, concrete artistic and aesthetic points to
    ponder here as well:

    on mapplethorpe, michaelangelo, and spirituality - if one is to consider
    only christianity when bringing up spirituality, or even more loosely, any
    deity-worship type religion (where some human-like creature is the center of
    everything), then it could be argued that michaelangelo is more obviously
    "spiritual" in his work. in contrast, however, if one subscribes to a
    more nature centered spirituality, considering mapplethorpe's images of
    flowers can be a very spiritual experience. and ya'll have heard the story
    about how michaelangelo carved his name across mary's chest (la pieta)?
    that doesn't seem very spiritually motivated.

    an interesting visual connection to the (anti)abortion "thing", too, which
    always (irrationally) seems to be brought up when anyone might be asking for
    too much personal freedom from prejudice, judgement, and persecution: even
    by mere verbal descriptions (such as the ones provided for us here on the
    list), the images abortion protestors wish to implant in our brains
    associated with abortion are horrific. it is much more aesthetically
    challenging to create an image which accurately illustrates the lifelong
    suffering of an unwanted child, a person affected by fetal alcohol syndrome,
    years of parental abuse, neglect...and then there are the abortion
    protestors who walk down the street in my town waving around poster sized
    graphics supposedly relating to their cause. tell me again what is so
    offensive about mapplethorpe's homoerotic work? straightforward pictures of
    sex between two consenting adults (who, in all the work i've seen, have
    pretty "aesthetically pleasing" physiques) shown only to those who wish to
    see them VS poor quality cut and paste photo montages of misrepresented gore
    shoved in the face of all who happening to be driving or walking by. hmmm...
    an aesthetic conundrum, indeed...

    wendy sauls 

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