Art is not pornography

One of the most famous sculptures from the 16th century doesn’t pass the test for 21st-century Puritans.

When news came that a Florida principal had resigned after parents complained that their sixth-grade students were shown photos of Michelangelo’s David during an art history lesson, calling it “pornographic,” I was reminded that the spirit of the Puritans is alive and well in America, not to mention hysterical hypocrisy.  

One of the most famous and admired statues in the world, David is a triumph of Renaissance sculpture, a beautiful example of the almost incomprehensible art of “subtraction”—starting with a block of marble and taking away everything that is not needed to reveal the finished stature, in this case a beautiful and biblical male figure that is nude, and has, well, all the attributes given to him by God. Because, let’s face it, if there had been a fig leaf, nobody would have complained.

 The protocol at Tallahassee Classical School is to notify parents in advance if anything students are shown could be “controversial.” School board chair Barney Bishop argued that the teacher failed to follow the policy, and that was the problem, not the statue, which he said has been shown to students before. He went so far as to claim that the teacher was asked to resign over “a number of other issues,” but this was the last straw. She would blame the photo for her resignation, he said, and the “mainstream media” would “twist it’ and not report the truth, as reported by CBS News.

Perhaps we should give the teacher the benefit of the doubt, and ask instead why anyone would find the statue “controversial” to begin with? Because it is a naked human? Renaissance artists thought the human body was beautiful, and if all nude images are eliminated from an art history class, just to be on the safe side, it would be not only a short course, but it would not be art history.

The truth is we often see in art what we most fear in ourselves. Art is representational. Pornography is exploitative. One is devoted to beauty, the other to prurient profiteering. That we do not understand the difference says more about us than about what our kids can handle.  

One of the great tragedies of this profoundly “Christian” country is that ever since Augustine, we have understood the body and soul as enemies. The soul is light, ephemeral, spiritual. The body is treacherous, dark, and inseparable from illicit desire.  But what about appropriate desire? What about Holy Eros? Do we not owe our very existence to desire?

Tallahassee Classical School is affiliated with Hillsdale College, an ultra-conservative “Christian” college and follows its curriculum. Why do so many fundamentalist evangelicals fear sex more than death? Why are they crusading to cleanse our schools of “controversy” narrowly defined as anything Ryan Walters calls “overly-sexualized”? Has he watched any TV commercials lately? It is the culture itself that over-sexualizes everything because sex sells.  That’s why we need educators who can bring some balance back to the battle between body and soul. Or do we trust politicians to do that?

As for what constitutes a “controversial image” that is “unsuitable” for school, why does this always come down to sex or sexual orientation? If advance permission must be granted to our overworked, underpaid, and perpetually harassed teachers (while we still have any left), then what about an image of a homeless person? Is that controversial in the richest nation on earth?  What about images of extreme weather caused by climate change? Might this be controversial because it teaches our kids that we would rather exploit the earth than revere it?  What about images of assault weapons advertising gun shows on billboards all over OKC, which normalizes our morbid fascination with the very weapons that kill so many of our children while they are in the classroom? Is that controversial? 

Or is it only nudity? Is it only the human body and human sexuality which we find “controversial”? If so, do we not send an even more dangerous message to our kids? Namely, that absent any healthy and artistic views of body and soul, we have effectively created both shame and fascination, sending them to the most exploitative and sordid sources of all, just a click away on their cell phones.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who wants to be president, has signed legislation aimed at cleansing wokeness from schools, effectively allowing even one parent complaint to end a teacher’s career. One bill banned schools from teaching about menstruation (since that is so unnatural and perverted) and backed partisan school board races, so that voters will know exactly who the new Puritans are. Meanwhile, every school should hire a “valid media specialist” to review books and make sure they are not about real life, but about mythical families like Ozzie and Harriet. 

Meanwhile the mayor of Florence has personally invited the fired teacher to visit his city, where the renowned statue is on display.  “Mistaking art for pornography is just ridiculous,” he said. Perhaps he could have said it differently. People who knowingly confuse art with pornography to get votes are ridiculous. And dangerous. Study up on the Salem Witch Trials for a reminder about what happens when religion and sexual paranoia mix. It happened here.

It can happen again.

The Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers is pastor of First Congregational Church UCC in Norman and retired senior minister of Mayflower Congregational UCC in Oklahoma City. He is currently Professor of Public Speaking, and Distinguished Professor of Social Justice Emeritus in the Philosophy Department at Oklahoma City University, and the author of eight books on religion and American culture, the most recent of which is, Saving God from Religion: A Minister’s Search for Faith in a Skeptical Age. Visit robinmeyers.com


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