Art Imitates Life

Noor Abed's public art installation, Rotten, in the making at Ramallah's Manarah Square. Courtesy Noor Abed

From Ramallah in Occupied Palestine comes the interesting story of 21-year-old artist Noor Abed, who got tired of comments and catcalls from men on the street and decided to see if she could do a little consciousness-raising with art. FTA in the UAE paper, The National:

Ms Abed decided to place a mannequin in a long white dress in Manara Square in central Ramallah. Then, with two male colleagues, she urged passersby to write comments on the dress. She asked them to write what they might have thought had they seen a woman walking down the street in similar attire.

The comments veered between corny and outright filthy. But almost all had as a common thread: sex, or the desire for it.

Sex is universal. The desire for it is universal. But the expression of that desire varies from culture to culture, and has historically been oppressive to women and those whose sexuality differs from the norm.

Sex advice columnist Dan Savage, an icon of our queer community, talks to the parent of a gay adolescent and advises him to treat his gay son like a daughter:

You should also regard your son, at least through his adolescence, as more of a daughter to you than a son. We tend to be more protective of our daughters — our straight daughters —than we are of our sons. Why? A sexist desire to keep our daughters “pure”? That’s a part of it, sure, but there’s also this: Men are pigs, and people on the receiving end of male sexual desire and attention are in more danger than people on the receiving end of female sexual desire and attention. (In general — individual results may vary.) Testosterone is the crystal meth of hormones, a badass drug, and men are more likely to be abusive and violent. The prevalence of HIV among gay men makes the stakes higher for your son. So don’t allow him to date anyone you don’t get to meet and approve of, and don’t confuse “being supportive” with “letting him do whatever/whomever he wants.” Be active, be engaged, and never stop being his meddling, interfering, hypersuspicious dad.

Kudos to Danny for voicing those sentiments, and kudos to Ms. Abed also for her courageous art!

Is legal sex anal?

Tracey Emin: Is Legal Sex Anal? 1998,
Pink neon and dimmer switch.
Photograph: Stephen White/Tate, London 2007

I was listening to NPR the other day and they had a piece about an art exhibition in London that I'd really like to go to. Here's a summary about the radio piece from the NPR website:

A major art exhibition in London at one of the UK's top galleries is not open to anyone younger than 18.

"Seduced," at the Barbican Gallery, is billed as the most sexually explicit fine-art exhibition ever staged. It attempts to show 2,500 years of sexuality in world art, and to explore how attitudes about what is erotic art and what is pornography have changed through the ages.

When are scientists going to finally invent that Beam-me-up-Scotty contraption? Also, while I'm wishing ... I want the service or device to be reasonably priced.

Philip Roth, my 'bro

Surprised? Yes ... he’s an ally of mine ... so it seems. I find that many adults are embarassed to say that they are faithful practitioners of the gentle (maybe) art of masturbation. I’m glad to say that he has come out as a pleasure-seeker with no hope of propagation.

In a conversation with Hermione Lee in the October 1, 2007 issue of The New Yorker, he discusses his new book, Exit Ghost. And, within that discussion, he talks about a character named Kliman. This novel continues the journey of Roth’s character in several books - Nathan Zuckerman. Zuckerman hates Kliman for several reasons, one being “the kind of biography Zuckerman believes Kliman to be writing.” Another is that Kliman writes of Lonoff’s “secret history.” Lonoff is a former professor and onetime inspiration for Zuckerman. In his conversation with Hermione Lee, Roth says:

It would be as wrong-headed to read into the presentation of Kliman an attack on the genre of biography as to read, say, my presentation of Portnoy as an attack on the practice of masturbation. I count myself a friend of both.

Moi, aussi.

I have designed a t-shirt that says ...

Front: Dr. J. Elders' Magic Rub
Back: always satisfied ... ‘nuff said

PolCat says that the reference to Dr. J. Elders is too obscure. I'm referring to one of my heroes, the former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Jocelyn Elders.

Here's Wikipedia on Dr. Elders:

In 1994, she was invited to speak at a United Nations conference on AIDS. She was asked whether it would be appropriate to promote masturbation as a means of preventing young people from engaging in riskier forms of sexual activity, and she replied, "I think that it is part of human sexuality, and perhaps it should be taught." This remark caused great controversy, especially among conservative Christian groups and right wing interests in the United States. President Clinton, who had been recently traumatized by the Republican takeover of Congress, asked for her resignation.

Yes, that hypocrite, Clinton, asked for her resignation. I hope he feels great shame when he thinks of Dr. Elders and the way he treated her.