Just a little word of warning: if you have a weak stomach, you might want to just pass on this one. I had written a fairly long post on this, but held off on actually publishing it. However, Brett McCracken’s analysis and commentary is spot on, and what’s more, something this abominable needs to be dragged out into the light and exposed for the travesty that it is.
So with that being said, here’s Brett McCracken on Aliza Shvarts’ “abortion art” project:
There is a lot to be disturbed by in this little viral provocation. Of course, the cavalier treatment of pregnancy and abortion (as mere tools in an artistic creation — even if just on the conceptual level) is one thing; and the notion that anything so disgusting (a cube of menstrual blood from self-induced abortions?) could be considered art is another…
But the most frightening aspect of this whole thing, for me, is that it shows just how inaccessible (and out of fashion) truth is in the academy today. When someone like Shvarts can blatantly lie to the press and write it off as part an academic project, what does that say about our academic standards? Where would she get the idea that education (formerly known as the search for truth) can be founded on lies and the privileging of ambiguity?
…Shvarts’ project shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, then, and Yale should look no further than their own professors if they want someone to blame. If we teach our students that all reality is perceptual, all morality personal, and all truth a narrativized fiction, “Abortion Girl” is the least we should expect.
Wikipedia has some background info.
This entire affair is one of the most disgusting and depressing things that I’ve read — from Shvarts’ actual deed (and her incredibly cavalier and naive approach to it) to the poor way in which Yale handled it.
I don’t normally throw the word “wicked” around, as it contains a lot of baggage, but in this case, I can’t think of any other word that quite suffices.
Kyrie eleison… Lord have mercy.