Friday Ephemera
Impressive cocks. // When couples go shopping, the menfolk tire first. (h/t, TDK) // With pencil and acrylic. // Casting shadows. // At last, pentagonal fruit. // But it’s what transformers do. // The same, on a budget. // A brief history of drum machines. And a book too. // Atomic pills. // Pondering pop culture, 1984. // Testing with noise. // Designer fire-making kit. // The Russian cheese label museum. (h/t, Coudal) // Logan’s Run street game. “Brief periods of running, wear comfortable shoes.” // I want one and so do you. // And finally, students suffer “apprehension, fear and triggering” because of underpants statue. It’s “assaulting,” a source of “undue stress” and making students “feel unsafe.”
The “couples going shopping” link reminds me of this ad.
Regarding the underpants statue, it’s yet another example of what happens when art that’s supposed to be “trangressive” and “challenging” transgresses against and challenges the wrong people.
And finally, students suffer . . . .
Clearly, they just don’t realize the New Gravity of the situation.
yet another example of what happens when art that’s supposed to be “transgressive” and “challenging” transgresses against and challenges the wrong people.
Yes, it’s interesting how often (and by what) our fearless feminist Valkyries can be made to “feel unsafe.” And inevitably, indignant and censorious. Steeped as they apparently are in professional victimhood, the students also claimed the statue could be “triggering” for some (hypothetical) people. How readily they use the language of post-traumatic stress disorders, which generally refer to people who’ve endured extremely dangerous and horrifying experiences – kidnappings, train crashes, torture and war. But whereas sufferers of PTSD are typically encouraged to deal with and overcome their feelings of anxiety, to enable them to function in the world, the liberated ladies of Wellesley College would rather ban anything in the world that they might – might – find bothersome.
Kevin Williamson sums up the feminist mystique in two words.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/370451/feminist-mystique-kevin-d-williamson
dicentra,
Thanks. Will include that in my next ‘elsewhere’ post.
Even Amanda Marcotte thinks the students upset by the statue are being “hysterical”.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/02/06/the_sleepwalker_at_wellesley_students_complain_that_a_statue_of_a_man_in.html
Patrick,
Heh. I’m mentally juxtaposing photos of the statue with the pretentious whining about it – e.g., “The power of the nearly nude, white, male body to disturb and discomfit. Even unconscious and vulnerable, he is threatening.” And it’s quite eerie to be in agreement with Amanda Marcotte. Maybe the planets have aligned. Of course the fact that Ms Marcotte can occasionally see victimhood rhetoric for what it is makes it all the more apparent that her own use of such posturing, to signal her credentials and/or browbeat others, is an act of colossal dishonesty.
[ Edited. ]
it’s interesting how often (and by what) our fearless feminist Valkyries can be made to “feel unsafe.”
They’re more like little baby eloi, only whinier.
I find it interesting that the mere representation of a male figure is taken to be intrinsically both sexual and threatening. Feminists like to deny that there’s any such thing as misandry, but this seems a fairly undeniable example of it.
This is not art! It’s a sexual assault!
Some of these people need to up their medication.
I denounce my own ableism.
This is not art! It’s a sexual assault!
The earnest statements of leftwing students are often difficult to distinguish from the ravings of mad people.
I’m not exactly his biggest fan, but I assume the artist, Tony Matelli, was (a) showing us his ability to make lifelike bronze sculpture, and (b) possibly implying some association between monstrous zombies and vulnerable sleepwalkers. (Which is an old idea and pretty much covered by umpteen zombie films.) Of course the dogmatic narcissists at Wellesley make it all about themselves and their own neurotic politics. For them, the sculpture is an upsetting reminder of “violent oppression” and “male privilege.” Presumably, the students would find Mr Matelli’s earlier female sleepwalker even more triggering and patriarchal.
That show with Tony Blackburn, George Michael, and Morrissey at the height of his quiff, is a great find.
The kids these days wouldn’t know good music if it happy-slapped them while screaming “Wub! Wub! Wub!”
Thanks for the first link David. The Name that Cock game will give me endless hours of fun.
The Name that Cock game will give me endless hours of fun.
If anyone feels an urge to know more about cocks, there is of course a book. For instance, I had no idea that there are weekly cock pageants.
“male privilege.” at a school that bans men?
Do they have a broken ironymeter?
I guess when artists are “pushing boundaries”, “shocking the proles” and all that, it’s only good when the squares get offended.
But feminists feeling awkward about it? This sort of thing clearly MUST NOT STAND!
Re the sculpture psychodrama, the artist Tony Matelli responds to the pearl-clutching feminists at Wellesley:
I’m not keen on sleepwalking underpants man. He’s a bit too Walking Dead for comfort.
Sculpture should be heroic, like this:
http://m.metrotimes.com/news/take-a-look-at-detroit-s-robocop-statue-1.1629190
Feminists will be pleased to know that RoboCop not only serves the public trust, protects the innocent and upholds the law, but he also shoots would-be rapists in the PIV zone.
Also he has an awesome spike that comes out of his titanium fist.
The shadow cube installation is a very nice piece of imagination and craftmanship.
How sad that the artist felt she had to accompany it with a load of art bollocks: “seminal experience”, “symbiosis of difference”.’
The light source intrigues me; it has to be very bright and very small.
Do they have a broken ironymeter?
They’re banned on university campuses anymore, like smoking and sidearms.
The Name that Cock game will give me endless hours of fun.
So glad to see that the referred creatures are Galliformes instead of NSFW thingses.
Also, my galliformes Pinterest board includes some impressive fowl plumage, as well as this exquisite joke of mine.
Come on. You all wish you’d thought of it first.
Ba-dum-tsshh.
I’ve always thought it would be better to have a ED-209 statue than a Robocop statue.
from the petition :
In signing, we assert that the undue stress that the “Sleepwalker” causes some of us is enough reason to move it inside the Davis Museum. We also stand firm that art, particularly outdoor art installations, are valuable parts of our community. We welcome outdoor art that is provocative without being a site of unnecessary distress for members of the Wellesley College community. Further, we ask that in the future, the Davis Museum and the College notify us before displaying public art, especially if it is of a particularly shocking or sensitive nature.
Wouldn’t moving the sculpture indoors would only move the triggering indoors thereby excluding triggerees from entering the museum which will lead to a petition to move the sculpture out of state or somewhere where no one will ever see it? I particularly like the demand that the museum/college “notify us before displaying public art.” The petitioners have a very clear idea of who should be in charge.
btw, apparently the Wellesley President is named “H. Kim Bottomly” which is triggering thoughts that that would make a fine name for a Bond girl.
The petitioners have a very clear idea of who should be in charge.
They usually do.
“Wouldn’t moving the sculpture indoors would only move the triggering indoors thereby excluding triggerees from entering the museum which will lead to a petition to move the sculpture out of state or somewhere where no one will ever see it?”
Exactly. If the statue were somewhere else, the demands would change.
Would it be too terribly blunt and insensitive to wonder out loud if long weeks spent in an all-female environment is driving these ladies a bit barmy in..er..certain ways? So that a statue of a semi-naked man might be making them more ‘uncomfortable’ than necessary
In any event, what it seems to have ‘triggered’ is the urge to control everything and everybody – a behaviour that some feminists accidentally lapse into from time to time.