Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Moses and Jesus had them, from what I've heard

Lately I'm blogging way too much about work, which is something I do not want to do. When stuff is going down, though, what else can I do? This week some of my colleagues are putting up a stink about a very solid photo exhibit at my campus. The exhibit, which includes at least 50 images related to assisted reproduction technology, has one small picture of women holding signs at a reproductive rights rally, a picture of an unclothed female torso (no face), and an analogous image of a male torso. A colleague said (I'm paraphrasing, but you'll get the gist): "I'm the sponsor of a Christian student group, and at the student organization fair, our table was really close to the naked pictures. It was *not good*! It was *not good*!" He was gripping the seminar table as he said these words.

We work at a private, explicitly secular institution. I really didn't think we'd ever be having conversations about whether Christians have penises and breasts (I am a Catholic Christian, and I have the latter, though not the former.) From what I learned today, some Christians don't want to be exposed to pictures of body parts that many of them also have. I grew up in a household with a (Catholic Christian) mother who specialized in painting nudes; at this moment, four of her paintings and drawings (including one of a hugely pregnant woman with a broken arm--it's awesome!) hang in my house. Updating my little family on the "naked people drama" at dinner tonight, Elliot just shook his head and said, "Well, you probably shouldn't invite that guy to *our* house, Mom--I don't think he'd feel comfortable." Lucky for all of us, I don't think *I'd* feel comfortable, either.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Holy Cow! is all I can say.