Bookstore loses respect for art
Letter to the Editor
For heaven's sake, pull Weston. Raze Rubens. Burn Bernini. Slash Stieglitz. Hide Avedon. Trash Titian. Oh, what the heck, let's destroy the entire history of art. I have plenty of time to zero in on offensive books. I'll be here a while. It hasn't taken long, though, for me to realize that I am spending my Saturday afternoon in a place which is ashamed of the nude. It is a place we all know quite well — our very own Notre Dame Bookstore.
While the Hammes has graciously allowed space in which the art department can strut some of its stuff during Junior Parents Weekend, it has quite convincingly trumped itself just the same. While endeavoring to promote art, the bookstore has rather managed to discourage it, discount it, disavow it. Indeed, it has disallowed it.
In response to a complaint lodged by one woman who was "offended" (to quote the bookstore staff), the bookstore removed from display a piece which (cover your eyes, juniors) imaged a (gasp!) naked woman. Well, prudishness may scare me and shame may sadden me, (I wish someone would please explain to me in what way the female form in all its glory is appalling), but ignorance, however, absolutely terrifies me. Were the bookstore higher-ups to have learned anything from the New York "Sensations" exhibit, it should have been that one shouldn't make a mountain out of a molehill. But the mountain now looms just the same, ironically, by the bookstore's very design. If my mother were to complain about offensive art history books, my father about gender studies texts and my brother about those pesky Torts cards, should the bookstore not thus accommodate every whine?
Can I claim offense by that autographed print that the bookstore is charging a mere eight grand for (is such hype in and of itself not obscene?) and demand that it be removed from view? Should my wishes not, then, be catered to without delay? The bookstore staff, it claims (save a few art-sensitive souls), has an "obligation to provide a comfortable environment" for its patrons. Sure, we can all respect that, but we're not talking about any warranty of habitability here. I am a patron, as is every student on this campus. Should not my demands be met, then, as those of the "offended" woman were? Good ol' Bookstore Phil told me that "If [the bookstore] were a museum," things would be different. Perhaps.
In any case, I can find some comfort in the knowledge that the second piece by the same artist featured a woman who was just as naked as the first. And that one, by the way, was a crotch shot. Good thing Michelangelo didn't submit anything.
Adrienne N. Werge
Senior
Off-Campus
February 24, 2000
All Viewpoint Stories for Friday, February 25, 2000
