Judy Fenton, your one-issue candidate!

[elfs]

Judy Fenton is running for Seattle City Council, and she's running for one reason and one reason only. She hates a piece of public art, and wants to use her authority as a member of the city council to pressure the Seattle Art Museum to have it removed. The art in question is the sculpture Father and Son, which features two nudes, one an adult male, the other a young boy both reaching out one to another, surrounded by fountains. The pumps run on a schedule that causes the fountains to rise up, obscuring one figure or the other most of the time. The artist, Louise Bourgeois, is famous for her sculptures on sexuality, trauma, childhood, and alienation-- not always all at once in the same piece, mind you. The most common interpretation of Father and Son is one of alienation, of the inability of the two figures to succesfully reach out to one another, or even to clearly see one another through the emotional mist and rain created by the social impositions of masculinity.

I went to the Seattle Art Museum's sculpture park earlier this year with a bunch of fourth-graders. They didn't find anything difficult about the statue. They thought it was a bit strange, but neither shocking nor particularly memorable. What was much more cool, to them at least, were the watercarved benches that looked too much like staring eyeballs from behind, or the hanging indoor art inside the park's visitor center.

Fenton claims that after all we've done to try and teach kids to be safe, the sculpture sends the wrong message. She's not sure how, but if she were on the city council she might have the power to have the statue removed. She's been endorsed by the Republicans, and we should probably take their word on whether or not her position is right: after all, Republicans totally know how to identify sexual deviants among us.

Personally, I think Ms. Fenton needs to get a life. There is zero lewd about that sculpture, and no "sexual predator" is going to use it as a way to convince his victime of, well, of anything. What's next? Preventing kids from viewing Michelangelo's David, or Boticelli's Venus, or demanding that Disney stop distributing the uncut edition of My Neighbor Totoro because there's a scene where the father bathes with his kids? I mean, come on, she's taking the whole "Men are predators, we must keep them in cages, we can't even begin to suggest that they can be healthy caregivers without keeping a sharp eye on them." Ms. Fenton is pushing a line of thought that's destructive to both fathers and children. Don't buy.

At least in the Oral Roberts University scandal, it's Mrs. Roberts who's accused of having an adulterous affair with a college boy-toy.

Comments

[hydrolagus.livejournal.com]

Deeply lame. My reply on the forum:
My impression from working with the public in other venues is that most children, who usually learn *very* early that being naked is socially unacceptable, are more likely to giggle about the nakedness rather than be confused by it; on a par with animals pooping at the zoo. It isn't a classy take, but it's a likely one.
I don't like the sculpture there personally because I find it a terribly sad one for such a prominent place, but lewd or in need of removal? Hardly.

[sierra-nevada.livejournal.com]

There is another response to "all men are predators": the burqa. Perhaps it should be suggested out loud that Ms. Fenton wear one.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I totally love that icon.

[sierra-nevada.livejournal.com]

Me, too. That's why I appropriated it.

He is one of the "it" boys of the moment. I'm sure that will give his presidential bid a good bump ...

[fallenpegasus]

I was just reading a while ago about volunteer orgs complaining out one side of their face that they can't get enough men to work as line volunteers, and out the other side of their face that they keep imposing stronger and stricter checks, watch methodoligies, and outright suspiction on the part of the increasingly female staff and managers about men who volunteer anyway.

Volunteerism for men is no upside and all downside. Having a dozen character witnesses and multiple angle-of-view unimpeachable video evidence is insufficent protection.

Judy Fenton, your one-issue candidate!

[(Anonymous)]

Perhaps you should look up the legal ramifications of the word "slander" Mr. Sternberg, and also learn more about the candidate's platform before you jump off the deep end and spew your oh-so typical liberal crap. She is not alone by a long-shot. And just because you and your buddies like to ride bikes semi-nude past this atrocious piece of junk the so-called artist (ha, ha)pretends is significantly memorable, does not mean that the rest of us appreciate your ill behavior. That is partly why she is running for City Council, so that the rest of us have a say about the quality of life here in Seattle. This is not San Francisco Mr. Sternberg, never will be. If you want San Francisco values, move back there. We are just reminding you and your friends that it is not. Oh, and I am a Seattle resident who is educated in the arts (Ivy League)and know what culture is. This piece of metal you call art is NOT. It's simply a bullhorn for the off-the-deep-end values you and your group of liberals choose to shove down everyone's throat. Do me a favor, YOU GET A LIFE!

Re: Judy Fenton, your one-issue candidate!

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

Hi troll. Elf has thousands of Internet fans, some of whom know how to track IP addresses. He could give classes in libel, slander and the difference between. Be thankful he's not running for city council. Just FYI.

Re: Judy Fenton, your one-issue candidate!

[omahas.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I am a Seattle resident who is educated in the arts (Ivy League)and know what culture is.

But apparently not how to look up words in a dictionary. Go to Google. Type "define:slander". You will learn that slander is spoken defamation. What you are accusing my husband of (falsely, btw) is libel. If you are going to accuse someone of something, you should actually use the correct legal term.

It's always amusing when someone makes an attack like this...inevitably, they do so anonymously, because they are too much of a coward to stand up and face the accused.

But you usually find Trolls hiding under things anyway.

Re: Judy Fenton, your one-issue candidate!

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Child, child, child. Slander is spoken aloud. Libel is what you mean.