Blog #9

This week’s lecture focused on The Culture Wars, sponsorship and censorship in the United States. The Culture Wars deal with various pieces of artwork and artists. Many artists do not make enough money to cover their expenses and therefore are funded by wealthy individuals. Also many of the artists that we have focused on in women’s studies 250 receive funding. Art and politics are closely relates. They are connected through the flows of money. Art portrays topics that are political in society and conflicts arise over the funding of these types of artwork.

The “Culture Wars” are a series of debates about the politics of art. Many believe that there should be no funding of art that is offensive, pornographic, or against their religion. Artists retaliate by saying that taking away this money can be considered censorship. One specific instance in the culture wars that caught my attention was the NEA Four. John Frohnmayer, chair of he National Endowment for the arts, vetoed the grants to four artists Holly Hughes, Karen Finley, Tim Miller, and Jon Fleck. These artists are criticized for expressing themes of sexuality, promoting gay pride, and challenging social taboos. Art is a form of expression and while I feel that sometimes it needs to be regulated the funding for these artists to express their emotions and opinions should not be taken away because of censorship. In my opinion, censorship does not always allow us to have a diverse perspective if we are not exposed to other cultures and political topics through art and various other learning devices. I also really enjoy that our women’s studies class in particular embraces diversity and includes artists who are under the radar and not in the category of “great” and well-known artists. As a student, I feel this exposes me to more that there is in the world and allows me to grow and expand on that knowledge. A second part of the lecture I found very interesting was the article about Texas A&M students being able to opt out of funding the university’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered resource center if it conflicts with their religious beliefs. I do not agree with this law and I feel that all students no matter their sexuality deserve a place to get help and feel comfortable and that is what this resource center is for.

Also for this week we read an article written by Neil C. Patten. The first line caught my attention, “Political and artistic expressions are both ancient and symbolic endeavors.” Patten compares and contrast art and politics. The differences between the two are not very clear. Art is a form of expressing political actions and ideas. Another part that stuck out to me was, “It is said  [*562] that everything is political;  ⁿ¹¹ some critics, moreover, hold that anything is art.  ⁿ¹² If there is a difference then, this is it: all art is political, but not all political expression is artistic. Art and politics are very closely related. Patten also discusses our first amendment rights and that we should have the rights to express ourselves in any way and the government should not be able to take away those artistic rights through censorship.