body ownership

So the girl who artificially inseminated herself at Yale and proceeded to herbally abort any possible pregnancy? Good for her. Although she’s going about it a bit brashly or with a lack of finesse, the issues she’s raised are amazing. If it really did happen and is not staged performance art (which is every bit as legitimate in the art world– stfu mainstream media) I am concerned about her health. Herbal abortions are just toxins and work through giving you low-level poisoning, so I hope she had good advice on that front. It was her own body, either way. The sperm was theoretically gotten from men who knew its destination. No harm, no foul. And the great big mystery of whether she ever was or wasn’t pregnant? Delicious and relevant.

I am surprised that people get so wrapped up in the way they think other people should be living their lives. When rape is discussed, there’s usually a subtext about whether the girl was asking for it– was she living a life we would not condone? George Clooney’s girlfriend– if she got raped at a party, would we pay attention? Only long enough to tell her to stop being a whore on the dance floor. Are we so wrapped up in a mob mentality that we need to force others into our mode of living in order to feel comfortable with ourselves?

Here’s some other things in the art world that are close to that topic. Damien Hirst’s works, like the shark or the mating cow and bull, depict dead animals. These were not accidental deaths or found-object skeletons– these animals were killed specifically for the piece of art. I’m not going to put a moral judgment on that, simply follow a train of thought (as the pieces were hopefully designed to do). Enter Guillermo Vargas, who allegedly (the humane society says differently) chained a stray dog in a salon and starved it to death. Alright. If Hirst’s work is acceptable, in which the moment of death is an abstract (the title of the shark piece is “The Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living”, Vargas had hit a vein with the reality of death.

I’ve completely lost track of where I’m going with this and need to go to studio. So, expect refinement later.