"If the idea of thin privilege makes you angry, let me advance a theory: You are angry because you desperately NEED to feel superior to fat people. You NEED to look at yourself in the mirror and say, “Well, I might not have all my shit together, but at least I’m not fat.” You NEED to walk around and cast a disparaging eye on anyone who is ‘too’ fat according your vaunted sensibilities. You NEED to feel like, no matter what a fat person does — if they’re kinder than you, funnier than you, smarter than you — well that means fuck all because at least you’re not fat and that makes you BETTER THAN THEM."
- ArteToLife (via fatanarchy)
(via queerandpresentdanger)
Study for George Bataille’s Histoire de l’oeil by Hans Bellmer, 1946
(via gurldontbedumb)
The Shotacon and Lolicon genres of Japanese manga are probably the most troubling to Americans, who are lately concerned about pedophilia and child pornography in a way that pretty much precludes rational conversation. (Although we are out ahead of about six countries that have banned such images, even though (a) they don’t depict real people, and (b) said countries do not generally prohibit images of other criminal activity, such as murder, rape, theft, etc.)
In all events, these genres often don’t seem to be about sexualizing realistic children any more than kitten-play is about sexualizing real cats. In lolicon, the girls are pre-pubescents with enormous sexual appetites (and sometimes huge breasts); in shota, the boys tend to have
matureginormous cocks.Or something. Tamaki Saito breaks it down:
“shota texts by female yaoi authors are structurally identical to yaoi texts, while shota by male otaku clearly position these little boys as young girls with penises.”
Now that we have that cleared up, you be the judge: is this a little boy with a man-sized cock, or a little girl with a man-sized cock? And which upsets your value system more?
(via linyuxiao)
Couldn’t have you miss this gem of a podcast - Catherine Opie and curator Britt Salvesen on MAPPLETHORPE! Listen in!
This week’s Modern Art Notes Podcast features Los Angeles County Museum of Art curator Britt Salvesen and artist Catherine Opie on the occasion of LACMA’s presentation of three Robert Mapplethorpe portfolios: The “X Portfolio,” which features sadomasochistic imagery; the “Y Portfolio” of floral still-lifes and the “Z Portfolio” of nude portraits African-American men.
LACMA installed the three portfolios — apparently the first time an American art museum has exhibited them since the late 1980s — in October, 2012. They’ll remain on view in the museum’s Ahmanson Building, in a gallery just inside the front door, through March 24. Salvesen, who organized the installation, hung the three portfolios in staggered horizontal rows on dark red walls.
No artist has more thoughtfully mined Mapplethorpe’s oeuvre than Cathy Opie. Just as Mapplethorpe considered and re-considered self-portraiture, so too has Opie. This is a detail from an early Opie self-portrait: Bo from the series “Being and Having” (1991). In 2006 I wrote this about where some of Opie’s work comes from.
Opie was the subject of a retrospective at the Guggenheim in 2008. Her “Twelve Miles to the Horizon: Sunrises and Sunsets,” is on view at the Long Beach Museum of Art through March 24. She will debut a new series of work at Regen Projects in Los Angeles later this month. Opie is widely considered the foremost synthesizer of Mapplethorpe’s work: Not only has Opie also focused her lens on leather and SM communities as did Mapplethorpe, but she shares his interest in portraiture and composition.
Listen to the program: Download the program or listen in your browser. Subscribe to The Modern Art Notes Podcast via iTunes, SoundCloud or RSS. See images of artworks discussed on the show.
(via quickhand)
