Sexuality, Censorship & Performance Art: Comprehensive Study Notes

Continuities and Transformations in Sexuality and Art

• 1960s civil-rights template ➔ women’s & gay-liberation movements; artists both mirror and advance these shifts.
• Example: “Love. Spit. Love.” (1 May 1991, NYC)
  • Three nude couples (lesbian, gay, heterosexual) kissed beneath U.S. flags.
  • Goal: counter rising gay-bashing & censorship.
  • Reception: downtown art fans enthusiastic; Phil Donahue’s TV audience uneasy; conservatives saw “obscenity.”
  • Continuity with 1960s “happenings,” yet evidence of social distance travelled since.
• Sex as persistent theme in art controversies:
  • Gender roles questioned.
  • Explicit sexual displays expose costs/benefits of deviating from norms.

Legal Confrontations over Performance Art (1960s–1970s)

• Charlotte Moorman & Nam June Paik’s “Opera Sextronique” (9 Feb 1967, NYC)
  • Moorman played cello wearing light-up bikini, later topless gown.
  • Arrested under public-lewdness statute (“act which openly outrages public decency”).
  • Judge Milton Shalleck’s 29-page decision: moralizing on “bearded, bathless ‘Beats’,” Greenwich Village lifestyle; conviction but suspended sentence due to female “frailty.”
• Moorman’s later stunts: underwater concerts, ice-cello, TV-bra, helium-balloon suspension—judge had isolated one act from a large oeuvre.
• Illustrates early collision of avant-garde body display with law; nostalgia today for “merely bared breasts” vs. later, more graphic work.

Feminist Collaborative Art and “The Dinner Party”

• Judy Chicago’s installation (1974–1980)
  • Triangular table, each side ≈ $46.5\,\text{ft}$.
  • $39$ place settings (mythic & historical women); plates move from flat ➔ high-relief = women’s emergence.
  • “Heritage Floor”: $999$ cast-porcelain tiles of exemplary women.
  • Media: embroidery, ceramics, storytelling—valorises traditionally “female” crafts; over $400$ workers, consciousness-raising model.
• Critical split
  • Praise (Carrie Rickey: landmark “B.D.P./A.D.P.”) vs. scorn.
  • Robert Hughes: “Taiwanese souvenir factory… ceramic 3-D pornography.”
  • Hilton Kramer: “vulgar,” “libel on the female imagination,” piety-ridden.
• 1990 UDC acquisition attempt
  • $1.6\,\text{million}$ bond to renovate library as multicultural arts center.
  • Washington Times front-page assault: claimed piece “obscene,” hinted lesbian impropriety.
  • House retaliated: cut $1.3\,\text{million}$ from UDC budget.
  • Student occupation (11 days); Chicago withdrew offer—art framed as threat to scarce educational funds.
• Reveals fear of female collaboration, overt genital imagery & public money.

Media, Mass Culture & Sexual Controversy (1980s–1990s)

• Video-game “Custer’s Revenge” (Atari era) = interactive rape fantasy; company claimed “she’s smiling.”
• TV trends
  • Shift to independent, sexually frank female leads (“Cagney & Lacey,” “Murphy Brown” pregnancy episode = #1 rating).
  • AIDS epidemic (mid-1980s) chilled on-screen promiscuity; Fox’s “Married…With Children” countered with raunch.
  • Sponsors hire “screeners”; fear of boycotts vs. ratings chase.
• Made-for-TV abortion films
  • “Roe v. Wade” (NBC 1989): 17–19 script drafts; “vanilla custard” balance; ad slots sold at >1\,\text{million} loss.
  • “Absolute Strangers” (CBS 1991): lobby pressure led by Rev. Wildmon; claims of even-handedness still scared sponsors.

Abortion, Reproductive Rights & Visual Art

• Shock works employing fetal remains
  • College in Virginia banned painting with actual aborted fetus (state law on human remains).
  • Shawn Eichman’s “Alchemy Cabinet” (included own fetus); cited by Heritage Foundation as NEA abuse.
• Guerrilla Girls poster (1991): Mona Lisa w/ fig-leaf gag—links abortion rights gag-rule (Title X) to art censorship.
  • Supreme Court decision Rust v. Sullivan (1991) upheld clinic gag-rule; Congressional override vetoed by Pres. Bush.
• SisterSerpents, Sue Coe, etc. = collective, militant feminist graphics (“Fuck a Fetus,” parodies of Serrano) responding to abortion debates, AIDS.

Children, Sexuality, and the Law

• Societal denial of child sexuality ➔ art uproars
  • Sculpture “Playmates” (New Haven 1983) = boys reading Playboy; removed near church/school.
  • Nueva Luz photos (Ricardo Barros): nude wife & kids; NY Post crusade, funding agencies stood firm.
• Alice Sims “Water Babies” (1988)
  • Nude toddler superimposed on lilies.
  • Photo-lab tip ➔ police raid, kids seized overnight; no prosecution once “no intent” found.
• Jock Sturges case (1990)
  • Lab alerted police; assistant arrested, FBI raid w/o warrant; thousands of negatives seized; grand jury refused to indict after $17$ months; professional damage lingering.
• Legislative arsenal
  • 1986 Child Sexual Abuse & Pornography Act; 1988 Child Protection & Obscenity Act (record-keeping on models since 1978) ➔ paperwork burden; Popular Photography: “keep your subjects’ pants on.”
  • 1990 revision passed in late-night crime bill; implementation delayed amid lawsuits.

Government Policy, Moral Panic & Anti-Pornography Campaigns

• Meese Commission (1985–86) used victim testimony & slides to claim porn ➔ violence (contradicting 1970 report).
  • National Obscenity Enforcement Unit created; SWAT-style raids; $400\%$ rise (1988–89) in obscenity suits.
  • RICO laws extended to porn, rap music.
• “Moral (Sex) Panic” concept (Stanley Cohen): folk devils, media amplification; art controversies fit wider pattern (sex, race, religion, patriotism all flashpoints).

Feminist Divides: Anti-Porn vs Sex-Positive & the “American Psycho” Debate

• Anti-porn feminism (WAVPM, WAP, Dworkin & MacKinnon)
  • Slogan: “Pornography is the theory; rape is the practice.”
  • Civil-rights styled ordinances (Indy, Minneapolis, Suffolk Co.) struck down.
• Sex-positive feminists / FACT
  • Argue patriarchal oppression ≠ solved by censorship; demand more diverse, consensual sexual imagery.
• Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho (1990)
  • $300,000$ advance; Simon & Schuster cancelled pre-pub after leaks & staff protest.
  • NOW (LA) led boycott; phone hotline reading nail-gun rape scene.
  • Critics: Norman Mailer defended publication (satire), Roger Rosenblatt urged “snuffing.”
  • Debate emblematic of free-speech v. harm-to-women clash; label “politically correct” emerges.
• Contrast: Philippe Sollers’ Women (Columbia U. Press) equally misogynist rhetoric but fewer violent deeds ➔ minor fuss.

Phallic Art, Pornography Debates & Post-Porn Performance

• Judith Bernstein’s gigantic charcoal “Screw” drawings (1969 → 12 ft, 30 ft)
  • 1974 Philadelphia Civic Center rejected “Horizontal” hairy screw; supporters wore “Where’s Bernstein?” buttons.
• Cartoon (Atlanta Constitution): abstract dot interpreted as lofty art vs. “G-spot” porn—captures public/elite divide.
• Annie Sprinkle
  • Former porn star, “post-porn modernist,” debuted at Franklin Furnace’s 1984 “Second Coming.”
  • Slides quantify sex work ($\approx 1475\,\text{ft}$ of fellatio, $2.5×$ average woman’s wage).
  • Performance “Annie’s Cervix” (audience inspects with flashlight) triggered Morality Action Committee pickets; corporate sponsors withdrew.
• Franklin Furnace basement closed (May 1990) after fire-code complaint; staff suspected political retaliation.

The NEA 4 and Performance Art Under Siege

• Newspaper triggers
  • Evans & Novak column labelled Karen Finley “chocolate-smeared” outrage; Washington Times: NEA = “porn palace.”
• NEA dynamics
  • Solo Performance/Mimes panel recommended $23,000$ for four artists: Karen Finley, Holly Hughes, Tim Miller, John Fleck.
  • Chair John Frohnmayer (phone-polled Council) overruled grants (Aug 1990) citing “political realities.”
• Artists’ profiles
  • Finley: visceral rants against patriarchy; body smeared with chocolate, yams, sprouts (“stuccoed”); mixes sacred/profane.
  • Fleck: comedic toilet-altar, fish, androgyny.
  • Miller: gay rights/AIDS anger; rewrote Declaration of Independence.
  • Hughes: lesbian satire (“Well of Hominess”).
• Lawsuit (27 Sep 1990, US Dist. Ct. CA)
  • Claims: First-Amendment violation, procedural breach; privacy count (Finley application leak).
  • Evidence: Council members’ derogatory “junk and garbage” remarks; peer-panel integrity undermined.
• Subsequent twists
  • Some venues/peers returned grants in protest; “re-grant” funds raised.
  • November 1991: Hughes & Miller win new NEA grants—Frohnmayer: “I will not blacklist.”

Conceptualising Performance Art: Characteristics & Social Role

• Origins: Futurists, Russian post-revolution, 1960s conceptualism—shift from object ➔ process.
• Traits
  • Multidisciplinary (visual art, theatre, dance).
  • Autobiographical, confessional; aligns with consciousness-raising.
  • Audience = witnesses; often intimate spaces, low budgets, improvisation.
  • Blurs sacred/profane; uses everyday materials (food, bodily fluids) for transformation metaphors.
• Social function
  • Arthur C. Danto: “disturbatory art” ▸ immediate moral/ social confrontation.
  • Outlet for women, LGBTQ+ to author roles absent in mainstream theatre; empowerment through self-representation.
• Vulnerabilities
  • Lacks powerful institutional patrons ➔ easy political target.
  • Misread by wider public as solipsistic or pornographic; media headlines weaponised as “hand grenades.”

Key Numerical & Legal References

• “Dinner Party” bond: $1.6\,\text{million}$; Congressional cut: $1.3\,\text{million}$.
• NEA obscenity prosecutions rise $400\%$ (1988–89).
• “Roe v. Wade” film ad-revenue shortfall >1\,\text{million}.
• Child-model record-keeping applied back to $1978$.
• Sturges investigation: $17$ months before grand-jury refusal.

Ethical & Philosophical Implications

• Tension between free expression & perceived communal harm (obscenity, children, violence).
• Gendered double standards: male phallic art tolerated (Oldenburg) vs. female genital imagery labelled obscene.
• Use of public money: art funding operates as proxy battleground for broader cultural wars (race, sexuality, religion).
• Moral-panic cycles show how media framing creates “folk-devils,” diverting from systemic issues.
• Feminist schisms reveal complexity: liberation vs. protectionism; representation vs. restriction.

Real-World Connections & Legacies

• Guerrilla Girls’ statistics still inform museum gender audits.
• Title X gag-rule debates echo in present reproductive-health funding fights.
• Record-keeping laws for models anticipate contemporary verification protocols in online content moderation.
• NEA’s peer-review vs. political override dilemma shapes ongoing public-funding governance.
• Performance art’s strategies—body as text, role-creation—feed into digital/social-media activism today.