<p>And all the little hipster beltway dweebs in the media are just fawning all over themselves to prove how much better and smarter and chic they are than the rubes having fun in Sturgis.</p>
<p>The Sturgis rally sounds a lot like Burning Man. Non-conformists gathering for a huge ourdoor event. Kind of an “eighteen to eighty, blind, crippled, or crazy” party scene. Not my idea of fun, but any presidential candidate who doesn’t realize he is representing ALL Americans won’t be an effective leader. I bet many of those in attendance have gun permits & are NRA members. They likely hold jobs that require them to get their hands dirty. A president has to represent these people, too.</p>
<p>I wonder if you’d all be so offended if the Obamas attended a showing of *The Vagina Monologues? *Or is it acceptable to couch the outrageous as “art?” I wonder if you’d give a thumbs up to the bikers who hung out with Ken Kesey?</p>
<p>attending what amounts to a soft porn rally sure should make McCain’s evangelical base really happy. But the again another evangelical political darling held a funraiser in a Las Vegas strip club.</p>
<p>And I would love to see Cindy Mc take up hubbys suggestion, don a bikini, play with a banana in the Buffalo Chips competition. Real classy fella.</p>
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If that excites you, enjoy. It’s certainly not anything I’d want to see.</p>
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<p>Don’t even go there. It’s not outrageous and it is art… my daughter was in a production of it; I should know. I guess next you’ll be saying attending a production of Equss is outrageous because Daniel Radcliffe goes buff on stage. They are not competing for the most cat calls and droolers as the Miss Buffalo Chip contest does. If you’re going to judge everyone who has attended a performance of these productions, then I hope you have lots of time on your hands.</p>
<p>My daughter had this review published sometime back (no offense):</p>
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<p>And the Left calls out Christian Conservatives for being preachy moralizers. What a bunch of sanctimonious dweebs some “liberals” are. But we already knew that.</p>
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Because your D was in a production you are the arbiter of what constitutes art? LOL! </p>
<p>Woodwork’s D has done a fine job explaining how V Monologues has removed “the dignity that civilization attaches to being a human-being.” The play is no more “art” than the Buffalo Chip contest.</p>
<p>And a lot less fun.</p>
<p>“Blind partisanship is such a fascinating spectator sport, one requiring more mental gymnastics than a Chinese contortionist!—”</p>
<p>Yes, and the same feminist’s sensitivities willing to gloss over Obama’s calling a female reporter “sweetie”. These are the same people who were willing to give Bill Clinton and his hatchet men slack as they tried to portray his female conquests as “trailer trash”. Rules for treating women are very different if you have a “D” behind your name.</p>
<p>stickershock - have you seen the play or just read reviews? Have you read the script or book? I can find reviews that support my argument. It’s a personal opinion, but you are basing your opinion on hearsay. </p>
<p>At any rate, WW’s daughter does not reject that the play is art; she just doesn’t agree with the premise and how the messages are portrayed. Frankly, I know LOTS of women who have been victims of sexual abuse and violence who find that this script speaks very strongly to them.</p>
<p>And really, you can’t compare the experience of going to see a play, and a spouse who offers up his wife (even in a joke) to a crowd with oglers and undignified rebel-rousers. I guarantee you if Obama had done the same, the world media would be all over the story - he is held to different standards as poetsheart has so eloquently articulated in many posts. And I suspect if Obama ever pulled anything like that with Michelle, she’d be the one making the headline.</p>
<p>stickershock, you have a daughter in the performing arts, right? I can hardly see comparing a topless/nude beauty contest with a theatrical play or musical that may involve topless or nude performers or sexual themes/topics. To you, Vagina Monologues is not OK. What about Hair? Full Monty? My D was in a musical at her college this year that had themes of child prostitution and she appeared topless in sexual scenes. In no way would she ever be in a nude beauty contest, however. I see NO comparison, sorry. Works of literature or theater/performance are not the same as getting up in front of people for the sake of oogling your body. </p>
<p>McCain seems into making jokes lately in his public comments and ads. No matter his views on the issues, I find that type of politicing very unappealing. I’m not voting for a comedian. Stick with issues.</p>
<p>Emma said:</p>
<p>"If I can’t dance, it’s not my revolution!</p>
<p>"
The free expression of the hopes and aspirations of a people is the greatest and only safety in a sane society.
At the dances I was one of the most untiring and gayest. One evening a cousin of Sasha, a young boy, took me aside. With a grave face, as if he were about to announce the death of a dear comrade, he whispered to me that it did not behoove an agitator to dance. Certainly not with such reckless abandon, anyway. It was undignified for one who was on the way to become a force in the anarchist movement. My frivolity would only hurt the Cause.
I grew furious at the impudent interference of the boy. I told him to mind his own business. I was tired of having the Cause constantly thrown into my face. I did not believe that a Cause which stood for a beautiful ideal, for anarchism, for release and freedom from convention and prejudice, should demand the denial of life and joy. I insisted that our Cause could not expect me to become a nun and that the movement would not be turned into a cloister. If it meant that, I did not want it. “I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody’s right to beautiful, radiant things.” Anarchism meant that to me, and I would live it in spite of the whole world — prisons, persecution, everything. Yes, even in spite of the condemnation of my own closest comrades I would live my beautiful ideal. (p. 56)</p>
<p>Teriwitt, you can’t possibly have read the review WW posted and believe his D considers V monologues to be art. </p>
<p>Snoozie, holding a performance on a stage does not automatically earn the art imprimatur. You also have no idea how the audience perceived your D’s play. Some may have considered it art; some may have not; some were surely “oogling” her body. As WW’s D writes, “simply strip-mining the palisade that separates civilization from barbarism by buoyantly sexualizing a six-year-old girl serves no moral or civilized purpose.” Not having seen your D’s child prostitution musical, I can’t say how I’d classify it.</p>
<p>^^ what she said! (Barrons’ post).</p>
<p>SS, most people would consider a piece of theater…a play or a musical… as an art form and not the same as Cow Chip beauty contest. </p>
<p>I don’t care what Woodwork’s D considers to be art. Conceivably, if the piece of art is not aligned with her values or politics, she may not like it. But usually a play is considered an art FORM. Someone may not consider it “art”, and that’s fine. But the nature of the performing arts is well, an ART form.</p>
<p>I don’t care how the audience perceived the mainstage musical at my D’s university. It was part of their DRAMA department, a performing arts degree program. One might HATE the art piece, but it is still an art form. Many may have hated it for all I know. </p>
<p>I could view a painting in an art museum and think…gee, that’s not art, it is splashing some paint up on a canvas…but a painting is considered an art form. </p>
<p>One need not agree with the art in a play or painting, but by their nature, they are expressions of art.</p>
<p>Art is a GENRE whether you agree with what is depicted in it or not.</p>
<p>I do not think my D’s body was oogled in the same fashion as watching a beauty contest where one is meant to judge the body. In her musical, she was acting out a role that was loosely based on real life events reported in the news. If someone chose to focus on her body parts rather than the story, that’s their problem. The musical depicted real life issues. </p>
<p>I am not going to respond to WW’s D’s prose as the style of her writing is not that comprehensible to me. She used to post here and no longer does and so I don’t wish to respond to her statements by proxy.</p>
<p>Soozie, art isn’t a genre. It is, however, represented in many genres of creative work, such as theater and painting and music. Art is the human ability to create or display beauty or convey an unusual but valuable perspective. </p>
<p>I find it unsulting that you assume I would be unable to classify any work as art simply because it involves nudity or sexual themes. WW’s D has created a wonderful explanation for why V Monologues is nothing more that soft porn, rather than art. She’s done a better job than I could, so I’ll leave it at that.</p>
<p>SS wrote:
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<p>One of the definitions of art in the dictionary:</p>
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<p>I would maintain that art is a genre with many categories such as dance, theater, music, and visual arts. </p>
<p>Therefore, a play such as Vagina Monologues is an example of a genre or category of art, even if you or WW’s D, does not find it to be a valuable or agreeable piece of art. One may detest the art work, but a play is an art form, a genre of art, by its nature.</p>
<p>I have not heard of Cow Dung beauty contests listed as an art form before. Oops, I went to look back on the right title…it is Buffalo Chip, sorry.</p>
<p>Again, Soozie, you misread the definition. Dance, in the example you give, is a genre of art. Art is not a genre. A genre is a kind or type. A subcategory. Art HAS genres. It can’t BE a genre.</p>
<p>SS, what I was trying to say is that dramatic or theatrical works are a category of art.</p>
<p>How one values the specific theatrical work is not a measure of whether it is classified as a category of art.</p>