It's ART, You Dummies!

Caught this on the news this morning and couldn't believe it: a teacher was apparently was reprimanded for taking a 5th grade class to the Dallas Museum of Art, where it appears that one of the children was "offended" by some nude artwork, and the kid's parent subsequently complained that going to this museum and showing kids nudes was offensive. Offensive?? It's ARTWORK. First of all, it's a penis and/or a vagina and boobs, ok? It's nothing weird or crazy, there is no sexual connotation to the artwork that shows these parts. If your 5th grader doesn't know that girls have vaginas and boys have penises, maybe you need to start having the birds and bees talk with him/her. Secondly - some of the world's most famous and revered art is of nudes! Hello, Michelangelo's David?? His penis is hanging out! So what?? I think that is ultimately the problem in this country with sex - people are so uptight about sex, and nudity that it creates this sense of taboo for our children, so that when they're 13 years old, they start banging everything in sight instead of respecting themselves. Why do they do this? Because their parents and all other adults tiptoe around the idea of sexuality. There is nothing wrong with nude artwork, people, and there is certainly nothing wrong with exposing 10 year olds to famous and important artwork. Perhaps we should stick loincloths on all nude artwork, including David. Maybe that would be "PG" enough for these people. Give me a break.

And one last thing - if this teacher took these kids to a museum on a field trip, I would imagine that there was some sort of consent form involved which the parents had to sign; and on that consent form, I would also imagine that it would be divulged that the kids were to visit the Dallas Museum of Art. Now, I've never been to the Dallas Museum of Art; but if I was told that my children (if I had any) were going to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or the Museum of Modern Art, for example, I would know that there would be some sort of nude artwork that they would see there. Just from being an intelligent person and having visited the museum myself. So perhaps this says something about the level of intelligence of the parents that are making such a big stink about this. Perhaps they need to take a visit to this cultural haven and check out the artwork that they've got their panties in a bunch over, and realize that it's not offensive, or wrong, or weird, or any of those things. Rant over.