Grace Dawson Artist or Pornographer essays

Grace Dawson Artist or Pornographer essays Grace Dawson: Artist or Pornographer? Mountmonk College has always held very high standards for students and staff. Mountmonk likes to consider themselves better than the other schools at maintaining principles of traditional values as the alumni has done in the past. As the school nears its alumni weekend, we must take into consideration these values, as well as changes in the times as we decide about use of the auditorium for the weekend. Last semester there was an art contest held for the students. All ribbon winning art is scheduled to be displayed in the auditorium during the alumni weekend. One of our students, Grace Dawson, is a photographer and is planning to show one of her photographs in the auditorium over the weekend. Her photograph is of a naked woman kneeling on the ground with a man in a suit kicking her while a naked man watches. We have objections to the display of her art from both the Womens Center and the Director of Alumni Relations . They feel her art is repugnant due to its explicit sexual content and fear that the alumni may withdraw contributions. Grace Dawson argues in her own defense that her photograph is artwork and should be exhibited. She entered this and several other photographs in the Student Art Contest last semester and won a ribbon for honorable mention. She feels that her art deserves to be displayed with the rest of the ribbon winners. Grace Dawson has been unfairly singled out. She insists that she has the right to free speech under the First Amendment and her artwork is a form of protected speech. She should not be, and cannot be, denied the right to freedom of expression even if her expressions are Although we can immediately see that some of the alumni might be offended by the nature of the photos, we must look beyond that to the bigger and more important ...