Our somewhat new sex magazine here at UChicago, in its second issue, notes that readers of the first issue may have have been provoked, offended, whatever, by its first issue. Now, nudity itself is provocative, more to some than to others, but nudity itself isn't what makes "Vita" an "oh my!" publication. What makes it scandalous is that this isn't just any old nudity, it's, "oh look, that's the girl from my polisci class last year going down on the boy from Core Bio!" It's "who knew that the kid I've been giving a nod hello to since we had math together first year is uncircumcised?" Even if one tries to read Vita "for the articles" (which include a self-righteous missive about how "sex" doesn't have to involve a man), one inevitably finds the breast or the penis of a friend or acquaintance. It's not such a big school...
Now, is it any more "wrong" to print pornographic or semi-pornographic photos of people who are easily identifiable to their own classmates, professors, and possibly even parents, than to print such photos more anonymously, as mainstream (i.e. non-academic) porn? It's hard to say--it's pretty clear that "Vita" isn't forcing anyone to do anything they don't want to, so from the models' perspective, things should be legit. But what of the weirdness for professors and classmates, who see a girl raising her hand to ask a question and immediately picture her breasts, regardless of whether they find the girl attractive, simply because they know, to a pixel, what those breasts look like?
Sunday, February 13, 2005
What makes "Vita" edgy
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4 comments:
My first year at Chicago the CWN broke a story about a first year girl who was on some porn website ("Chicago Amateurs" or something like that). She was humiliated and her parents pulled her out of the U of C - it was a pretty big deal, I think, specifically because of the loss of anonymity. Even if someone who had a class with the girl had come across the site, they wouldn't have been certain it was her...
Sometimes I think I really should have gone to Chicago (instead of Harvard) because the undergrads there are so studious, serious, living the life of the mind, and so on . . . but then I read something like this, and realize it's the same deal everywhere.
I can't say that it surprises me that the CWN of old would do something like that...
Indeed, Nick (T). That's really one of their lesser offenses, looking back on it.
Nick W--we're plenty nerdy here, and by and large do not distribute nude phographs of ourselves in campus coffee shops. Not that *everyone* does that at Harvard, but it could be more prevalent. I wouldn't know.
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