UC protesters' displays cause controversy
Mar 7, 2013
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Members of the UC Alliance help set up the 4-by-6-feet images of vaginas. / The Enquirer/Benjamin Goldschmidt
Written by
Benjamin Goldschmidt
University of Cincinnati student groups are displaying images of female genitalia on the UC main campus today and Friday in protest of previous anti-abortion demonstrations on the campus.
The display, titled “Re-envisioning the Female Body,” includes 12 4-by-6-foot images of some female students’ genitals. It is being sponsored by the UC Feminist and LGBTQ student groups. The images are displayed on McMicken Commons, close to but not visible from Clifton Avenue from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Quotes from the models concerning women’s issues – specifically in the areas of health care and abortion – accompany the posters.
Many of the models said this expression is empowering for them. Sarah Coressel, one of the student models for the display, said she was nervous prior to the start of the event, but is proud to be a part of it now.
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Sarah Coressel, a fourth-year journalism student, was a model for the display. / The Enquirer/Ben Goldschmidt
“I’ve never really been comfortable with myself, and this is kind of me taking my body into my own hands and saying, ‘This is what I can do and I can do it if I want to,’” Coressel said.
The groups organizing the protest said on a Facebook page that the protest is in response to large images of aborted fetuses shown on campus in recent years.
The fetus photos, placed on campus by the Genocide Awareness Project, “equated mutilated fetuses with genocide victims in an effort to shame women, comparing reproductive choice to holocaust,” the groups sponsoring this week’s protest said on Facebook. “Our demonstration serves to call attention to the
vagina as a site of conflict in medical, legislative, domestic, and representational arenas.”
UC President Santa Ono received many requests to stop the display, but will not. He said in a statement that he understands the concerns over the images, but believes this is a “teachable moment for all of us.”
“We are, first and always, an academic community where ideas and images, however complex or controversial, are carefully analyzed and debated,” Ono said. “These intellectual exchanges, while invigorating, can also be challenging and at times polarizing, but at a university like ours they cannot be extinguished.”
The Charter of Student Rights and Responsibilities – approved by the UC Board of Trustees 20 years ago – specifically prohibits the university from inhibiting “such intellectual and personal development of students,” said Greg Hand, UC spokesman.
While many viewing the display applauded Ono and the university for allowing the images to be shown, a national organization that rates the state of free speech in colleges across the country gave UC a poor rating in its 2013 report.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education gave UC a “red light” rating, meaning FIRE found at least one policy that “clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech,” according to the report’s guidelines.
“[The
vagina] has been compartmentalized and it’s been a center of politics,” said Jerod Weber, a third-year UC student and member of the UC Alliance -- a student LGBTQ support group. “Legislators think they can legislate over the ****** as much as they want. Whatever choice you make about your body is your choice, and they want to tell you that’s invalid.”
Each poster has a story from a time in the featured model’s life when they were forced to make a decision about their bodies, Weber said.
Representatives from the Collegiate Ministry Association stood outside the display to offer open ears to students having trouble dealing with the images.
“When people get upset they see pictures that offend them and emotionally distract them, sometimes they need someone to talk to,” said Ken Dillard, campus pastor for the Collegiate Ministry. “We were asked to come back out and be present. We’re just part of the campus life, and our job is to talk to folks who want to talk.
Though few are questioning the legality of the demonstration, some are still concerned about the university allowing the images to be displayed.
Christine Federspiel, 56, of West Chester Township, said she has a son in high school who is considering attending UC in the fall, but she is having second thoughts. “To me this is blatantly obscene and pornographic,” Federspiel said. “Things like this can affect one’s decision.”
Gerald Shawhan, a UC alumnus and former faculty member, believes the display has nothing to do with academic freedom and asked Ono to prevent the display in a letter. Ono did not respond, Shawhan said.
“To me, academic freedom means not hindering what students can and cannot research,” he said.
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130...ontroversy
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