Teachers and Controversies Over Nude Art

I’ve been reading about the various teachers and the controversies over nude art and the nude art tradition. About teaching nude art in the grade schools and high schools.

Many of these teachers are having to retire and resign because they dare to teach grade school and high school students about the nude art tradition, which is a very ancient tradition.

Sometimes it’s just mentioning nude art in a classroom, sometimes it’s taking children to an art museum where there’s a nude sculpture, sometimes it’s actually posing for nude photographs. But, of course, according to the teachers, artistic nude photographs.

Then, some school board or some parent or some local community group says that these teachers have done such great wrong that we don’t want them in our schools. They shouldn’t be teaching our children.

You can read about all these controversies online.

Let’s call all of these communities “Frisco, Texas.” Except of course “Frisco, Texas” can be anywhere in the world, from India to ancient Persia. Another community is Middletown, New York. Middletown, New York can be anywhere.

There is also the web-based artistic nudes or artistic porn. Artistic photos or artistic porn? This is certainly controversial.

Just because people are artists doesn’t mean they are not also pornographers, of course. Just because they are art teachers doesn’t mean they’re not pornographers. How can we tell what is art? Yes, these are questions that we should consider. Artists must also consider this.

Are nude stage plays art or porn? Are nude rock stars on stage music or porn? Are all these people claiming to be artists truly artists?

Most societies have their taboos when it comes to matters of nudity and sexuality, even artistic.

The erotic can be controversial even in those so-called primitive societies where almost everybody is nude. Even in these nude societies there are sexual and artistic taboos.

Certainly, as several articles detail, communities need to be concerned about “corrupting the morals of youth,” as always, about internet solicitations of minors, of internet pornography, however, they must also be scrupulous to teach children the difference between nudes as high art, as as innovative design, and nudes as pure porn. Is there a difference? And if so, how can we tell the difference?

Is ancient art art and modern art porn? Certainly modern art nudes can resemble pure porn. How do we know the difference? And certainly artists can and have corrupted morals just like the pornographers. And certainly, precisely because they are artists that they can encourage people to think their form of porn is acceptable. These are certainly questions to consider.