Abortion is art [somewhat NSFW]

[Feedmenow]

Avant-Garde Assholes
Yale Senior Undergoes Multiple Self-Induced Miscarriages In The Name Of Art

Yale University senior Aliza Shvarts, left, swears she's not trying to "scandalize anyone." Her art is definitely not designed purely for "shock value,". Even so, it's hard to know what to call Shvarts' senior thesis, "a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself 'as often as possible' while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages." Yup, in an attempt to start a dialogue about art and its relationship to the body, Shvarts is displaying plastic sheeting reportedly smeared with the uterine blood and tissue from her various miscarriages and projecting video of herself miscarrying into a bathtub. "I believe strongly that art should be a medium for politics and ideologies, not just a commodity," Shvarts tells the Yale Daily News. "I think that I'm creating a project that lives up to the standard of what art is supposed to be." The thing is, Shvarts' art isn't so much commenting on politics or ideologies but her own need for attention.

We've all met young men and women like Aliza Shvarts: They come from relatively happy, upper-middle-class families, and are so desperate to be "edgy" and "crazy" that they perform a series of stunts — whether through drug experimentation, sexual exploration, or bad performance art — to differentiate themselves from their hopelessly bourgie peers and parents. The problem with Shvarts' little art project, however, is that her need to rebel has potentially big ramifications outside her ivory tower of academia. (One assumes that Shvarts used, at least in part, the abortifacient RU-486, a prescription-only drug that some politicians want added to the list of Schedule I controlled substances.) Plus, conservative bloggers are already up in arms and using Aliza's capriciousness to support their anti-abortion agendas. (At 9:00am this morning Shvarts' name had 53 hits on Google; as of 11:52am, it had 291.) And though the Buckley School valedictorian claims that she wants her piece to be a medium for "politics and ideologies," it's not like she's shedding light on an obscure subject. People debate the ethics of abortion constantly, and possibly harming your body by forcing it to miscarry repeatedly? Yeah, that's not helping the discourse.

Molly Clark-Barol, a Yale student and commenter on the YDH's website, sums up Shvarts's egocentrism better than I could: "Congratulations, Aliza Shvarts '08: you have single-handedly trivialized not only an entire generation and a half's fight to gain and retain the right to choose, through harassment and against massive odds, but also history of women's struggles, not only politically, but with the emotional, moral, and spiritual impacts of the choice to terminate a pregnancy. You also spit upon every couple who has tried, and failed, sometimes repeatedly, to have children. it is the emotional impact of these struggles, emotional impact that you shamelessly exploit, not explore, in your senior project."

Sounds like the best senior project ever.

Edit: ROFL

Yale: Abortion Art Piece Was "Creative Fiction"

alizashvarts41708.jpgSo it turns out that Aliza Shvarts, the Yale student who said she impregnated herself only to abort her embryos using "herbal" methods several times over for an art project, totally pulled one over on everyone. (Well, everyone except Moe.) She didn't really get pregnant a bunch of times, and she didn't really give herself abortions. According to a statement issued by Yale spokesperson Helaine S. Klasky, the entire stunt — Shvarts' press release, visual presentation, and narrative materials — was all part of Shvarts' real art project: Proving people are gullible weenies.

Actually, "gullible weenies" isn't the term that was used, but that's pretty much what it amounted to. Here's the full statement from Klasky:

Ms. Shvarts is engaged in performance art. Her art project includes visual representations, a press release and other narrative materials. She stated to three senior Yale University officials today, including two deans, that she did not impregnate herself and that she did not induce any miscarriages. The entire project is an art piece, a creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman's body.

She is an artist and has the right to express herself through performance art.

Had these acts been real, they would have violated basic ethical standards and raised serious mental and physical health concerns.

[Perfect Night]

Yikes. I wonder how long it'll be before people start screaming 'conspiracy to commit murder'.

[Dmitry]

Needs moar pix of art and/or artist.

[Mizango]

Needs moar pix of art and/or artist.

Thats what I was thinking in some interesting morbid way.

[archibaldcrane]

At first I was the most pissed that she was using sperm-donor sperm for something other than it's intended purpose, but if the donors knew what they were getting into...

...bleh. It's people like this that are the reason that the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) has had its funding slashed into oblivion.

[Feedmenow]

Needs moar pix of art and/or artist.

lifenews.com doesn't have any pictures of the display, although I'm sure this is going to get more media coverage in five days.

Edit: and most of the coverage is on prolife websites, so there's no dead fetuses yet. Only pictures I found were on /b/ where I initially found the article.

[Kuya]

.......

What was her message?

[Mizango]

.......

What was her message?

LOL Exactly.


Lost in translation? I can see her now "You guys just don't understand my creative stance on art!!"

[Atlasion]

Ok, I'm not against abortion or anything but artificially inseminating yourself so you can abort is just plain wrong.

Also, ewwww.

[archibaldcrane]

Something something human detritus something reject woman's place in society something something fragility of human life something look what I can do something.

[Mizango]

A+ for originality? That is the one thing you certainly cant argue. She's one ballsy bitch...


Edit: I meant that in the literal sense. Probably some big Bull dyke name Tabitha or something that resembles Larry the Cable guy.

[archibaldcrane]

Shvart should become a new verb:

v. To intentionally conceive with the expressed purpose of aborting.

also

n. An attention whore. (colloquially)

[Senoska]

What she did was stupid but this ENTIRE article screams propaganda.

[Demosthenes11]

shoot her?

[Kuya]

Should just ban her from sperm banks and not display her work as punishment. Acussing her of murder is... a stretch, but she sure wasted resources and did something that i can only equate to trolling.

[Perfect Night]

Normally I wouldn't be the one to yell and scream over abortion being bad, even though I personally wouldn't do it, but getting pregnant with the plans to purposefully abort bothers me.

She'll regret being such an attention whore and making it after someone beats the crap out of her/kills her, as I might expect from a portion of our society today. Or more specifically, the people who like to blow up abortion clinics.

[Mizango]

Shvart should become a new verb:

v. To intentionally conceive with the expressed purpose of aborting.

also

n. An attention whore. (colloquially)

I second this.

[Correction]

I'm appalled at two things here. One is the use of uterine detritus in art. The other is the lopsidedly pro-life tone the article takes. In the first case the art student is exploiting the shock value of her shenanigans to get her name some publicity. In the second case the 'journalist' responsible for the piece is making extra bacon for the anti-abortion cause out of the shock value of the student's shenanigans.

The cycle gets more vicious every day.

Is this story backed by independent research? I'm calling hoax until an unbiased source of news can verify what's gone on.

Ah here we go, an article written by someone I like:

http://jezebel.com/380897/yale-senior-u ... ame-of-art

Molly Clark-Barol, a Yale student and commenter on the YDH's website, sums up Shvarts's egocentrism better than I could: "Congratulations, Aliza Shvarts '08: you have single-handedly trivialized not only an entire generation and a half's fight to gain and retain the right to choose, through harassment and against massive odds, but also history of women's struggles, not only politically, but with the emotional, moral, and spiritual impacts of the choice to terminate a pregnancy. You also spit upon every couple who has tried, and failed, sometimes repeatedly, to have children. it is the emotional impact of these struggles, emotional impact that you shamelessly exploit, not explore, in your senior project."

[Feedmenow]

What she did was stupid but this ENTIRE article screams propaganda.

Again, the only news stations that are talking about this are the pro-life ones.




Also, anyone in Yale here? This has probably hit up a shitstorm already if it's true, so can I get some confirmation?

[Dmitry]

If there's anyone from Yale on here we need to know first and foremost if she's hot.