So is putting a bikini on the Venus de Milo, in case you’re wondering.
The issue has been raised because a huge replica of the nude male statue was unexpectedly donated to a Japanese town, where it is unsettling some people and frightening others. Clothing “David” in a big Speedo or something has been suggested as a way to make the artwork more viewer-friendly.
Uh, no. Not all art will be welcome in every culture, and it may be that a mega-“David” in a Japanese park was a mistake. It is a work of visual art, however, and it is wrong for anyone other than the artist to alter or censor that artist’s creative work, especially when such a change renders the work of art risible. Putting underwear on “David” is as unfair and disrespectful as putting Groucho glasses on the “Mona Lisa.”
The town of Okuizumo has precisely two ethical choices, and no more: remove the statue and give it to someone else who will take care of it and appreciate it, or leave it alone.
Fruit of the Loom is not an option.
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Pointer: Lianne Best
Facts and Graphic: News.com.au
Ethics Alarms 
Oh good grief!!
I’m the same Karla. I can’t comment via my FB account anymore.
Yes but possibly bad briefs is what David replica stands to wear.
Yes leave it alone but take action concerning the TONS of nude/semi nude young girls portrayed in some weird mangas or jpop groups ????
Full frontal nudity in even photography is recent. Anything from the waist down was banned until 1991, then it was OK to show hair, but not actual genitalia. They used to put black patches over the private parts of the Playboy centerfolds in imported magazines, and pixellated both males and females in foreign films. At communal baths everybody uses a towel as a fig leaf, you just don’t show that area. I know it’s a famous work of art 🙂 but someone was bound to complain. A photographer was recently arrested-
“Japanese fashionistas on Tuesday came to the defense of Tokyo-based Singaporean photographer Leslie Kee after he was arrested for selling books containing pictures of male genitals.
Kee, who has snapped megastars including Lady Gaga and Super Bowl sensation Beyonce, was arrested Monday on suspicion of obscenity after selling the books at his Tokyo gallery.
The 41-year-old photographer could be jailed for up to two years and/or fined up to 2.5 million yen ($27,000) if convicted.
Pornography is widely available and produced in Japan, but under domestic law genitals must be obscured, a process usually done through pixellation.”
So people are thinking that the statue may be obscene under the law.
One wonders if the men and women see eye to eye on this…the statue is a rather LARGE representation of an idealized male figure.
Yes, and an argument could be made that the size itself distorts the artist’s intent.
Interesting that a Speedo has been suggested, clearly the genitalia are the BIG issue.
Clarification: the Speedo was my idea, and I was joshing.
I’m not certain on all Japanese customs, but do they not have a very strict, almost religious adherence to manners?
Wouldn’t this present to them an almost ethical dilemma in their eyes?
The unheard of and culturally sinful disregard of a gift, by giving it back vs the unheard of and culturally sinful exposition of a renaissance example of genitalia, foreshortened (or should I say, forelengthened) for optimal viewing from below?
What about putting arms on the Venus de Milo?
Oh, I think that would be ‘armless…
Some commentors on Japanese blogs are suggesting fundoshi, a traditional loin cloth 🙂
Eh, Michelangelo’s David is still in the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence according to Wikipedia. If some copy of it somewhere has been altered to make it more in line with local tastes, that doesn’t seem like a big deal, and although vandalizing the original Mona Lisa would be horrible, modifying copies of the Mona Lisa can be pretty amusing.
I lean towards that assessment. But the Japanese, I think, are stuck between a hyper-propriety rock and a hyper-propriety hard place.
Oh, please. Just take the thing down if it offends. Though I’m not sure why it is so offensive in a culture that only pretends to be so “nice.” They still teach that WWII was a war of US aggression, they still smile when they visit Pearl Harbor, they killed 10 million people in SE Asia before and during World War II, are notorious for buying (one way or another) US (preferably blonde) prostitutes for their own pleasure), engage in unfair trade practices (e.g., collusion for ten years to take over our electronics industry — a crime here but not there). It is an unfair replication of Michaelangelo’s work, its placement on the even taller base brings attention to what I am certain was not Michaelangelo’s intent, but DO NOT talk to me about Japanese “sensibilities.” The only sensibilities they do have (e.g., personal space and cleanliness) are pragmatic ones, because their island is so tiny and their population so large. Any culture that still believes its emperor is descended from the sun-God, and that never had to make one apology for WWII (unlike our unending desire for breast-beating and mea culpas by Germany) because we needed it as a bulwark against Red China, does NOT deserve my respect, and I couldn’t care less about its supposed sensibilities about classical Western art.
As long as you keep an open mind!
Well if you are that energetic in your opposition, just be patient, the Japanese birthrate is appallingly low. They’ve essentially stopped caring about having children. In about 50 years they will be down by 20% of the current population and plummeting quickly, while over 40% of the projected population will be retirement age.
Maybe this is what Bindi Irwin was counting on?
Elizabeth, are you sure of the content of the latest history books in Japanese schools? They have been revised twice in the past few years.
A man can’t buy a non-existent prostitute. There are clubs where all the hostesses are foreigners, yes, but there wouldn’t be of women weren’t willing to work there, to actually travel halfway around the world to do so. In good clubs women do not sleep with the clientele, they only pour drinks and talk. The sleazy ones, yes, women go home with or become mistresses to clients.
“that never had to make one apology for WWII…because *we needed it* as a bulwark against Red China, does NOT deserve my respect, ”
Sounds like one other country also does not deserve respect in that particular scenario .
No one still believes the Emperor is divine. It’s the legend. They are revered by the people, but these *are* 21st century people.
Here’s a list of the war apologies issued by Japan since the 50s–
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statements_issued_by_Japan
Yes, it’s Wikipedia but digging them all up and posting them here would take much more time than I can afford to spend on it.