Stimulus Funds Being Used for Pornography?

[Bec]

"Stimulus" funds awarded to the National Endowment for the Arts may be being used to produce pornographic material.

The NEA was allotted $80 million out of the $787-billion stimulus bill approved earlier this year by Congress and President Obama. Alliance Defense Fund special counsel Pat Trueman shares what he found upon close examination of the NEA's expenditures.

"The National Endowment for the Arts is using money from the stimulus bill, which was supposed to create economic activity, for the production of pornography," he states. "They've specifically given grants to companies that they know produce pornography -- primarily homosexual pornography."

Among the recipients of federal stimulus money, according to a Fox News report:

• Frameline, a "gay and lesbian" film house which recently screened Thundercrack, which is described as "the world's only underground kinky art porno horror film, complete with four men, three women, and a gorilla." ($50,000 grant)
• San Francisco-based CounterPULSE, a group that produces the weekly "Perverts Put Out" -- a performance that invites guests to "join your fellow pervs for some explicit, twisted fun." ($25,000 grant)
• "The Symmetry Project" -- a dance piece that Fox News says "amounts to two people writhing naked on the floor, a government-funded tango in the altogether." ($25,000 grant)

Trueman says it is an "outrage" that federal monies are being given to porn-producing organizations. "The National Endowment for the Arts has long been fought by American Family Association and other pro-family groups because year in and year out, they fund pornography and blasphemy," he tells OneNewsNow.

And of the allegedly misspent stimulus funds? "This is an outrage," he exclaims. "People are hurting financially, and our federal government is funding pornography?"

Trueman believes the public ought to call on members of Congress to take a closer look at the National Endowment for the Arts and pull its federal funding.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/De...aspx?id=625302

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I have to admit, when I first read the news headline I thought "my god! Hustler's Larry Flynt and "Girls Gone Wild" creator Joe Francis got the $5 billion federal bailout for the adult entertainment industry that they asked for!!!"

[tim460]

History repeats itself...again. If into art, or porno as art, you may be interested. If not, you may want to skip this.

(I don't think I did, but sorry if I wrote some of the following somewhere else once. But it's relevant here.)

It was when I was as a student and then a lecturer in art when the conservatives led by Jesse Helms (mocked the "unofficial art official") stopped the NEA from funding any more grants to individual artists (which the NEA was partly founded for). Mapplethorpe's exhibit is what set the conservatives on fire. It just happened to be right across the street from my studio at UPenn...so strange a coincidence. That's when I first heard of a controversy but not much about it, so I went to see the exhibit. I searched hard for the "bad" stuff and I couldn't find it. I spotted something I guessed might be the "worst" of it....not on the walls but inside of flat showcases high above a child's glance in the upper level end of the gallery. The suspense walking up to the cases. Then, oh brother! THAT was the bad stuff?

I learned a lot from that exhibit about art, and observed the Mapplethorpe wasn't just an icon in the gay community, which would not necessarily make him a good photographer. His portraits are some of the most sophisticated and classically beautiful works of art..in art history. For the government to officially look at these great achievements in disgust is so ignorant, sickening, and scary.

I didn't check into the work listed in Bec's post. Hey, sometimes art just isn't that good or simply not well done. And sometimes it's just not understood. But Fox News' thoughts on art are Jesse Helms'. Art can and does come from life, anything in life...from wars, love, thinking, philosophy, and sex. Why not art from porno? I don't see any contradiction or problem. Quite valid. Nor have many of the most important artists in history. The Renaissance master Caravaggio (one of the greatest) was commissioned to paint an erotic portait(s) of young men for some of his clients to gaze at. It's a respected work of art, something people take their grandchildren to see on Sundays, to teach them art and sophistication...it WAS PORN then. It's purpose was identical to just what we promote and sell to our clients. Gimme a break, whether commissioned or not...erotica is all over art history from the beginning of time. Whether people understand it or not, this is intellectually and culturally valuable work. We need funding.

By the way, I'm looking forward to the day I can devote to painting the figure. I do intend to include erotica when I see fit, and I'm not doing to jerk off to. Thanks for listening to my two cents.

[tim460]

Just reread what I wrote...some of it was misleading...

- When I said we need funding, I was referring to artists, since I was writing in response to artists potentially being denied grants.

- I didn't mean people called it "porno" in the Renaissance, but essentially it functioned as "poster boys/girls" do...and as a great work of art. Fox News would probably describe the particular masterpiece by Caravaggio as "a floozy picture of a half naked drunken teen wearing grapes and deliberately exposing his bare chest and nipples, looking for sex."

- If I ever do paint the figure and decide to jerk off to them, , that's fine, too. But I doubt I would because I haven't to any other nude figurative work I've made yet.

Really the sum of it is that people think great art and sex are incompatible, and it isn't true. If it's art, it's art period.

[tim460]

Sorry, it just went past my revision period..I do preview, but......:embarassed:

More to the point:

Finally, this is just another significantly biased homophobic report by Fox News, using the warped agenda of a conservative group called the "Alliance Defense Fund." This is not news. It's deliberate political propaganda misrepresenting a work of art by focusing on an aspect its production, which involves sex as a motif, at least in part. (Yes, performance art is a valid art form.) I would not believe the National Endowment for the Arts would give any money for a sex party per se in the first place, and particularly if it was described this way by those with right wing agendas.

[coctronic]

I'm still speechless that John Ashcroft found it necessary to cover the breasts on the statue of the lady Justice at his office as though it was offensive.

It is a symbol of compassionate beauty after all. And it is art.

The press should have pushed him about that.

[SirGuy]

I'm still speechless that John Ashcroft found it necessary to cover the breasts on the statue of the lady Justice at his office as though it was offensive.

It is a symbol of compassionate beauty after all. And it is art.

The press should have pushed him about that.

John Asscroft was harmful in so many ways to the overall adult entertaiment industry. Even though I'm Canadian - I was extremely glad to see him go back in the day.

I still remember making a LOT of outspoken posts about him on various webmaster forums years ago.

As for stimulus funds being used for pornography - hey, sign me up. Everyone else is getting a damn bailout...why not the porn industry.

[tim460]

I think all these issues will disappear if the day comes when people just don't see porno/erotica as "bad" or negative.

[Bec]

I posted this more as a tongue in cheek, rolling my eyes kinda thing ... as I have no doubt that whatever the Arts group is funding, it ISN'T about porn! But there's always going to be somebody to find fault with artistic nudity.

[tim460]

I posted this more as a tongue in cheek, rolling my eyes kinda thing ... as I have no doubt that whatever the Arts group is funding, it ISN'T about porn! But there's always going to be somebody to find fault with artistic nudity.

Bec, I know...overlooking it all, it's really is laughable! :broccoli:

I wish I got some start-up money for my biz!!! I'm sure some of those repressed folks are some of our clients anyway, least they could do!

I'm really glad you started the thread, let us know about it. I've been out of touch with the arts community for a short while, but I suspect this is a BIG, BIG deal, a real monster from the past for the arts community. Not just an ordinary vocal nut in the news, but I do hope winds up being just that. The art world was caught unprepared and baffled last time. After being forced to ditch grants after the Mapplethorpe thing, the NEA became actually conservative for a while simply because, if I can say, they were scared shitless. So it was natural to recognize this current threat considering my background.

I get excited sometimes and write a lot...moi? :fugly: LOL I thought it was interesting to show the connection between this world and the art world. There was NO intention to imply in any way that your comments were...anything bad...if this is your concern. It's a fantastic and pertinent thread! Thanks, Bec. :bananacock: :luke: :heart:

[Bec]

Not at all, I just realized I hadn't pointed out that I didn't agree with his assessment/accusations of whatever the Arts was spending the money on... For exactly the reasons you mention.