Monday, March 2, 2015

When art becomes about fat bias

By Tatjana van der Krabben

On February 27, 2015 Leonard Nimoy passed away at the age of 83. My inner nerd was incredibly sad. He was an icon. No, I take that back. He is an icon. In celebration of his life and work many people shared samples of his work, quotes and images of him. I had no idea he had been this talented and versatile. Through Facebook I learned he also was a gifted photographer and that he had a loving eye and deep respect for curvaceous women. I’m sorry I missed that before.
Author, photographer and blogger Sally Wiener Grotta posted images of his work on Facebook: artful black and white photos of nude women. Curvy, full-figured nude women, that is. Facebook took offense. This sprouted a lot of debate, since many other things do slip past the Facebook police. Ranging from celebrity nudes to live footage of torture and murder. This time Facebook had objected to art, in part inspired by classical paintings.

Sally thinks it was about the curves involved: fat bias. I agree. She did not stop there, but objected. She explained events in a blog and reposted a photo from the series of black and whites by Nimoy on Facebook. As I write this her new post has been up and untouched for 9 hours now.
Please read Sally’s blog Is Obesity the New Obscenity in which she explains the events in her own words.

I salute Nimoy for his inclusive art and Sally for not backing down. Despite having to say farewell to a gifted man and Facebook showing a less likable side, this has been a good week.

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