You can't force me to like your art.

There was a girl who went to UMD who claimed to be a feminist. As an art major, each student has to put together a senior art exhibit. I felt that her show was god awful... because it was!

Without going into specifics about how her drawings were similar to my drawings from kindergarten, some friends of hers were walking around with a video camera and asking people, "So, what do you think of the show?"

I said, "I could draw better with a pencil shoved up my ass."

Needless to say, after that, we never talked again. Fine by me. If someone said that about one of my drawings, I would want to know why they felt that way, was my drawing really as horrible as they said it was, or were they just saying that to get me all worked up and pissed off?

For the record, I had nothing against this girl and I truly thought that the drawing was ridiculous and that she was doing a great disservice to UMD by hanging that picture on the wall which would be saying, "Look at the art skills 4 years of art school at UMD has taught me! Absolutely nothing!"

Now, I don't know what makes some art "feminist art". However, I don't think that a, and I use the term lightly, "drawing"  of a girl on a swing wearing a t-shirt with the word "feminist" on it doesn't really have the feminist movement message portrayed. I didn't see anyone standing in front of this childlike drawing and commenting, "Yes, this work clearly portrays the struggles and hardships of the feminist movement. Bravo!"

Some artists seem to think that every work that they produce is a work of fine art. Learn to take some criticism. I was sick of having a class critique of a drawing and everyone spouting the same, "I, uh, really like what you did with the negative space" or, "I, um, like the perspective and use of lines". Face it, if you said anything like, "Was this the first time you held a drawing pencil, because you can't draw!", you would be hated until you graduated or transfered to another campus.

I remember in an art history class, we were shown slides of some photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe's. Now, he was a great photographer. However, the slides we were shown were photographs of Mapplethorpe with a bullwhip shoved up his ass, or a photo of a man being fisted with another man's arm up to his elbow. We were told, "Now, this is his lifestyle. He was photographing his lifestyle. These are great works of art." The lifestyle the professor was referring to was not a gay lifestyle, because lifestyles are chosen. Being gay is not a choice. I realize that. The lifestyle was the BD/SM, or  bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadomasochism or sadism and masochism lifestyle.

I like some of his other works, but I didn't care too much for this series. Does that make me a bigot? If Spike Lee directs a movie that I don't care for, does that make me a racist? If a feminist has a drawing that I think is just plain bad, does that make me a sexist?

What I really didn't enjoy was if I were to take a picture of a naked woman, I was told that in the eyes of the UMD art department, it isn't art because to me, it is erotic. However, if I were gay, black, disabled, or female, I would get a free pass to portray my "lifestyle", erotic or not?

OK, I am a man. I was born with a penis. A completely random event which seems to give others the right to discriminate against me without having to be held responsible for their actions. I was a conservative republican back in college, mainly to not be just like every other unique art student. I'm a democrat now. I was called a bigot, a nazi, you name it, I was called it. I took a freshman comp class being taught by, and I am not exaggerating, a man-hating, feminist lesbian. A girl sitting next to me needed an extension to complete 6 assignments that she failed to turn in during the quarter. Six. The professor gave her 2 quarters to finish them all up and turn them in. I needed an extension for 1 assignment. One. She said, "Nope. You get an F and you have to take the class over again." Is this not being sexist, or can only men be sexist?

Now, if I were to say something like, "You get a better grade because you are a girl", I am sure that I would have to make a public apology in the UMD Statesman for being so sexist. Of course, I never said anything like that. But, I had gotten an A in a life-drawing class, and I remember a girl telling me that the only reason I got an A was because I was male. Oh, our instructor was a gay male, but does that mean that I got preferential treatment? Of course not, because I worked my ass off and I deserved that A. It was very insulting, but where is my apology? It doesn't count, because I am a guy.

One thing I don't seem to understand is that I don't recall ever meeting or working with a gay man who hated women with a undying passion. I do seem to meet some, but not all, lesbians that hate men. I am sure somewhere out there, there are some gay men who hate women, but I haven't met them, and I don't really want to. And if you think that I am saying that all lesbians hate men, then please re-read this paragraph over and over again until you get what I am saying.

Back to what this posting was initially about... You can't force me to like your "art". Hell, there are some drawings that I did that really suck. But you can't call me a sexist, racist, or anti-gay bigot just because I don't see eye to eye on everything that you have drawn, sculpted, painted, or written. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so if I think that your drawing looks like shit, then guess what? I still think that your drawing looks like shit! Am I not allowed to have an opinion? You cannot twist my arm and force me to hang a photograph of an ass with a bullwhip hanging out of it on my wall, because I just don't like it and I just don't want to. And you can't force me to look at a sophomoric drawing of a girl on a swing with the word "feminist" on her t-shirt and force me to think that it accurately portrays the struggles and hardships of the feminist movement.

Until the USA becomes a socialist or communist nation, I have the right to not like everything that people are trying to force down my throat. It seems that UMD has forgotten that we all have choices and no matter how hard they try, they cannot mold every student to think how they want them to think.

If I am wrong, convince me.