Yale Student Has Multiple Abortions in the Name of Art

[Sevaede]

The link is here (http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/sex/yale-student-has-multiple-abortions-in-the-name-of-art-160308/) .

I wonder if she has any emotional trauma as a result of any of that. :confused:



Yale student has multiple abortions in the name of art

* by Erin Flaherty, Shine staff, 7 hours 41 minutes ago
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Yale senior Aliza Schvarts has just possibly created the most controversial senior thesis ever: According to The Yale Daily News, it's "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. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process."

In her defense, Schvarts claims that her goal was "to spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body." Still, fellow students who sit on both sides of the abortion debate are shocked, and conservative Pro-lifers are already using her as an example of reckless abortion.

One member of a campus pro-life group, Jonathan Serrato, put it this way: "I feel that she's manipulating life for the benefit of her art, and I definitely don't support it," Serrato said. "I think it's morally wrong."

What do you think? Does part of our right to choose include manipulating the human body in such a way for art's sake? Or has she taken advantage of this right in an unethical way?

[Catty1]

Physical and bloody abuse of herself and another/new life?

I am surprised she wasn't apprehended and put in a psych ward involuntarily.

The only point of debate in my mind is, "Is this woman sick and crazy?"

NO debate on that. YES.

[Jessika]

Physical and bloody abuse of herself and another/new life?
I hardly see how this is art... Abortions aside, she could have really screwed herself up, especially in the long run...

[columbine]

Privilege as Pathology - Won't Somebody Set Me Some Limits, Please?

[sparks19]

WOW....

how someone could have such disregard for a human life... let alone her OWN body.

Disgusting.

When people go through so much to find out they can never have a child of her own this woman is abusing her ability to do so. Sick

What has art come to these days?

So if I went out and puked on the sidewalk... is that art? if so I could have been a millionaire during my morning sickness.

[DJFyrewolf36]

Ummm...:confused:


Wow...she is trashing her own health and sacrificing lives for art?

What is this world coming to?

[DJFyrewolf36]

They edited the article to say that she didn't really impregnate herself but made the whole thing up as a project. I don't know...its a good piece of fiction but she shouldn't have represented it as real I don't think.

Weird...

[RICHARD]

This is an arguement for the warning/contraindication labels. you'd kinda hope she'd get all the symptoms, just to show her. :mad:
---------------

It's probably her scheming to get an art grant maybe?

[Jessika]

They edited the article to say that she didn't really impregnate herself but made the whole thing up as a project. I don't know...its a good piece of fiction but she shouldn't have represented it as real I don't think.

Weird...
They EDITED the article?

Good thing you posted it here...

[DJFyrewolf36]

Yeah they added later that two deans confirmed that it was all made up BUT there is now a rumor that she did in fact do it.

I don't know what to beleive now lol

[Catty1]

I think it's easiest to believe, either way, that she is mentally ill.

Even if she had made the whole thing up - same applies IMO.

[RICHARD]

It's on the internet so it must be true.

:rolleyes:

[phesina]

This is art? Doesn't she have a thesis advisor? What on earth was that person thinking, to encourage this, umm, academic work? And Yale is willing to bestow its hot-sh*t degree on this "student"?

So it was really just a little made-up story, huh? Or is this just what she and Yale are saying now that such outrage has arisen over the matter?

[Twisterdog]

From http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24189690/?GT1=43001

Purported abortion art dupes media, public
Internet spiral gives Yale student what she wants: A whole lot of attention

By JoNel Aleccia
Health writer
MSNBC
updated 2:38 p.m. MT, Fri., April. 18, 2008


JoNel Aleccia
Health writer


If Yale University student Aliza Shvarts wanted attention for her senior art project, she gets an “A” for effort.

Everyone else, apparently, gets a “D,” for duped.

The Internet is still reeling from the 22-year-old’s claim Thursday that she captured a series of self-induced abortions on video as part of a final project before her graduation in May. Outrage exploded and abortion rights advocates and foes alike condemned the project described in the college paper, the Yale Daily News.


One blog referred to Shvarts as a baby-killing “fetus artist.”

The incident sparked a series of denials and counter-denials about the truth of Shvarts' assertion that she inseminated herself repeatedly over nine months, took herbal drugs to induce abortions and then recorded the bloody aftermath for a public exhibit set for next week.

It also raised a larger question of whether the entire project — and the publicity that ensued — was part of an self-perpetuating hoax in an era of instant media saturation.

“Our responsibility as journalists to do good reporting when we know we’re getting punked is No. 1,” said Kelly McBride, an ethics columnist for the Poynter Institute, a journalism education and advocacy organization.

On Friday, facts were hard to come by.

Yale officials Thursday denied the story in the school paper, saying that Shvarts told three senior administrators that she faked the abortions as an elaborate gesture of “performance art.”

“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,” said Yale spokeswoman Helaine Klasky.

Student reverses position
But then Shvarts (or somebody claiming to be Shvarts) denied the university's denial in an e-mail to msnbc.com, insisting that the acts were real.

“I did very much impregnate myself and then induce the miscarriages,” read the e-mail from her personal account that was sent late Thursday.

That was the only response from Shvarts, whose campus phone has been disconnected and who didn't return e-mails to her school account. When msnbc.com forwarded the e-mail to Yale officials, who forwarded it to Shvarts, Shvarts told them she didn't write the e-mail.

But then she echoed similar sentiments in the school paper, but slightly changed her story, saying she didn't know if she had actually been pregnant, but that she had inseminated herself and later induced bleeding.

University officials said Shvarts told them she would deny their version of events.

“Her denial is part of her performance,” Klasky said. “We are disappointed that she would deliberately lie to the press in the name of art.”

The project was approved by a faculty adviser in the Yale School of Art, Klasky said, adding that the proposal did not include details.

It’s still not clear what Shvarts actually did — or why.

The e-mail to msnbc.com from Shvarts' account stated the project was designed to illuminate a fundamental aspect of “Womynhood.”

“I take absolutely nothing more seriously than birth because creating life is the sole domain of Womyn,” the e-mail went on. “But I feel that birth and death are inextricably linked and recognizing this link is key to understanding the greater purpose of my piece.”

Shvarts apparently recorded the forced miscarriages on video and planned to exhibit the images on a large cube suspended from the ceiling of a gallery in Yale’s Holcombe T. Green Jr. Hall. She also planned to include hundreds of feet of plastic sheeting layered with blood from the purported miscarriages mixed with petroleum jelly.

Cultivating uncertainty
Ambiguity was the point, she told the student paper.

“No one can say with 100 percent certainty that anything in the piece did or did not happen,” she said. “The nature of the piece is that it did not consist of certainties. “

The editor of the student paper, Andrew Mangino, said Friday he stands by his story, though he notes that it’s possible Shvarts was never pregnant.

“The News’ reporting indicates that Aliza’s project is not a hoax,” Mangino said. “Two News reporters demanded and received physical evidence as well as graphic (and, at times, bloody) photographs in order to confirm that the project indeed has a physical manifestation beyond the shock value of its public explanation.”

Mangino said he doesn’t believe the paper was duped, and he rejected the idea that the paper could have been cooperating in Shvarts’ performance.

“The News absolutely did not collude with Ms. Shvarts in any giant media hoax,” he said. “Any suggestion to that effect is ludicrous and flatly wrong.”

Issue raises ethical questions
Shvarts is far from the first artist to use shock to make a point, noted Michael Darling, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Seattle Art Museum. Wrestling with thorny issues should be applauded, he added.

"Obviously, she's trying to push a lot of buttons about women's rights and cloning and all those issues," he said. "But it's also a student, too, and they're prone to things that aren't fully formed.

A more mature artist may have had a clearer message in mind before embarking on such a project, unless widespread media attention was the primary goal, he said.

"It makes the rest of the world think the art world is crazy," Darling said.

Whether the student paper that started the story was a victim of a ruse or helped perpetuate one, the young journalists violated basic ethical principles, said Art Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania and an msnbc.com columnist.

“There are some topics that just cry out for verification,” Caplan said. “There’s a lot of punking going on by performance artists and journalists need to be wary and savvy — even student journalists.”

That can be difficult, even for veteran journalists, McBride added.

"We are no longer the gatekeepers of information," she said. "We have to act as if we're providing perspective where truth is elusive."

[Catty1]

It’s still not clear what Shvarts actually did — or why.

Get her a shrink - and then ask the shrink.

[Grace]

I think it's easiest to believe, either way, that she is mentally ill.

Even if she had made the whole thing up - same applies IMO.

Absolutely, she is crackers.

The Yale hierarchy is insisting it was a hoax; she still claims it is true - or her version of the truth.


But in a guest column published in Friday's student newspaper, Shvarts insisted the project was real. She described her "repeated self- induced miscarriages," although she allows that she never knew if she was actually pregnant.

"The most poignant aspect of this representation—the part most meaningful in terms of its political agenda (and, incidentally, the aspect that has not been discussed thus far)—is the impossibility of accurately identifying the resulting blood," she said.

"Because the miscarriages coincide with the expected date of menstruation (the 28th day of my cycle), it remains ambiguous whether ... there was ever a fertilized ovum or not. The reality of the pregnancy, both for myself and for the audience, is a matter of reading," she wrote.

Shvarts told the newspaper she planned to display a work that consisted of a cube lined with plastic sheets with a blood-and- petroleum-jelly mixture in between, onto which she would project video footage of herself "experiencing miscarriages in her bathroom tub."

University officials said Shvarts' project included visual representations, a news release and other narrative materials. When confronted by three senior Yale officials, including two deans, Shvarts acknowledged that she was never pregnant and did not induce abortions, Klasky said.

"She said if Yale puts out a statement saying she did not do this, she would say Yale was doing that to protect its reputation," Klasky said.

Shvarts told the paper her goal was to spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body.

[AbbyMom]

Shvarts told the paper her goal was to spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body.

Why? What is the point? Is there something important about this "issue" that I am unaware of? In other words, why care about the relationship between art and the human body? Even with all the publicity, there's no mention of a real point.

All that effort and no real communication with the audience?

I can only assume she's obsessed with media attention.

THE PROBLEM WITH THE GENE POOL IS THAT THERE IS NO LIFE GUARD.

.

[Catty1]

I would think SOMEONE on staff is urging her to see a shrink... :rolleyes:

Follow up to http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthread.php?t=141454

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004357455_yale18.html

Art student admits she faked controversial project

By Susan Kinzie

The Washington Post

A Yale University student's senior art project, which she said documented her bleeding during repeated self-induced abortions, sparked a protest on campus, an outcry on the Internet and debates over morality, medicine, art and academia.

And — it was all faked. Senior Aliza Shvarts told Yale officials Thursday that she didn't get pregnant and didn't have abortions. But that didn't stop an outpouring of emotion as the story spread.

Earlier she said she had herself artificially inseminated as often as possible for much of the past year and then took legal, herbal abortifacient drugs and filmed herself in her bathtub cramping and bleeding from the miscarriages.

She said her work would include video, a sculpture and a spoken piece describing what she had done.

She declined to comment Thursday.

She presented a mock-up of the project in class last week and told the Yale Daily News she wanted to provoke debate about the relationship between art and the human body, but that the intention of the piece was not to scandalize anyone.

Well, it did.

Within hours after the article ran Thursday in the student newspaper, blogs were full of angry reactions, including horror that so many fetuses were apparently aborted, revulsion at the graphic nature of the piece, shock that someone would risk her health in such a way and general disdain for art and academia. (One blogger offered an alternative installation: Vomit in Sock.)

Students gathered near the administration building to protest Thursday afternoon, said sophomore John Behan, president of Choose Life at Yale (CLAY). "CLAY and the entire Yale community, I think, are appalled at what was a serious lapse in taste on the part of the student and the Yale art department."

Yale spokeswoman Helaine Klasky said Thursday: "Ms. Shvarts ... stated to three senior Yale University officials today ... 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."

To many, her piece symbolizes the worst of art — shock without substance — and of academia, with professors encouraging useless introspection.

Within hours, photos of her in leopard-print shorts and fringed boots were on the Internet, with blog headlines such as "Aliza Shvarts is One Sick Puppy," and comments furious, disgusted and bitter.

Juan Castillo, a senior art major who saw Shvarts present the work in progress, said by phone that her artwork had been oversimplified and sensationalized. "It's a much more complex project," he said. "It's supposed to challenge the mythology of the body," he said.

"I think she was definitely trying to spark conversation ... But I don't know if she meant it to get this crazy, this out of control."

Staff writer Philip Rucker and researcher Meg Smith contributed to this story. Amila Golic reported from New Haven.

Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company

[Sevaede]

Lovely...

What I find irritating is the perpetuation that it was real. It was said and implied that she had gone through the motions. That's it. Just don't try to pretend to be doing one thing and go do something totally different.


Earlier she said she had herself artificially inseminated as often as possible for much of the past year and then took legal, herbal abortifacient drugs and filmed herself in her bathtub cramping and bleeding from the miscarriages.

She said her work would include video, a sculpture and a spoken piece describing what she had done.

So, what? She was doing a project on if she had done that as a project?

Oh well, I guess. She got exactly what she wanted. It's her body, at any rate. If this is her perspective, she can have it if she please. :)

[jackie]

There has been a lot of controversy over this, but to be honest, it just doesn't bother me a whole lot.

She is an adult woman, and can do whatever she wants with herself. She is very Tracy Emin-like to me, and I have no doubt she will become rich because of this stunt and the media coverage it has had.