House of Eratosthenes

It’s a little too long and windy to become a “Thing I Know” but it’s still something I know, and know very well. When the subject of young ladies in skimpy outfits comes up, very few of the things anybody says on the subject, make any sense whatsoever. There’s something about this time of year, wherein young female teachers and young female bank managers start getting fired for wearing bikinis. Well, it just happened again.

A New Orleans artist who began working as a teacher in Lafayette after Hurricane Katrina filed a free speech lawsuit Thursday against the Lafayette Parish School Board, alleging she was unjustly fired because of adult-oriented art on her Web site.

Heather Weathers, whose Web site features images of partial nudity and declares that her art “addresses stereotypes and taboos about women�s bodies,” is seeking unspecified damages in a lawsuit filed on her behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana.

According to the lawsuit, Weathers had been teaching at Comeaux High School one week when Principal Joseph Craig told her that parents had brought the Web site to his attention.

Craig “then informed Weathers that she could not continue to teach at Comeaux or any other Lafayette Parish school,: according to the lawsuit.
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Weathers is active in the New Orleans art scene and has previously worked in New Orleans and New York as an art teacher.
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Work exhibited on her Web site spans from performance art, to sculpture, photography, painting and video.

One performance piece detailed on the Web site involves her donning a bikini fashioned out of meat, a statement on objectification of women.

Now, what I get a kick out of, here, is the kind of thing that makes Erica Chevillar look much better — ahem, I mean, the merits of the case — than Heather Weathers. Let’s review.

Erica Chevillar posed for the website of something called the “National Bikini Team” under a pseudonym, one “Erica Lee.” Heather Weathers could have done the same. It’s not that “Heather Weathers” is a terribly unique name, although it somewhat is, but it’s a thoroughly memorable name. That some busybody parent would come to notice the naked chick wearing the meat, was one and the same with the precious bubbins’ schoolteacher, was just a matter of time. It would be a cause for concern if such a thing never happened.

Heather Weathers runs the website, or at the very least, is responsible for some of the content and arrangement of same. The diligence with which she has restricted the naughty portions to the over-eighteen set, has been called into question. This issue doesn’t pertain to Ms. Chevillar.

The irony is not lost on me, that the intellectually vapid tidbits tumbling out of Weathers’ mouth, dealing with “objectification of women,” are identical in verbiage to the talking points of people who so regularly stir up trouble about women in bikinis presented where excessive bare flesh is thought to be inappropriate. This is a case of the prudish feeding on their own. Although I would like Ms. Weathers to ultimately prevail, I’m torn on the issue because she’s made it clear she’s an activist for the very people who are trying to cover her up. In effect, she’s teetering on the brink of becoming a martyr for the opposing side.

Last but not least, there is the question of time. Erica Chevillar’s pictures were taken before she became a schoolteacher — at least, that’s what she’s said, and nobody to my knowledge has taken the trouble to contradict her. The summary of Weathers’ case is that she’s taken the time and energy, on her own, to put up a provocative website, in her own name, while simultaneously subjecting herself to the rigorous inspection awaiting any schoolteacher by the parent community. Even if she were to emerge legally victorious in the conflict, by engaging so much of the initiative to cause that conflict to arise in the first place, she’s opened the quality of her judgment to legitimate question. The same doesn’t apply to Chevillar.

And as a straight male, I freely confess it means something to me that Chevillar looks much better. I like her curves.

Legally, I think there’s enough fresh meat (har!) involved in Weathers’ termination, that it will probably stand. Personally, I’m inclined to side, as always, with the right of good-lookin’ women to bare their bodies if they choose to, and I’m not going to be pleased with the precedent when Weathers’ is, after all’s said & done, thrown to the dogs. But I do hope the “Cover ‘Em Up” brigade takes note when it comes to pass — this is not a victory for them, as the head on the pike came off the shoulders of one amongst their own.

The lesson here is that when some of us lose freedom, even the freedom to wear a bikini, the loss of freedom hurts all of us. Each and every single one of us. Er…not that I’m anxious to see men wear bikinis. But, you know, the principle stands.

Update: There is an article here about Chevillar and Sheri Doub, the bank manager referenced in the first paragraph. It appears in some kind of atheist column and tries to tie religion into the whole thing.

Whatever, dude. I believe in God, I think people who don’t are just plain nuts, and as far as I’m concerned women can wear bathing suits whenever they want to. Within reason. I’ll just look over the ones I like and ignore the ones I don’t.

Straight men looking at good-looking women in skimpy clothes, are doing The Lord’s work. We are all here because somewhere, a guy thought a woman’s body looked good.

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Flesh! Oh, No! VSaturday, June 24th, 2006

Flesh! Oh, No! V
Saturday, June 24th, 2006