realcleverscience:

For my introduction to museology (museum studies) class I’m part of a team that’s investigating a controversy over censorship by the Smithsonian, a few months back, when they pulled part of an exhibition which seems to generally be about LGBT issues (the exhibition is called “Hide/seek”), though the part that was pulled was from an experimental movie which features 11 seconds of a crucifix with ants on it, which was apparently interpreted by some as an attack on Christianity.

So, essentially, we’re told to examine the issues involved with the controversy. Interesting stuff.

What I did NOT expect to find out is that Republican politicians John Boehner and Eric Cantor personally got involved to ‘ask’ (whatever that means) the Smithsonian to remove the piece.

Maybe it’s just me, but when big politicians get involved with art censorship, that kinda freaks me out. (btw, the page I got this video from described Blake, the guy defending the art, as having gotten “beat up” from losing this argument so badly. You can judge for yourself, but just wanted to be clear that this isn’t meant to represent all the issues or arguments.)