On Monday, the Times published an image of Niki Johnson's "Eggs Benedict," a portrait of Pope Benedict XVI fashioned entirely out of condoms. (Screenshot)
[From article]
For The New York Times, deciding which images are too offensive for publication is a tricky business.
On Monday, the paper published an image of Niki Johnson's "Eggs Benedict," a portrait of Pope Benedict XVI fashioned entirely out of condoms.
The artwork is "not hate-based," the Milwaukee artist told the Times, but is meant only to "critique" Benedict's views on sex and contraception "while raising awareness about public health."
"What I want to do is really destigmatize the condom, normalize it," she told the newspaper. "I've watched kids and parents talk about condoms. It opens a door to talking about what those things are and what they do."
The Times' decision to run an image of "Eggs Benedict" comes just five months after it opted not to show Charlie Hebdo's infamously provocative artwork.
The newspaper's executive editor, Dean Baquet, said in public statements at the time that the French satirical magazine's cartoons were simply too offensive for publication.
For The New York Times, deciding which images are too offensive for publication is a tricky business.
On Monday, the paper published an image of Niki Johnson's "Eggs Benedict," a portrait of Pope Benedict XVI fashioned entirely out of condoms.
The artwork is "not hate-based," the Milwaukee artist told the Times, but is meant only to "critique" Benedict's views on sex and contraception "while raising awareness about public health."
"What I want to do is really destigmatize the condom, normalize it," she told the newspaper. "I've watched kids and parents talk about condoms. It opens a door to talking about what those things are and what they do."
The Times' decision to run an image of "Eggs Benedict" comes just five months after it opted not to show Charlie Hebdo's infamously provocative artwork.
The newspaper's executive editor, Dean Baquet, said in public statements at the time that the French satirical magazine's cartoons were simply too offensive for publication.
[. . .]
For the Times, there's no comparison between "Eggs Benedict" and Charlie Hebdo's controversial Muhammed artwork.[. . .]
An official with the Milwaukee Art Museum, which will soon display Johnson's portrait, told the Times he hopes the condom-laden image will "bring not only controversy, but room for conversation about the underlying discussion the artist intended as well as regarding the role of art in public discussion."
The Times' Corbett told the Examiner, "I don't think these situations – the Milwaukee artwork and the various Muhammad caricatures – are really equivalent. For one thing, many people might disagree, but museum officials clearly consider this Johnson piece to be a significant artwork."
[. . .]
The Times has been criticized in the past for having an apparently inconsistent policy when it comes to publishing controversial – and even offensive – images.
In 1999, for example, the Times published Chris Ofili's "The Holy Virgin Mary," a painting of Christ's mother fashioned entirely out of feces and adorned with cutouts of genitalia from pornographic magazines.
In 2005, 2006 and 2010, the Times republished anti-Semitic cartoons in full.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/new-york-times-bans-charlie-hebdo-cartoons-but-runs-condom-pope-image/article/2567282
New York Times bans Charlie Hebdo cartoons, but runs 'condom pope' image
BY T. BECKET ADAMS
JUNE 29, 2015 | 6:00 PM
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