Florida Councilmen Don’t Know The Difference Between Art & Pornography

Making fun of Florida is like shooting fish in a barrel, but the simple fact of the matter is that the residents of the state often do it to themselves. Take this photograph of a woman who is eight months pregnant, nude, and recline on a sofa. Although she's not baring anything more than her breasts and pregnant belly, the city councilmen in Jacksonville have deemed this image pornographic.

According to The Huffington Post (link below), the photograph by Angela Strassheim was part of an exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville, until the city council president shouted from a mountaintop, "Won't somebody please think of the children?"

Last week Clay Yarborough, the president of Jacksonville’s city council, dubbed the work "pornography," requesting the mayor, Alvin Brown, defund a $230,000 grant given to the museum. In 2014. Yup.

Yarborough specifically objected to the work's prominent placement in the museum's atrium, which must be passed through on the way to Café Nola, the museum restaurant. The implied problem: innocent children unaware of the pains of childbirth will be forced to bear witness to a pregnant lady if they're en route to the restaurant without wanting to visit the museum.

"While we may all differ on the definition of art," Yarborough, a Republican, explained in a statement, "the real question is should an adult and/or children who wish to eat at Café Nola be forcibly exposed to the picture upon entering the public, taxpayer-owned building if they do not wish to see it? As a parent of young children, I support parental choice and believe no parent should be put in the position of having to answer awkward questions that could arise from their child seeing a picture like that."

Imagine all the questions your hypothetical child might have like, "What's wrong with her belly?" or "When do we eat?" or "Why are you such a hard-on, dad?" Nevertheless, rather than telling Yarborough what a stick in the mud he is, another city councilman doubled down on his objections.

However, Councilman Don Redman, also Republican, felt differently, stating: "I think that a nude body to a young child is pornography, yes."

To me, the real issue here is what these dickheads are doing bringing children to a Museum of Contemporary Art in the first place? It's no place for children, not because of the "pornographic" images on display, but rather because they would be bored out of their minds. Nevertheless, the city's mayor did the right thing and shut these geezers down.

On Tuesday, December 2, Democratic Mayor Brown responded to Yarborough's request: "After thoughtful consideration of your request and the First Amendment issues involved, I will not seek to pull any of the funding that City Council appropriated to the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville in the current budget." He added: "Everybody will have their own opinion but I don’t think it’s pornography. It’s contemporary art."

Via The Huffington Post