KLRU
A Cover of Grace, Compassion, and Understanding
RECEIVED Thu., Feb. 16, 2006
Dear Editor,
I am writing to say that I truly appreciate the artwork on the Jan. 27 cover [“The New Texas Family Planning,” News]. Having grown up in the Bible Belt, I am all too familiar with the powers that be taking the tactic of handing out Bibles instead of birth control or funding reproductive health (which means abortion to them instead of pap smear), and I thought that your cover art articulated that state of affairs perfectly. It was really a photographed political cartoon.
As for your detractors, since you're not answering them, I'll take a shot at it for you. The point of the Bible's location is not that the Bible is against her crotch, the point is that it's been issued by the state to "protect" her vagina from pregnancy (well, sex really), medical care, and potentially abortion by blocking access in lieu of funding actual health care. It's not sexual, and its location is not meant as an insult to the contents of the book – it's an illustration as to how the book is being used to block boners and speculums. Additionally, the woman's face is not shown because this is not one woman's story, it is every woman's story. And finally, yes, if another religion was the vastly prevailing religion in this region practicing these identical politics, then the book that they thump while making up these policies would have been there instead of the Bible.
As to if this should have been the cover or an inside illustration or not is another matter. To me, this is one of the most eloquently stated political art pieces I have ever seen, and after a lifetime of having life filtered for me by the people who really object to images like that, I think that that was the best cover ever, and I'm very glad that you ran it.
I am writing to say that I truly appreciate the artwork on the Jan. 27 cover [“The New Texas Family Planning,” News]. Having grown up in the Bible Belt, I am all too familiar with the powers that be taking the tactic of handing out Bibles instead of birth control or funding reproductive health (which means abortion to them instead of pap smear), and I thought that your cover art articulated that state of affairs perfectly. It was really a photographed political cartoon.
As for your detractors, since you're not answering them, I'll take a shot at it for you. The point of the Bible's location is not that the Bible is against her crotch, the point is that it's been issued by the state to "protect" her vagina from pregnancy (well, sex really), medical care, and potentially abortion by blocking access in lieu of funding actual health care. It's not sexual, and its location is not meant as an insult to the contents of the book – it's an illustration as to how the book is being used to block boners and speculums. Additionally, the woman's face is not shown because this is not one woman's story, it is every woman's story. And finally, yes, if another religion was the vastly prevailing religion in this region practicing these identical politics, then the book that they thump while making up these policies would have been there instead of the Bible.
As to if this should have been the cover or an inside illustration or not is another matter. To me, this is one of the most eloquently stated political art pieces I have ever seen, and after a lifetime of having life filtered for me by the people who really object to images like that, I think that that was the best cover ever, and I'm very glad that you ran it.
Gwendolyn Norton
