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Thursday, January 27, 2011

MANAGEMENT FINDS DICK OFFENSIVE!

MANAGEMENT FINDS DICK OFFENSIVE!
A commentary on the absurdity of censorship

Written by Enrico J. L. Manlapaz, in relation to current censorship in Recycling Bubbles on exhibition at the Main Gallery of Sining Kamalig, Gateway Mall, 17 January to 5 February 2011

If I were to choose the best source of quotations for my dissertations, it would not be the Bible. It would be Webster and his masterpiece, the Dictionary of the American Language, or for that matter, dictionaries of other languages. It had always been quite revealing to me that a lot of conflicts had been waged due to misunderstanding caused primarily by the reinterpretation and misinterpretation of words invented at the start to mean something else before, now differently. Contextual meanings are bullshit. If we stick by the original intention of a word, based on how it was invented and defined at the very start, then such confusion would be minimized.

From Webster’s New World Dictionary (William Collins Publishers, Inc., 1980), please allow me to lift: sacrum noun, plural sacra or sacrums [from the Late Latin sacrum, … literally, sacred (bone) from the former use in sacrifices] a thick, triangular bone situated at the lower end of the spinal column, where it joins both hipbones to form the dorsal part of the pelvis: it is formed in man [politically correct: humans] of five fused sacral vertebrae.

From John C. Traupman’s Latin and English Dictionary (New York: Random House, Inc., 2007), please let me quote: sacrum sacri neuter noun holy object, sacred vessel; holy place, temple, sanctuary; religious rite, act of worship, religious service; festival; sacrifice; victim II neuter plural noun worship, religion; secret, mystery; inviolability; sacra facere to sacrifice; sine sacris hereditatis (fig) godsend, windfall.

What is Webster’s definition of “sacred”? sacred adjective 1. consecrated to or belonging to a god or deity; holy 2. of or connected with religion or religious rites [a sacred song] 3. regarded with the same respect and reverence accorded holy things; venerated; hallowed 4. set apart for, and dedicated to, some person, place, purpose, sentiment, etc. [sacred to his memory] 5. secured as by a religious feeling or sense of justice against any defamation, violation, or intrusion; inviolate – synonym see HOLY – sacredly adverb – sacredness noun.

And what is “sacred” in Latin? From Traupman, sacred adjective sacer sacra sacrum.

The dictionaries alone provide the foundation of my thesis.

The sacrum is at the dorsal (back) part of the body. On its front are the human genitals. In males, this is would be called properly the penis and its attachments. In females, this would be properly referred to as the vagina and its related accessories.

The area where all these are found is normally referred to as the sacral area. For obvious reasons, it would now be very clear that the most sacred of all human activities is coitus, or the intentional union of male and female genitalia (otherwise known colloquially as “fucking”, or for the prudish, “love making”) designed primarily to assist in the act of procreating other human beings on this planet. For this reason alone, I wonder what happened to its sacredness when some organized primitive religion took hold of the concept and completely reversed its original definition.

The Indians (specifically the Hindus), the Greeks, and the Romans, as well as other cultures, had a clearer understanding of the nature of procreation, deifying the penis in some instances and devoting temples for various positions of the sexual activity in celebration of the Kama Sutra. In Tibetan Buddhism alone, yab yum, or the union of wisdom and compassion, is presented in painting and sculpture featuring a holy man and his Shakti in complete embrace with their genitals unified.

What happened in Christianity and its art patrons, both secular and religious? Censorship was the name of the game. As early as the dark ages till now, cocks and cunts, now called dicks and pussies, have been artistically hidden via contorted poses and magical appearances of wind furled cloths trying very hard to conceal the genitalia.

I prepared the above dissertation for an anthology of paintings which I have titled Sacred Liberation. But with the exposition of one painting included in the exhibition Recycling Bubbles, which management chose to censor, I find this piece of literature applicable. Now, I have to hide the genitalium because management would not allow such exposure in their family friendly mall, nor would the gallery director allow such blatant male (or female) nudity in his territory.

The dark ages have extended their stay. I just wonder what kids do now while googling their assignments. I am sure they encounter much more than just small dicks.



Antipolo. Written originally 17 September 2010. Edited 19 January 2011.


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