Jezebel
Update: It was fake.
Yale University senior Aliza Shvarts, left, swears she's not trying to "scandalize anyone." Her art is definitely not designed purely for "shock value,". Even so, it's hard to know what to call Shvarts' senior thesis, "a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself 'as often as possible' while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages." Yup, in an attempt to start a dialogue about art and its relationship to the body, Shvarts is displaying plastic sheeting reportedly smeared with the uterine blood and tissue from her various miscarriages and projecting video of herself miscarrying into a bathtub. "I believe strongly that art should be a medium for politics and ideologies, not just a commodity," Shvarts tells the Yale Daily News. "I think that I'm creating a project that lives up to the standard of what art is supposed to be." The thing is, Shvarts' art isn't so much commenting on politics or ideologies but her own need for attention.
We've all met young men and women like Aliza Shvarts: They come from relatively happy, upper-middle-class families, and are so desperate to be "edgy" and "crazy" that they perform a series of stunts — whether through drug experimentation, sexual exploration, or bad performance art — to differentiate themselves from their hopelessly bourgie peers and parents. The problem with Shvarts' little art project, however, is that her need to rebel has potentially big ramifications outside her ivory tower of academia. (One assumes that Shvarts used, at least in part, the abortifacient RU-486, a prescription-only drug that some politicians want added to the list of Schedule I controlled substances.) Plus, conservative bloggers are already up in arms and using Aliza's capriciousness to support their anti-abortion agendas. (At 9:00am this morning Shvarts' name had 53 hits on Google; as of 11:52am, it had 291.) And though the Buckley School valedictorian claims that she wants her piece to be a medium for "politics and ideologies," it's not like she's shedding light on an obscure subject. People debate the ethics of abortion constantly, and possibly harming your body by forcing it to miscarry repeatedly? Yeah, that's not helping the discourse.
Molly Clark-Barol, a Yale student and commenter on the YDH's website, sums up Shvarts's egocentrism better than I could: "Congratulations, Aliza Shvarts '08: you have single-handedly trivialized not only an entire generation and a half's fight to gain and retain the right to choose, through harassment and against massive odds, but also history of women's struggles, not only politically, but with the emotional, moral, and spiritual impacts of the choice to terminate a pregnancy. You also spit upon every couple who has tried, and failed, sometimes repeatedly, to have children. it is the emotional impact of these struggles, emotional impact that you shamelessly exploit, not explore, in your senior project."
[Image via Soapbox Event]
For Senior, Abortion A Medium For Art, Political Discourse [Yale Daily News]
Related: Absolutely Fascinating [Bitch, PhD]
Comments
Molly Clark-Barol gets an honorary Comment of the Day nod.
This is the most absolutely stupidest thing I have ever heard of in my entire life. This is the reason why people hate America. I hope she becomes infertile and can never have any babies when she actually does want to have them.
WHAT A FUCKING IDIOT.
Chick's broken.
Nice anti-establishment boots, bitch.
I'm so glad some college student decided having multiple miscarriages is fuckin' art. By that line of reasoning, I'm motherfucking Warhol.
No, this definitely makes me sick.
Women's rights and all aside, this is sickening.
A HIPSTER IDIOT NO LESS, LOOK AT THAT DAMN FUCKING OUTFIT.
Can we agree here that this woman has a psycho-affective disorder and needs to seek professional help? She's making Van Gogh look positively up-beat.
Well said, Ms Clark-Barol. God, this Shvarts person is a stupid bint.
*blink*
So, by effectively abusing your body and making a mockery of people who have unintentionally miscarried this somehow becomes art?
Is this like the artist version of a radio shock jock?
shame on her.
@NefariousNewt: word. I can't even articulate my reaction to this.
-picks jaw up off floor-
You know, by being so flippant about it, she just sort of confirms the conservative agenda. It's hard enough for most women who desparately need it to even get RU486 and miss entitled ivy league is popping it like tic tacs trying to make a point...what about, fuck if I know.
Meanwhile, people who are trying to study stem cells can't even get embryos that were going to be discarded anyway because that's sooo disrespectful to life.
I'm just going to say it. Sometimes art is fucking retarded.
If she'd gotten pregnant by accident and decided to use the pill and document it once, then I'd probably cut her some slack. But this is . . . disturbing on so many levels. I feel sorry for her professors who now have to figure out how to judge this.
Yucky. What an idiot. Seriously.
I honestly didn't think anything could shock me anymore. I was wrong.
You know, usually I can put up with people's poor taste, but this pisses me off. This idiot kid, has, in fact, trivialized something serious and important.
You could, however, call it natural selection. The girl has probably turned her entire reproductive system into rat poison, so at least her ridiculous ideas won't bleed into another generation.
@NefariousNewt: I concur. And quite seriously my heart hurts right now.
Oh god. Artificially inseminating yourself and then inducing miscarriage repeatedly in a year?
Um, art? no. Effing masochistic and insane/ we have a winner.
I hope being "edgy" and "artsy" at age 22 is worth the hell she's putting on her reproductive system. It might not be so cool at age 35 if she can't conceive or has done some other damage to herself.
disgusting
"They come from relatively happy, upper-middle-class families, and are so desperate to be "edgy" and "crazy" that they perform a series of stunts - whether through drug experimentation, sexual exploration, or bad performance art - to differentiate themselves from their hopelessly bourgie peers and parents."
Sorry to say it, but this description also fits a certain Oscar-winning screenwriter..
She disgusts me. I support a woman's right to choose in most circumstances, but I also support forced sterilizations when the situation warrants. As it does here.
Creating life with the sole intent to destroy it is not "art" any more than Jeffrey Dahmer's freezer contents were "cuisine."
What strikes me is why artificially inseminate? Isn't half of the fun of this project that you'd get to fuck around? Forest for the trees, people.
What a fucking sick bitch. Somebody needs to lock her up in the looney bin.
Her parents must be so proud.
I want to to hunt her down and smack the shit out of her..and not in some pretentious, arty way either.
I am ready to toss in one of my
"c-word" chips, which I allow myself only 2 of per year.
@BeAgrestic: This is like my fourth post and I really can't encapsulate how I feel. I'm not a woman, so my disgust is probably peripheral to any woman who has had a miscarriage, but this just boggles the mind. DOES SHE HONESTLY THINK THIS IS ART?!?!
what doctor prescribed her these pills? how did she keep inseminating herself? I feel there are some holes in this story
That last quotation sums up the net effects of her dumbass behavior nicely. All you're doing, m'dear, is handing pro-lifers the tools they require to dismantle Roe v. Wade.
I sincerely hope that all these miscarriages have left her barren in both womb and creative energy - no more fucked up productions from her!
This is what an Ivy-League education produces? Jeez.
This is one of the reasons the anti-choice people are the way they are.
What about the dudes semen? Where is she getting this fucking semen from? Her douchy ass art fag boyfriend?
Yale better fucking fail her for being an idiot.
This is disgusting and heart-wrenching. May she seek the help she so desperately needs. Her body is not going to hold up well to that kind of abuse, and quite frankly, she deserves it.
I cannot begin to think about an intelligent way to discuss why I find this so, so self-indulgent & repugnant (thanks for doing it for me, Molly Clark-Barol), so instead I'll snark.
Leopard high-waisted shorts? Fringed booties? Did her abuse of some seriously strong-ass prescription drugs also kill her retinas? 'Cause that outfit is one of her many crimes against humanity.
Ugh. There's one of these in every BFA program, apparently. But this is just the worst.
@hamburgerhotdog: You're totally right. Well done, girl, for making the anti-choicers' day.
What exactly is her political and ideological message here?
Dear Aliza, for your next abortion, er artistic masterpiece please drill a hole in your head and attach an industrial shop vac.
@AthertonMerriweather: That, my friend, would be Darwinism at its sweetest.
Jessica, you nailed this girl in your analysis-
Wow, look at her work through her pain, guys, she is SO edgy and her parents don't approve of her now!
Way to waste everyone's time and money on your education, moron.
@ineffable.me: And I hope the dumb bitch got an F on her thesis too. Disgusting.
I had a miscarriage when I was 20 and let me tell you there was nothing Monet about it.
What a heartless bitch.
This makes me really sad. That's all.
All right, I've got it now: she's auditioning for Jackass: Girls Can Be Stupid Too.
The response was just as bad. It's not anyone's responsibility to conduct their reproductive life in a way that avoids making infertile people feel bad.
@BeAgrestic: Third. Nauseating. The only dialogue she's opening is on the worthlessness of "art" such as hers. This woman deserves neither accolades nor a Yale diploma.
This is absolutely disgusting and you hit the nail on the head with your take on her "art" Jessica. She is desperate for attention and stupidly trying to be "edgy" when in fact she is despicable. And, it irritates me that someone so intelligent would pretend to ignore what effects this could have; it is great ammunition for the ant-choicers.
Can we repeal the ban on calls for DIAF comments for her? 'Cause seriously, Aliza Shvartz, DIAF.
@girlreporter: i agree, by repeatedly inducing abortions on