Is This Picture Offensive?
— Posted by John (March 14, 2006 at 2:50 pm)
Several students at Harvard think so.
They’ve even taken it upon themselves to tear down posters like this one, and others displayed by members of Harvard Right to Life that depict various stages of the development of “Elena” in utero.
Harvard Crimson staff writer Alexandra Atiya attempts to give reasons for the “pro-choice” students’ furor over the posters:
The “Elena posters” are the newest tactic of Harvard Right to Life. They feature a little fetus saying, “Oh, HI! I was just celebrating all my organs and me being 56 days alive!” I am not a fan….
They seek to cause anger, not excitement. In doing so, they reveal their antagonistic purpose, implicitly admitting that their primary function is to irritate pro-choice supporters on campus.This kind of purposeless aggression is a hurtful and unproductive way of expressing opinions….
[I]t is simply a statement of anger to express your ideas in the way of the “Elena Posters”…. [I]t’s unnecessarily divisive…. [T]his deliberately flattens an intensely painful and complicated issue. It also happens to misrepresent the pro-choice members of this campus as bloodthirsty baby killers.
“[A]ntagonistic…purposeless aggression…unproductive…a statement of anger…unnecessarily divisive…”
I never knew a picture of a developing baby could provoke such an angry reaction. It gets more outrageous, though — The Oh, Harvard blog had this to say:
I think I have a right to not see that crap on my way to breakfast, lunch, and dinner….Ethically charged posters like that have no place in common spaces. Quite simply, if one is pro-choice, they make you uncomfortable and annoyed…. Some things aren’t suited to cute posters with girly fonts and doodles. Some things don’t serve a real purpose…. [emphasis in the original]
Now, I have my own opinions on “talking fetus” posters — generally, they’re not my style, but sometimes, as is the case here with the “Elena” posters, I can admit they’re sort of cute.
Still, the fact that a group of students at Harvard have worked themselves into a lather over these harmless posters is more than a little strange.
HT: Jill Stanek via This is NOT a Job for Superheroes
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Christina says:
Oh! It’s a scary fetus! Oh, make the scary zygote go away!
Comment posted March 14th, 2006 at 7:17 pm
Sunnyday says:
I read that abortionists have already acknowledged the humanity of the fetus. But now they are claiming the right to feel good about what they do (which is to perform abortions). I read this in a LifeSite news article about 2 weeks ago.
Btw, I really like this picture used for the ad. =)
Comment posted March 14th, 2006 at 10:46 pm
Tom Shakely says:
“if one is pro-choice, they make you uncomfortable and annoyed”
In other words, pro-abortionists deserve to live in a state of complacent mental comfort, able to ignore facts at their own discretion.
What else is new? :p
Comment posted March 14th, 2006 at 11:45 pm
Ben White says:
Try reading the rest of the blog. The emphasis was for humor, not anger (right to life, right not to see…). I wrote why some students wouldn’t like seeing the posters on their dormitory walls. Please don’t quote the same paragraph that every prolife blog has quoted and say that “it gets more outrageous.” It doesn’t. I’ve posted probably half a dozen times. All of my comments have nothing to do with the message of the posters or the pictures themselves, neither bother me. I write about Harvard as I see it, and I knew what would happen.
My only personal beliefs about the posters that I’ve written about is that there are a ton of them and that I’m not a big fan of crayola fonts and talking fetuses. I don’t think they’re particularly cute, and I think any cuteness is perhaps innapropriate.
Pro-choice students don’t deserve to live in a state of complacent mental comfort, I was pointing out that some students would feel uncomfortable and would have rather had this discussion in a different setting as opposed to in their homes.
I also wonder if you read the other Crimson articles, like yesterday’s staff editorial blasting the people who vandalized the posters, or the rest of my posts about HRL before you decided to take Stanek’s story and rewrite it. What you’ve written is way after the fact and mostly erroneous. In a school of thousands, no more than a handful of students got worked into a “lather.” You make it seem like Harvard is full of naive “pro-abortion” kids unwilling to face facts. I’m dissapointed.
Comment posted March 15th, 2006 at 10:32 am
John says:
Ben writes:
“Try reading the rest of the blog. The emphasis was for humor, not anger (right to life, right not to see…). I wrote why some students wouldn’t like seeing the posters on their dormitory walls. Please don’t quote the same paragraph that every prolife blog has quoted and say that ‘it gets more outrageous.’ It doesn’t.”
Ben,
I read (and have since reread) the post on your blog from which I quoted. It struck me then, and still strikes me now, as a screed, although perhaps I missed the humor.
“My only personal beliefs about the posters that I’ve written about is that there are a ton of them and that I’m not a big fan of crayola fonts and talking fetuses.”
I’m generally not a fan of them either, as I indicated in this post.
“I don’t think they’re particularly cute, and I think any cuteness is perhaps innapropriate.”
I don’t know what you mean by this.
“Pro-choice students don’t deserve to live in a state of complacent mental comfort, I was pointing out that some students would feel uncomfortable and would have rather had this discussion in a different setting as opposed to in their homes.”
If the “discussion” you’re referring to is about abortion, what better place to have it than in a dorm? I would be sorely disappointed if students at Harvard — or any university, for that matter — considered common living areas off limits for discussing controversial issues.
“You make it seem like Harvard is full of naive ‘pro-abortion’ kids unwilling to face facts.”
Consider this, Ben. Two years ago, several of my Pro-Life Action League co-workers conducted a “Face the Truth” day (consisting of a display of graphic abortion pictures) outside the campus of Northwestern University. One irate “pro-choice” student told one pro-lifer who was holding a sign showing the remains of a fetus who had been aborted 10 weeks from conception that the picture must surely be fake, since it was impossible for a fetus at that stage to have arms and legs.
You can see the picture in question here:
http://www.prolifeaction.org/truth/signs.htm#first
I’m disinclined to think that this “pro-choice” student’s fundamental ignorance of even the most basic facts of embryology is entirely atypical of those who share his opinion on abortion.
Are all “pro-choice” individuals uninformed about the development of human life in the womb? Certainly not.
But many are.
Comment posted March 15th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
Ben White says:
By “cuteness is perhaps inappropriate,” I mean simply that, abortion is not a cute issue, it is a serious one.
Jon, they don’t consider it off-limits. However, if one accepts that discussion of said issues happens outside of the home, why must it occur inside as well? Perhaps their dormitory halls are places where students want to unwind after days of academic rigor.
I think at this school, which is the only one I can vouch for, very few are that uninformed. I don’t negate the value of the message. My point is this as I’ve said before: if you want people to look and listen, do so in a way that is conducive to that goal. I don’t think, and events have shown, that students who are pro-choice feel swayed by these posters. I just don’t think they’re effective. I’ll point something out in my post:
My emphasis said I had the right not to see the posters. Later on, I said that HRL has the right to poster wherever and whenever they want. First, that means that I wasn’t being serious in my first claim (hence why it’s supposed to be taken with salt instead of literally). Most posters are for pimping events. I personally don’t like seeing any ideological posters of any kind, because I genuinely think they’re wholly ineffective. I don’t think if Harvard Students for Israel postered true facts about Israel’s positive actions, that any pro-palestinian-anti-israel students would be swayed in any way. There a many forums for student groups to get their messages out. I think simply that postering is not the best way.
Comment posted March 15th, 2006 at 3:39 pm
John says:
Ben writes:
“By ‘cuteness is perhaps inappropriate,’ I mean simply that, abortion is not a cute issue, it is a serious one.”
I appreciate the clarification. Obviously, abortion is a serious issue.
Recall, however, that the “Elena” posters — none of the ones I’ve seen, at least; please correct me if I’m wrong — say anything about abortion.
“Jon, they don’t consider it off-limits. However, if one accepts that discussion of said issues happens outside of the home, why must it occur inside as well?”
I have to disagree with you here. Colleges ought to be doing everything they can to encourage students to exchange ideas and debate issues in the informal setting of their living areas because truth-seeking is intrinsically valuable.
“There a many forums for student groups to get their messages out. I think simply that postering is not the best way.”
On the contrary, considering what I gather was the near ubiquity of such posters on the campus, many Harvard students have more knowledge of fetal development than they did before the pictures were posted.
That, and the posters and the vandalism done to them have received national attention.
Harvard Right to Life couldn’t have asked for a more effective forum to get their message out chronicling human life before birth.
Comment posted March 15th, 2006 at 4:56 pm
Katarina says:
Christina, you were also looking once the same as this cute little human being that you call “scary zygote”. Put it away, you ask? Shame on you!!! Do you think that you have a right to live but somebody else does not? How cruel and selfish – Hitler’s mentality! Say thank you to your mother that she is not like you, she did not put you to death but she gave you life.
Babies in womb feel pain, they feel when abortionist ripps their limbs apart from the body, crushes their head, burns their body alive in acid or let them starve to death. Nazi practices…that are happening daily in so called civilized country. It is far from real civilization. Proabort pagans ignore God’s command “You shall not kill” and “Treat others as you would treat yourself”. Prolife people pray for those like you and it is never late to ask for God’s forgiveness. I hope you will get there one day…
Comment posted April 4th, 2006 at 1:48 pm
John says:
Katarina,
No need for the harsh words — Christina was being sarcastic.
Not only is Christina strongly pro-life, but she runs a top-quality pro-life blog called “Real Choice”:
http://realchoice.blogspot.com/
I think you owe Christina an apology.
Comment posted April 4th, 2006 at 1:58 pm
Katarina says:
Christina, John wrote that you were being sarcastic but that in fact you are on our side. I apologize for exploding, I got mad since your comment did not sounded prolife friendly. I still address the previous comments to all who do not value life in the womb.
Comment posted April 18th, 2006 at 2:20 am
ben white says:
The issue might have received international attention, but their message was not spread effectively here, I can tell you that. They did more harm than good. And as an aside, one doesn’t need to say the words abortion for students to associate with it because of HRL. It’s obvious, whether implied or stated implicitly.
Perhaps there is a difference being lost here: there are places in houses for posters: they’re called posterboards. However, posters were also placed in places other than these places. Many of those torn down were ones that shouldn’t have been there in the first place. The college does not encourage or discourage the posters, it has no stance. Not even those that hated the posters thought the college should be involved in any way.
I know there is a sincere hope that the posters did something effective to educate the pro-choice community, unfortunately, I have seen that this was not the case. Just the way it is, I’m sorry. Things have calmed down since a couple of months ago. After the initial anger, everyone has continued to ignore them.
Comment posted April 19th, 2006 at 9:46 pm