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Weblog Archive: August 17, 2008 to Aug 23, 2008 Saturday, August 23, 2008
From the day her daughter Madeleine was born, Betsy Schneider has performed a ritual that would inspire jealousy in any mom who lost the baby book when her own kid was 3 months old. Schneider's taken what she calls a "Photo of the Day." Two, actually: a headshot and a full-body image. When Madeleine was an infant, Schneider would get the baby up in the morning, take off her diaper, and snap the photos. She meant to do it only for a year, but the project continued as Madeleine got older (she's now 10), and it came to include her younger brother Viktor, now 6. The images are almost clinical, certainly documentary-style, marking time on the face and body. Schneider insists the head shots are more personal, but it's the full-frontals, of course, that have gotten so much attention — particularly in 2004, when Schneider showed three huge posters filled with tiny shots of Madeleine at birth, 2, and 5 at a London gallery. The images came down the day they went up, only to be strewn — along with Schneider's reputation — across the front pages of that city's nasty tabloids, amidst accusations of child pornography. The New Times article is accompanied by an online slideshow of Schneider's work and the paper's own photos of Schneider and family. Nothing outrageous there, aside from this reproduction of The Sun's outraged coverage of the 2004 gallery show. If the work and the uproar remind you of Sally Mann, you're onto something; Schneider apprenticed with Mann after art school. So she's an unoriginal artist, and to my eye, a mediocre one. But she's clearly an artist, not a child pornographer, and any attention from law enforcement officials or sensationalist muckrackers is misguided. Following the 2004 gallery closing, to their credit, London police decided not to file charges against the gallery or Schneider. Josie Appleton at Spiked was rightly more critical of the gallery for voluntarily removing Schneider's work to avoid trouble. But now the same dynamic is playing out in Phoenix around the New Times article itself: Newspaper’s nude child photos draw police review. Experts in the department's sex crimes unit have asked for the opinions of city, county and state prosecutors on whether artist Betsy Schneider or the Phoenix New Times newspaper violated any laws by showing artistic, nude photographs of Schneider's children in print and online, Phoenix police spokesman Sgt. Andy Hill said Monday. As in London, sanity and restraint may prevail. James Hays, an assistant city attorney in Phoenix's civil division, is also looking into the case. He said making the argument that the photographs are child pornography would be tough to do. The U.S. Supreme Court has drawn fairly clear lines between art and pornography, he said. The key is intent, he said. One of the things police and prosecutors would explore is whether the photographs were meant to be sexually stimulating. If the photographs were meant to be art, Hays said, courts have generally protected such work as free speech. In this case, given that Schneider is a trained, renowned artist and the mother of the subjects, the photographs will likely be protected under the law, he said. (Link snagged from Reason.) Wednesday, August 20, 2008
The second-floor storefront near an Asian grocer in Rowland Heights is part of a wave of foot massage businesses that has saturated ethnic-Chinese neighborhoods in Los Angeles County over the last three years. The popularity of foot massage has risen as cutthroat competition has sent prices downward. But now, business owners are dealing with a new problem: a crackdown by county and state officials who have ruled that they need licenses from the state Board of Barbering and Cosmetology. A few weeks ago, investigators arrived at Lau's business, closed its doors and asked that everyone produce certification. The scrutiny has roiled business owners and employees in an industry that has increasingly become a refuge for poor immigrants from China -- many of whom consider the relaxed environs and better pay a superior option to working at a restaurant. The licensing requirement defies commonsense. The Board of Barbering and Cosmetology, which deals mostly with manicurists and hairstylists, determined last year that the young industry fell under its purview because of a law that encompasses the beautification and cleansing of the feet. Many foot massage businesses soak customers' feet in warm water and herbs before administering a massage. Business owners say that they should not have to face enforcement until lawmakers establish a separate set of rules for foot massage. What's worse, they argue, is that the schooling required for a Board of Barbering and Cosmetology license does not include any instruction on foot massage, but mostly hair and nail work. If you have years of experience performing foot massages, you're not qualified to perform foot massages. If you've spent thousands of dollars for state-mandated classes on hairstyling and manicures, congratulations, you're licensed to perform foot massages. Thus the government protects consumers by ensuring that (a) your licensed foot masseuse is probably incompetent, and (b) your licensed but incompetent foot masseuse can charge higher rates because all the competent foot masseuses have been driven out of business. Then there's the sex panic angle. Lau and others believe the state is cracking down out of concern that illicit sexual activities are occurring at the parlors -- something owners strongly deny. "They think foot massage must be something to do with sex," Lau said. "They don't understand how popular this is in Asia. It's part of Chinese culture." (Though she finds it curious that some businesses have private rooms with massage tables, [Terri McLaughlin, a business license investigator for the L.A. County Sheriff's Department] said the suspicion of illicit sexual activity was not the driving force behind the enforcement.) The confusion is understandable. If I happened across a storefront "massage parlor" staffed by recent Chinese immigrants, I might expect to be offered a happy ending. Neither the misguided tingle nor the parting disappointment would make me want to shut the place down. A good foot massage can be a near-orgasmic experience anyway. Maybe some foot massage parlors really are prostitution fronts. So what? (Thanks, Ronnie!) |
