UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
Soli Salgado | Feb. 3, 2015 NCR Today
The Vatican Pontifical Council of Culture recently sparked controversy when the cover image for an online working document intended to advertise this week’s annual plenary assembly in Rome on “Women’s Culture: Equality and Difference” was Man Ray’s 1936 sculpture, “Venus Restored,” a plaster cast of a headless Venus bound in ropes. The work of art, according to an article at Crux, is meant to depict women as a subjugated sex object, but also as a creature who rises above men’s depictions.
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan wrote on her blog that it “reflects the Vatican’s patriarchal, dysfunctional view that holds women in spiritual bondage. This image denigrates women’s bodies and souls and reflects a deep misogyny in need of healing and transformation.”
“If we had women priests at the Vatican, do you think an image like this would see the light of day?” she asked.
Micol Forti, director of the contemporary art collection at the Vatican Museums, defended the use of the image, telling Crux that the sculpture was chosen because it represents the past as an “anchor to generate new ideas.” She added that while it is imperfect in fully articulating the purpose of the assembly, “it’s not a headless or armless body, but a reflection on classic tradition and the possibility of rediscovering a role in contemporary life.”
We Are Church of Ireland also took offense to the choice of images, saying that Man Ray was a misogynist who objectified women and viewed them as subordinates, targets of male desire and subjects to erotic fantasies.
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