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| {{Display censorship incident | | {{Display censorship incident |
| |ongoing=no | | |ongoing=no |
| |year=1934 | | |year=2010 |
| |region=North America | | |region=North America |
| |artist=Ann Rice O’Hanlon, | | |artist=Magazine Companies |
| |subject=Political/Economic/Social Opinion | | |subject=Nudity, Political/Economic/Social Opinion |
| |confronting_bodies=University of Kentucky | | |confronting_bodies=Apple Inc. |
| |medium=Painting, Public Art | | |medium=Print Journalism |
| |date_of_action=November 25, 2015 | | |date_of_action=May 2010 |
| |location=Lexington, Kentucky, United States of America | | |location=United States |
| |description_of_content=Ann Rice O'Hanlon was a 20th-century American visual artist who painted murals. An alumna of the University of Kentucky, O'Hanlon painted a wall-length mural (fresco) inside the university's Memorial Hall in 1934 as part of the Treasury Relief Art Project with funds from the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The 11 x 38 foot fresco depicts the history of Kentucky through a series of vignettes, including explorers on the frontier, horse racing and scenes of downtown Lexington, the construction of log cabins, fishing off a bridge, passengers riding in a train, and horse training. It includes depictions of African-Americans picking tobacco in the fields, white people dancing to music played by black musicians, and a Native American peering from the woods at a white woman gathering water from a stream. | | |description_of_content=Many art and fashion magazines contain nudity or revealing clothing as a form of artistic expression. In 2010, the Apple App Store instituted a “no-nipple” policy, directly affecting magazines sold on the store. This policy upheld Apple’s desire to remain a family-friendly company and not to feature pornography, adult content, or nudity. However, it also limited art and fashion magazines like ''Dazed and Confused'', ''Vice'', and ''Cosmopolitan''. |
| |description_of_incident=Students of color at the University of Kentucky objected to the mural. In a November 23 statement issued two weeks after a meeting with two dozen African-American students, University President Eli Capilouto related this comment:
| | |description_of_incident=Apples Newsstand feature came out in 2010. This application allowed Apple users to download their favorite books and magazines in one place. With the origination of the Newsstand feature came a new set of guidelines. The guidelines were very general. In one section the company stated, “We will reject Apps for any content or behavior that we believe is over the line. What line, you ask? Well, as a Supreme Court Justice once said, ‘I’ll know it when I see it’. And we think that you will also know it when you cross it.” This established the company as an omnipotent power over what was allowed on the App Store and specifically caused fashion and art magazines to omit much of the content from the Apple versions of their publications. Because of this magazine companies nicknamed their iPad editions the “Iranian versions.” |
| | |description_of_result=Magazines were forced to self-censor, removing images of models that showed nipples or revealed too much skin. If they didn’t submit to this, they risked Apple removing their application from the App Store. However, publishers still tried to push the boundaries of some of their content. For example, ''Cosmopolitan'' included cartoon pictures of people having sex accompanied by a detailed description of their position and their physical actions. This supposedly was not removed by Apple because the magazine was clearly for users seventeen and older, was password protected, and did not contain any real-life nudity. Though Apple made a few exceptions, such as allowing ''The Sun'' to keep their daily topless model known as the “Page 3 Girl,” most questionable fashion and art content, especially bare-breasted models, was not permitted. Consumers and publishers alike contest Apple’s pressure on them to self-censor because though the world of journalism is shifting to a digital medium, Apple does not allow users to fully utilize their resources and acquire the same material in Apple devices as they would in print magazines. |
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| "One African American student recently told me that each time he walks into class at Memorial Hall he looks at the black men and women toiling in tobacco fields and receives the terrible reminder that his ancestors were enslaved, subjugated by his fellow humans. Worse still, the mural provides a sanitized image of that history."
| | In present day Apple still pressures publishers to self-censor and exercises the right to remove content that they do not think upholds Apple’s values. Additionally, Apple places ratings and justifications for these ratings of the magazine apps on the App Store. However, these ratings are highly subjective and inconsistent. In 2013 the American versions of ''Cosmopolitan'', ''Dazed and Confused'', and ''Playboy'' are categorized as “must be at least 17 years old to download this app.” Whereas magazines like Vanity Fair and ''Harper’s Bazaar'' are rated “12+,” though the print versions of these magazines have, in the past, featured nude women on their covers multiple times. And ''Seventeen Magazine'', a magazine whose namesake reveals the audience it targets, is rated a “4+.” Apple does not only censor magazines, but also novels and other applications, and since 2010 they have refused to change this policy. |
| | | |image=6a00e55225079e88340133ed76d25c970b-800wi.jpg |
| On November 25, 2015, the administration covered the entire fresco in white fabric. Capiluoto referred to the shrouding as an interim action, as a "long-term answer will take some time." Capilouto also created a task force made up of faculty, staff and students.
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| |description_of_result=In response to the incident, the American poet, novelist, and activist Wendell Berry wrote an op-ed in the Lexington Herald-Leader denouncing the University of Kentucky’s decision:
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| "The president...objects to the fresco on the grounds that it reminds 'one black student... that his ancestors were slaves.' That statement has at least two arresting implications: (1) that black students should not ever be reminded that their ancestors were slaves, and (2) that white students should not ever be reminded that their ancestors were slave owners. Do students, then, study history at our 'flagship university' in order to forget it?"
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| In April 2017, the administration removed the drapery and the mural was once again visible; after nearly two years under wraps, the task force had concluded that the mural should be displayed, but with accompanying wall text to give historical context to the work. Signage describing its history, including the concerns voiced about it over the years, was added nearby.
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| In an [https://www.kentucky.com/opinion/editorials/article100481602.html Op-Ed], UK President Capilouto stated:
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| “Against that backdrop, the concern, for many, is that the mural does not adequately reflect the violence and inhumanity that many experienced through subjugation and slavery,” he said. “Those questions of intent, context and perception have become part of a larger conversation at UK about racial climate. And, as is so often the case, we’ve been led by students.”
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| In August 2018, [https://www.chronicle.com/article/What-the-U-of-Kentucky-Did/244269? The Chronicle of Higher Education reported] that the University of Kentucky commissioned Philadelphia artist Karyn Olivier to create a work that responds to O’Hanlon’s mural. A committee was formed to solicit a public artwork in response to the mural and surrounding controversy. After issuing an open call to artists for submissions, the committee invited Olivier and another artist to submit final proposals. They selected Olivier’s project. Her work is now installed in the dome of the building's vestibule, to be seen before entering the room that houses O’Hanlon’s mural. The installation covers the domed ceiling in gold leaf, with black and Native American figures from the mural interspersed in the gold field, along with four portraits of influential black and Native American Kentuckians. A quotation from Frederick Douglass is displayed around the dome's lower edge.
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| |image=UKentucky.jpg | |
| }} | | }} |
| [https://www.chronicle.com/article/What-the-U-of-Kentucky-Did/244269? What the U. of Kentucky Did About a Controversial Campus Fresco Depicting Slavery], By Claire Hansen AUGUST 14, 2018
| | http://www.wordyard.com/2010/09/09/how-will-the-app-stores-new-newsstand-be-censored/ |
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| [http://ncac.org/blog/shrouding-history-or-protecting-students-university-of-kentucky-covers-1930s-mural Victory: A Year On, University of Kentucky Uncovers Controversial Mural Depicting Slaves, NCAC, BY SVETLANA MINTCHEVA, orig. post Dec 3, 2015; Update: Apr 21, 2017]
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| [http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/education/article140580518.html Controversial UK mural uncovered, this time with context, BY LINDA BLACKFORD, March 24, 2017]
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| [https://ncac.org/censorship-news-articles/confronting-the-past-in-paint Confronting the Past in Pain[t], OCTOBER 7, 2016 BY NCAC STAFF
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| [http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/wendell-berry-vs-political-correctness Wendell Berry vs. Political Correctness, By ROD DREHER, December 1, 2015]
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| [http://www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/article47230635.html Op-Ed: Censors on the flagship, BY WENDELL BERRY, November 30, 2015]
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| [http://www.kentucky.com/opinion/editorials/article100481602.html Moral of UK mural debate: mutual respect: Kudos for uncovering a work of art and unveiling a new commitment to a diverse, inclusive campus], Lexington Herald Leader, Sept 7, 2016
| | http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2010/05/apples_itunes_censors_fashion_magazines.html |
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| [http://ukcc.uky.edu/cgi-bin/dynamo?maps.391+campus+0049 Campus Guide –Memorial Hall (Full image of mural)].
| | http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/08/11/dirty-apps-how-magazines-are-handling-apples-erratic-censorshi/ |
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