Students must get naked in order to pass art class final at UC-San Diego

[Blue_Tires]

SAN DIEGO, CA --
A mother is outraged after learning her daughter will have to get naked to pass a course final exam.

As part of course requirements, University of California-San Diego visual arts students are required to use their body as a canvas for a performance and body art assignment. One mother is now protesting, saying it's perverse and "wrong."

"To ... say you must be naked in order to pass my class, it makes me sick to my stomach," the mother, who didn't want to be identified, said to KGTV.

The professor in charge of the class says it's the first time in 11 years he's had a complaint.

"It's a standard canvas for performance art and body art," explained Ricardo Dominquez, art professor. "If they are uncomfortable with this gesture they should not take the class."

The professor says students know the expectation when they sign up for the class.

http://abc7chicago.com/education/students-must-get-naked-in-order-to-pass-final/714194/

[Coventina]

1. It's none of the mother's business, if the student is 18 or older.

She needs to take the issue up with her daughter for knowingly signing up for the course.

And, assuming the daughter is of legal age, she can also tell her mother to mind her own business.

[steve2470]

3. +1 nt

[haele]

2. It's up front in the course description for Ritual Performance.

So when does Mommy have the right to complain about a class her adult daughter signed up for?
Is she trying to think of anything she could do other than slut-shaming her adult child for picking that class in the first place?


Haele

[haele]

4. Add to post - the students probably don't have to get totally naked.

I'm sure the professor will allow some sort of partial nudity as in some sort of minimal underwear or bathing suits for those students who have a problem with full nudity.
In my experience, art classes where there are live nude models typically have some sort of warning in the syllabus so that the squeamish, prudish, or students with sexual triggers/discomfort don't freak out and can either drop the class or make arrangements, and there is a requirement that all students (and models) be over 18.
I would expect that if the students were required to paint their own bodies as part of the course, there would be some similar sort of compromise made for those with ingrained body or privacy issues. I tried looking up the syllabus, couldn't find it.

Now if Mommy knew her daughter had a body image problem and would get a lower grade as there was no option to full nudity in the final that could give her an equivalent grade, I can see merits in a complaint.

Haele

[CrawlingChaos]

5. I was going to say the same thing

You'd better be comfortable with nudity if you're going to sign up for art classes. God, this woman would have a heart attack if she were exposed to a typical sampling of performance art. In fact, taking prudish moms to performance art could be a type of performance art in itself...albeit evil

I'll bet you're also correct about the professor allowing some type of modesty garments. But in that sort of environment, where everyone's doing something similar in a highly supportive and positive atmosphere, I doubt very many would want them.

[hunter]

7. This is a sensible requirement for a class like this.

It probably discourages some of the creepier sorts, those eager to watch naked people, but unwilling to make themselves vulnerable in the same way.

It's like a nude beach, the creepiest guys (well, aside from the much rarer public masturbators) are the ones perched above the beach fully clothed taking photographs with long lenses. It's almost always guys.

I took a photography class that required a nude photo, and required each student in the class to be the subject of a nude photo. Most people took self-portraits, reflections, that sort of thing, but maybe a quarter of us took photos of one another. I also posed nude for a figure drawing class in college.

[Major Nikon]

8. Perverse does not mean what she thinks it means

[Art_from_Ark]

9. UC-San Diego

Up the hill and down the road from America's most famous nude beach.