Mariah Joyce
Editor in Chief
An art installation by the campus group k(no)w depicting female genitalia has once again garnered a complaint on The College of Wooster Campus.
For their week-long series of sex positive and sex education events known as Sex Week, k(no)w members painted a schedule of events and images on the windows of Lowry Center. One of these images, painted by Vy Vu ’18, was an anatomically labeled drawing of a vulva with wings.
This semester, a student told Carolyn Buxton, senior associate dean of students, that they found the flying vulva to be in violation of the Sexual Harassment policy, and possibly in violation of Ohio State Law 2907.32, which prohibits “pandering obscenity.”
K(no)w co-president Cece Azar ’17 met with Dean Buxton about the complaint, and from that meeting it was determined that the installation was not in violation of state law or College policy and served a genuine artistic/educational purpose, and therefore the organization was not required to remove their work
During last semester’s Sex Week, the group was required to take down a panel of its Art Wall depicting cartoon genitalia in response to a student complaint that the art installation violated the College’s Sexual Harassment policy. K(no)w leadership was extremely displeased with the requirement to take the panels down both because they felt the panels were not in fact in violation of any College policy and because the club was not given any forum in which to contest the College’s verdict that the panels should be taken down.
Cassie Huye ’17, k(no)w co-president, expressed frustration that yet another complaint had been filed about artwork depicting female genitalia. “I think when someone sees an image like this, both educational and artistic in expression, and finds themselves disturbed – as a female that bothers me,” said Huye. “Penises are etched into every other desk in the library and no one is filing a complaint with the Dean of Students about the harassing nature of it.”
When k(no)w was required to remove artwork last spring, College officials seemed receptive to the idea of creating some kind of impartial appeal process for students who felt their work had been unfairly censored.
In response to whether the College was still open to that idea, Buxton said that Director of Student Rights and Responsibilities Jess Ettell will review College policy and make recommendations for change to Dean of Students Scott Brown.