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Why the authors of Project 2025 (and far-right Christian Nationalists) hate art
People who grow up in far-right Christian Nationalism aren’t allowed to learn about art. They are told that the art world is filled with sycophants and perverts. Art causes people to give into their urges (a concept they call “sin”) by introducing them to debauched points of view that conflict with the Bible.
In other words, it expands minds beyond a pastor’s narrow interpretation of the Bible. It causes people to question: The pastor and staff, the church’s authority, the Bible, their One True God.
Scroll through some examples of artworks that would meet a Project 2025’ers definition of pornography below.
Remember the Florida school that banned a book containing this image? The banners called Michelangelo’s David pornography. (Source: Author)
And you thought religious paintings couldn’t be porn? The framers of Project 2025 would consider “The Garden of Eden” by Lucas Cranach the Elder pornographic because Adam and Eve are naked. It doesn’t matter that the Bible says Adam and Eve were naked until they fell. Naked depictions turn this holy Bible story into something lewd and blasphemous. (Source: Sothebys)
When I posted this painting by Edward Hopper on my Instagram, most people were gobsmacked that my Christian Nationalist church and school would call it porn. The woman is naked, and naked women make men think about sex. (Source: Author)
The Virgin Mary is literally putting her luscious naked boob in the Lord’s mouth! What blasphemy! Never mind that this work was likely commissioned by the Roman Catholic Church. “The Virgin Nursing the Child” by Artemisia Gentileschi. (Source: Pinterest)
This painting (Doomscrolling by Sarah Thibault) that hangs in my living room would be considered an erotic depiction of the female form and therefore porn. (Source: Sarah’s website)
Or this one (Contemplating the Moon by Sarah Thibault). Full disclosure: I’m the woman in the towel. While they would object to me in a towel (because it makes men think I might be naked under there, which leads to thinking about sex), the bikini and the moon are partial nudity. They’d also ding this one as homoerotic. Maybe she’s stripping down to entice me to a sauna sexcapade. (Source: Sarah’s website)
Boobs and uncovered female skin like poor Venus de Milo’s incite raging horniness. Plus, her inadequate clothes are falling off. (Source: The Louvre)
“Nude Descending a Staircase” by Marcel Duchamp. It contains the word “nude.” Weak minds might spend hours scouring this painting for the naughty bits while thinking about sex. (Source: Harpers Bazaar)
Obviously, Gustave Courbet’s “Sleeping Nude Woman” is problematic. She is shattered from having her brains screwed out. (Source: Harpers Bazaar)
But the far-right authors of Project 2025 don’t merely object to art because of the images I’ve shared here. They also object to the artistic lifestyle.
How many artists were/are homosexual? How many took/take mistresses? Or live/d with someone to whom they aren’t/weren’t married?
How many participate/d in orgies? Or live/d in open relationships? Or paint/ed prostitutes they paid for sexual services?
To the authors of Project 2025, most art glorifies vice. Debauchery. Lust. Sin. Because art’s creators are largely people who don’t conform. The refusal to conform is a threat to far-right power and control.
What does Project 2025’s definition of art-as-pornography mean for YOU?
Access to museums could be dramatically curtailed.
Museum collections could be culled of offensive content by fascist government officials.
The National Endowment for the Arts would, at a minimum, refuse to grant funds to any project that meets Project 2025’s definition of porn. At a maximum, it would be shuttered for supporting porn.
Galleries could be told what they can and cannot show or represent.
Artist studio spaces could be searched and/or forced to only admit artists who meet Christo-fascist standards for art creation.
Art programs at universities could severely restrict artistic expression.
Artists like my friend Sarah and collectors like me could be arrested for creating and/or owning offensive artworks.
Figure models and their observers could be arrested and charged with indecency or obscenity.
Valuable artworks could be destroyed.
Our understanding of art and art history could be dramatically rewritten to reflect the far-right’s intolerant views.
Artist websites could be labeled pornographic.
Let’s go back to what the authors of Project 2025 say about pornography. At the beginning. On PAGE 5.
“Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.”
Project 2025 Page 5
Readers may think my list of possible outcomes is shrill or exaggerated or hyperbolic. Many Americans may shrug and say, “I don’t care about art, so this doesn’t affect me. And besides, this can’t happen in our country.” But knowing how they define porn, my list probably doesn’t go far enough.
What do you think?
In the next post, we’ll cover the many types of books and writing the authors of Project 2025 deem pornographic. I hope you’ll join me. Thank you for being here.
The work to save democracy isn’t free.
If you want to help me enhance this publication with an audio version.
Or support the creation of a glossary of far-right terms and what they really mean so that journalists can ask more informed questions.
Or help me hire a researcher to expose the many religiously-affiliated programs that already receive taxpayer funding and force religion on participants.
I suppose a question people will have is how they will accomplish this: executive orders, legislation, court decisions, or their own mobs in the streets no longer being constrained by anything. My guess is all of the above.
Agreed, their list of porn would be much larger than what you listed. We'd lose thousands of pieces of art.