Yale to Pull Art Project Unless Student Admits It's False

Yale University announced today that it will pull Aliza Shvarts' art project unless she admits that it is fiction.

According to FoxNews.com, Yale stands "by its claim Monday that Aliza Shvarts fabricated a shocking work of 'creative fiction' in detailing how she constructed her senior art project."

As I've noted in the two previous posts, Shvarts claimed that she impregnated herself with donated sperm and then caused "miscarriages" by taking herbs and drugs. She then collected the blood and material from the "miscarriages" for her "art project."

Then, Thursday, when university officials questioned her, she admitted that it was all made up-- a narrative that comprised part of her art project.

Then, on Friday, in an opinion piece for the Yale Daily News, Shvarts then claimed that she did do what she originally claimed except that she never took a pregnancy test and she took herbs on the 28th day of her cycle to bring on her menstrual cycle. She claims to have done this for nine months.

Now, if you can get past the ridiculous language of her opinion piece, (As an aside, why do so many students insist on wrapping the most basic claims and opinions in forty-cent words when a dime a dozen would work? Maybe it's because the most outlandish and assinine claims come across as more serious and learned when wrapped in silk versus cotton? Seriously, I thought her opinion piece was trite. Anyway,. . .) you'll discover that, as the Preacher said, "There is nothing new under the sun." Shvarts project is just a gross way of expressing the same modern feminist jargon everyone from Betty Friedan to Kim Gandy has espoused in some fashion.

On the plus side, Yale investigated and found that a step in the art project approval process was skipped. I know that as a speech communications major, I had to write an original piece of work 45-55 minutes long, memorize it and perform the speech before the faculty for approval before I could perform before the public. From the FoxNews account, it sounds like the faculty approval part was skipped.

Yale administrators are certain that Shvarts' claims of intentionally aborting herself over and over again are all part of Shvarts' "performance." They are insisting that she tell the truth and admit that no human blood was used for the project otherwise they will cancel the showing.

Let's all pray that her "narrative" is just that-- a piece of gross and crass fiction-- and that this young woman hasn't sacrificed her health and sanity for the sake of "art."

Yale Art Student Lied About Lying

The Yale University student who claimed to have impregnated herself with donor sperm just so she could induce "miscarriages" for her art project now claims the project was real-- despite whatever she told Yale authorities.

However, the facts as she now tells them are different from what was originally told to the press yesterday. According to FoxNews.com, the student, Aliza Shvarts, now claims that she did attempt to impregnate herself but took herbs on the 28th day of her cycle to begin menstruating. She apparently did not take a pregnancy test at any point during these repeated attempts and does not know if she ever became pregnant.

Even though it is not known if she became pregnant, Ms. Shvarts "art" project should be shelved. And I think this student needs serious psychological help. Putting herself through these attempts at self-impregnation and then inducing menstruation (or abortion-- we don't know) is cause for concern.

As a woman who has suffered a miscarriage, I find it extremely offensive that this student thinks my grief-- and the grief of millions of women like me who have lost a child from miscarriage or induced abortion-- is subject to her bizarre and sick sense of "art."

And regardless of what she asserts, this project was obviously contrived to shock and incite controversy.

It is possible that these new claims are part of a new "narrative" for her "performance art" and if it is, again, a lie, I think Ms. Shvarts needs to have her project pulled and both she and her "project" advisor need to understand that performing or acting for an audience willing to suspend disbelief is different from deliberately setting out to deceive the audience.

Lying is not art. It's lying.

Yale has a responsibility here and I hope they recognize it.

Yale Art??

I was quoted in a LifeNews.com article today about a Yale Art student who claimed to have artificially impregnated herself and then induced more than one abortion just for an "art project." She then filmed her "miscarriages" for her senior art project which is set to go on display.

Well, it turns out-- she lied.

She reportedly told three university officials that she did not do what she claimed to have done. According to a Yale press release, this is "performance art."

No, it's not.

It's sick.

Millions of women in this country have miscarried or have had abortions and grieve over their losses. I, for one, am incensed that this "art" student felt that those losses are subject to what amounts as a cruel joke purportedly done for the sake of "art."

Regardless of Yale's justification, this project is offensive to many and it's crude and crass.

It needs to be pulled.