The asshole doth protest too much.

I wish people could just keep their emotional immaturity to themselves.

Just because you can not separate art from porn, or see a nude body without thinking of illicit sex does not mean that the adults at the party can not.

This is the crossover conflict between the dionysian carnival waterfront with its gimcracks and gewgaws attracting its share of know-nothing hicks, and the apollonian SAM/James Corner waterfront, with its high concept and its hoity and its toity. I adore that sculpture, and welcome the occasional WTF response from the booboisie.

The linked articles contain no image of the fountain. Here's a link for other non-Seattites who might be interested in seeing it.

https://is0.4sqi.net/derived_pix/O5zbNR1…

Wait? How is a statue in the waterpark offensive?

The emailer is an uninformed ass. Nothing more needs to be said about him.

That said, here's what I sort of don't get: Smailes, according to the article, only insisted upon the inclusion of a naked male. So why did the museum go ahead and commission a piece that has a naked boy in it? And FYI, I'm at work, and I'm not about to start searching for pics of the statue. So I'm reserving judgment as to whether it's in bad taste...but it does seem a bit odd on it's face to commission such a piece. While provoking conversation can be a good thing, gift wrapping a can of gasoline for homophobic assholes is a completely different tact.

This fountain could be a distraction to Seattlites who need to be ready to run for cover during the next public spraying of bullets by gang holdouts who never received word that the wars are over.

Where don't I see naked boys?!?!?"

Everytime I pass by this statue, at least one of the figures is pretty much obscured by the fountain. Also, I see this fountain at least once a week for over a year, and all the sudden posts about it are in my facebook friend feed and the Stranger, which makes me feel like I'm caught in some sort of weird slow motion machine. Didn't this controversy sort of already happen? C'mon, folks, get with the picture!

Innobled

It's somehow always about Jesus, isn't it?

Sounds like the North American Minister/Boy Love Association revoked the guy's card and he's JUST NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!

@10:

I believe that was intentional; IIRC, the fountains are specifically programmed to always obscure one of the figures, while the other is visible - some sort of statement on the emotional distancing of fathers from their sons or what-not.

Yep, I remember, when Jesus saw the immorality of the world he wrote a poorly written letter with unnecessary capitalization to his Local Weekly Newspaper.

When are people going to realize that when you use caps to stress a point, you are literally putting a sign on your writing that says, i'm shitty at getting across my point so I don't know what else to do but make it as big and in your face as possible.

LOL. Been done. Like 5 years ago. Personally, I think the first was better because it sounds less 'net trollish than this one.

http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/seat…

what a great day for the religious. The "God" particle tweets, the Louisiana charter school clusterfuck and now this screed. wow.

The LW is barely literate. The more important questions the letter brings up are: did he actually attend Penn State; and if so, what does that say about the failure of its basic education requirements?

TL;DR. Too many all-caps phrases, too many bolded phrases, and overuse of punctuation. It's like reading a sgt_doom post.

May this poor, prurient, fellow never cast his eyes upon the Fountain of Charity in Copenhagen.

Penis, nipples, squirting, oh my!

@7 The respected nonagenarian sculptor, Louise Bourgeois, rather than just have a naked male standing around, went for a riff on the classic "Mother and Child" with "Father and Son." It's a high-concept piece, and something of a Rorschach test for low-brows with dirty minds.

Oh, well, if John Carlson says it's an homage to pedophilia, then who are we lesser-informed mortals to say otherwise? Right wing radio talk show hosts have all the knowledge Americans will ever need. Science has proved it & it's in the Bible as well.

But I'm glad to see others also recognizing DAVE as the arbiter of all things gay and potentially pedophilic. Your loyal followers, Mr. Schmader, await your pronouncement regarding "How young is enough" We also kindly wish that you give us no crap. *waits patiently*

I have a husband. I have an 8 year old son. Occasionally they are the same vicinity while naked. I hope this Issaquah dude doesn't find out.

@9

I remember that. Loved that show back when it started out.

spam on aisle 6!!!

I refuse to believe this person has graduated from college. Even Penn State.

I lol'd at this:

"The Stranger" (even the name is like an advertisement for "gay")

Clearly we have a contender for the next Stranger masthead tagline.

@14 Really? That's kinda cool. Sad but cool.

Among so many other things, this thought bubbles up to the top: People who identify that closely with their Alma Mater are usually morons. This letter confirms that.

@16 I thought I remembered that letter, with the same trope of "I have to take my kids to that park!", as though the fuckwad from Kapowsin even knows where the Waterfront is. He just updated it with the gay marriage & Sandusky references.

David, was it Daniel Robert Creighton again?

https://is0.4sqi.net/derived_pix/O5zbNR1…

I have to agree with people who say "this is kind of creepy."

Art is allowed to be creepy.

@14, @29

Actually, one of the two is often obscured, but I'm pretty sure I've seen both sculptures fully visible frequently. You just have to view it for a few minutes.

I'm too lazy to look it up, but I seem to recall some point being made that SAM commissioned a sculpture with a man and a boy precisely because it was trying to avoid anything that was overtly sexual--that is, it's supposed to be more about nudity (as required by the grant) than about sexuality.

Anyway, it's people like the LW that helps us understand why the security guards there are necessary.

He's right! P*nises!! In public! GAY AGENDA you win again...because of your demand for equal rights this poor fellow is all in a fluster. In this climate of PERVERSION all is permitted! How will he fight those deep and bothersome longings for COCK...sorry, P*NIS..

(P*nises are so GAY and it feels so naughty/sinful to even type the word! I'm glad I don't like them and thank goodness for the asterisk!)

Nobody is ever naked unless they're going to start having sexy sex sex with all the other naked people around them. That's why Jesus was wearing bible-briefs when he was on the cross, otherwise things would have turned into some kind of crazy orgy. Dude would be handing out stigmata-jobs left and right.

HALF OF ALL GAYS WANNA FUCK KIDS! I KNOW THIS IS TRUE BECAUSE GLAP WARB BLIBBLE HURP COOOOEEEEEEEEEE. I DID NOT MAKE ANY OF THIS UP. WITHOUT GOD ANYTHING IS PERMITTED AND THAT IS IMPORTANT TO ME BECAUSE GOD KNOWS I WOULD BE FUCKING CHILDREN SUNUP TO SUNSET IF GOD DIDN'T TELL ME NOT TO. PERSONALLY. HE LIVES IN MY PANTRY AND KNOCKS OVER MY JARS IF I THINK ABOUT SEXY KIDS. THAT IS HIS WRATH BECAUSE HE IS A MERCIFUL GOD.

good to see that Penn State is graduating articulate and good writers. Gosh, imagine what his prose would be like had he not gone to college....

And what about Miley Cyrus and her dad!?!?

But can we put this guy on a cross already? He appears to be asking for it. After he pays his individual mandate tax, that is.

@32 @33 Art is allowed to be creepy, but how is this piece creepy? I've never seen anything here but dad and son, or evolution of boy to man. There's nothing creepy in their facial expressions or gestures. Granted I have never read Bourgeois' statement about the piece (is it supposed to be sexual?) but would anyone have argued that this piece was about pedophilia if some nice old straight family commissioned it? Any creepy factor comes from what the homophobes have projected and want you to feel.

@30: That makes me sad. I identify strongly with the school where I did my undergrad (not so much where I did my master's). They were at the forefront of a new way of teaching nursing and I really think I'm a different professional than I would have been if I went somewhere else.

Did you gently remind the emailer that gay people have sex with age-appropriate, consenting members of the same sex, while pedophiles have sex with young children, often with no gender preference; that Jerry Sandusky is the latter and not the former; and even under the perviest, child-molestingest possible interpretation, the statue has nothing to do with gay people or gay marriage?

Or did you consider it a lost cause and go on with your day?

Nurse dear, I think there's a difference between valuing the education you got there, or the experiences you had while attending, versuses just being a blind sort of booster club rah rah type. I probably should have made that clearer.

I went to the University of Iowa, and I loved it. I also loved Iowa City. But if a similar scandal were to break out there, I wouldn't feel the need to blindly defend it. And trying to tie that hypothetical UI scandal to a piece of public art in a city 2,500 miles away would be idiotic.

Poor Penn State. First the Sandusky thing and now this guy claiming to be one of their graduates. What the hell is going on at that school?

There but by the grace of hopefully-quite-a-bit goes my alma mater.

Hey now! I think this guy is going to crucify himself. Don't do it dude! It gets better for bigots! WAY BETTER!

i remember an essay where a dad wrote about taking his young (3-4 year old) son on a walk in the woods. when he got back to his car, the cops were waiting. someone had reported him as a possible child molestor.

dads have sons. both have bodies. those bodies have penises. stop projecting your neuroses, christians.

I turned all the capped words into a nice poem. I did take liberty in fixing a grammatical error or two.

This, Huh?
Army, Proud limits grown
Huh? You.
Garbage,
Write and editorial,
Saying even we have some shame,
And pedo statues are too much!
Christian Children, Get angry sincerely!
I meant, God hate speech,
A man died on the cross,
Years ago, because he was not afraid to speak the truth.
I will do no less no matter what the cost!

Wow, this guy should never go to the Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo, Norway. Which is a shame, really, cuz that park is effing amazing and I loved every bit of it when I was lucky enough to be there:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Vigeland…

@44: Oh well if that's all you mean, Catalina, my connection with my Alma Mater is pretty much the opposite of this. They have standards to uphold, and receive politely disappointed letters whenever they even partner with shady research firms. A child molestation scandal would receive no defense from me.

@48: Michael, that's beautiful

@37: Oh balderdash, how I love thee.

A committee member comments on this - shall we say - overexposed (and misunderstood) decision:

As a member of the fountain committee that chose Ms. Bourgeois’ entry titled “Father and Son,” I feel compelled to speak out on the subject. First of all, note that the father is reaching down for his son and the son is reaching upward toward his father. They are a good distance apart, and they are always supposed to be shown with one covered with water rising up over him. Only at the hour, which is struck on a nearby bell, does the water reverse and for a very short period of time one can see each reaching out toward the other. That was the artist’s intention: to demonstrate the difficulties faced by fathers and sons in connecting. It was a lifelong theme in her work. Sometimes the water has to be turned off in especially windy weather or for repairs and thus one may see both figures clearly, but it was the artist’s intention that they both not be revealed except at the hourly exchange.

Stu, the benefactor, only requested that a fountain be created using a lifelike form of a man; he made no mention of a child. I happen to believe he required an anatomically correct male to tweak the powers that be in Seattle because there was once a statue near the Opera House that had an anatomically correct male and it got so many complaints that the City fathers had it removed and Stu was deeply distressed at this provincialism; at least that’s how I recall hearing it. In my opinion, Stu would have probably preferred another of the offered options: one had a statue of a man who was to stand out in the bay and ejaculate water through his penis in regular spurts. The Seattle Museum person in charge was not amused by this entry and swore she would never use that artist again. Those of us on the committee thought it was outrageous but quite funny and we knew Stu would have loved the idea! Just as he would love the reaction of this poor, misdirected soul who chooses to see something that was never present. We are very lucky to have the only Louise Bourgeois sculpture piece on the West Coast and one of only two fountains she every designed. There is a plaque near the fountain; it would serve all who are curious to go over and read what it says so they don’t misinterpret a great artist’s work and belittle it with what they make up.

He seems angry.

Does the LW realize that Sandusky is hetero (or at the very least married to a woman) at the time he raped little boys. Sandusky's crimes have nothing to do with homosexuality or marriage equality?

And why is the word president in quotes?

The dude needs to take his meds and learn how to spell.

@49: Oh holy crap! Now I have to put going there on my bucket list, that looks awesome!

But yeah, here in Scandinavia we have a very different attitude towards nudity than other western nations, several holidays and traditions over here involve extended families getting together to sauna (naked) and go skinny-dipping, so a parent and child is probably what most people here would think when seeing a statue of a child and adult naked, because being naked with your children is very common.

@48- Very Creative, and just as concise as the original letter.

Personally I think the sculpture is a little boring. Was a little color to much to ask?

@58 -- A little color? You Obama lovers would like that, wouldn't you?

Wait, so any time a man and a boy are naked around each other and water, it's pedophilia? Someone notify the public pools and schools with changing rooms!!!

Also: Man + Boy + Water - Clothes = NAMBLA.

When you use ALL CAPS more than once, I stop reading. It's very simple.

As for the statue? I really don't give a fuck; this type of thing is not the cause, advocation, or perpetuation of any real abuse that happens in the real world.

Nobody's going to look at it and say "oh hey I never thought about raping kids, I think I should get on that."

Penn State stats class: "half of all gays show interest in CHILDREN."

@48 *Cue Bette Midler singing the line "did you ever know that you're my hero..."