"Girl with a Pearl Earring and Janet Jackson:
About Beauty, Obscenity, and Power"
8 April 2005
Each year the Department of Philosophy at Temple University honors the memory of former colleague and renowned philosopher of art, Monroe Beardsley, with the Monroe Beardsley Memorial Lecture. In recent years the lecture has been given in cooperation with the annual Eastern Division Meetings of the American Society for Aesthetics in Philadelphia.
This year's talk was given by noted philosopher, Naomi Zack, Department of Philosophy, University of Oregon. Dr. Zack is Professor of Philosophy and Director of Graduate Studies in the Philosophy Department of the University of Oregon. She is the author of RACE AND MIXED RACE (Temple University Press, 1993), BACHELORS OF SCIENCE (Temple University Press, 1996), PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE AND RACE (Routledge, 2002) as well as 4 edited anthologies, numerous articles and a short textbook, THINKING ABOUT RACE (2nd ed. 2005). Her most recent book is INCLUSIVE FEMINISM:A THIRD WAVE THEORY OF WOMEN'S COMMONALITY (Rowman and Littlefield, March 2005).
"Girl with a Pearl Earring and Janet Jackson:
About Beauty, Obscenity, and Power"
When Vermeer's wife (in the movie) saw her husband's portrait of their servant wearing her pearl earrings, she called it obscene. When Janet Jackson's breast was uncovered during Super Bowl Sunday in 2004 (on national television) the mass public judgment was that it was obscene. Each image and its context together constitute layers of reality in the social imaginary. Professor Zack's talk focused on how these layers reflect a conflict between external determinants of beauty and obscenity, and internal experiences of the resulting standards.
Professor's talk was co-sponsored by the Department of Philosophy, the Institute on Race and Social Thought, the Center for the Humanities at Temple, and the American Society for Aesthetics. About 150 people attended the talk which was followed by a lively discussion and a reception.