Artists v. Zealots

by Suzanne Sunshower

I am an independent writer/artist from a quiet little burg called Detroit, who for six years has lived on a farmstead in the wilds of South Dakota. Recently I’ve been asked to write articles on the South Dakota legislature’s yearly attempts to ban abortion within the state. (In three years, there have been three attempts.) Through these articles I have tried to paint a picture of South Dakota’s oppressively conservative evangelical landscape, so that ProChoicers living in less reactionary regions can better understand the South Dakota (mostly male) legislature’s unusual preoccupation with female reproduction. Folks outside the state don’t understand the misogynist social construct in South Dakota, and so aren’t always sure how best to assist the saner South Dakotans who are on the front lines of an exhaustive battle with the extreme Right.

Frankly, I’m tired of the whole mess. I’m tired of writing context articles in which I attempt to explain the inexplicable. I’m tired of doing updates…

Uh-oh, wait, here’s another update: Lawmakers propose yet another ban in 2008 [surprise!], but they also want to make women who seek a legal abortion [try and find one here] to first view a fetal sonogram. Ironically, a sonogram is given prior to an abortion in order to make sure the woman is indeed pregnant, and to see how far along she is; however, she is not made to view it. I must also note that, according to a recent article on the U.S. Food & Drug Administration website, it is the recommendation of medical personnel that “having a prenatal ultrasound for non-medical reasons is not a good idea.” Therefore, one could logically argue that a legislated sonogram would be just such a “non-medical” reason. However, unfortunately for South Dakota women, their legislature is not made up of concerned medical personnel, or even particularly learned individuals; the true occupation of many legislators is farmer or rancher.

As I was saying… I wish the backward people in South Dakota would simply EVOLVE, so this matter could go away. Surely – in a state where book learning is viewed suspiciously, where there are more prisons than universities, a state which consistently ranks 49th in wages, and 50th in white women business ownership (imagine how well women of color are doing!) – you’d think lawmakers would be busy finding ways to make South Dakota a more civilized, modern state in which women would want to raise children. But no.

Perhaps South Dakota is at the tipping point; maybe folks are so tired of the subject they won’t fight another ban? Voters will likely support a ban with exceptions for rape and incest (unlike the 2006 ban); some of them will do so just to end the matter. I am sure the extreme Right hopes voter fatigue will lead to a ProChoice loss. Zealots – and these so-called Christians do believe they are religious crusaders – oft times win battles by simply wearing down their opponents. And, by taking many tiny bits of ground until all ground is lost.

I asked two ProChoice artists in South Dakota to share photos of their political artwork, and to make a few comments if they liked. The above ‘editoon’, starring Mona Lisa, is Scott Ehrisman’s favorite creation on the subject. It was published in the state’s largest newspaper. A prolific poster artist and editorial cartoonist, Ehrisman’s popular works often feature recognizable figures in contemporary society or popular culture, sometimes presented in an admiring fashion, other times in an iconoclastic way to make a political point. Even working in Sioux Falls, the state’s largest city, Ehrisman and his work cause no shortage of controversy.

“There are girls in South Dakota who are panicked if they aren’t married and popping out babies by a certain age!” Ehrisman told me, adding that he has met young women who accept the regional belief that female identity and self-esteem are tied to marriage and motherhood.

The ‘broken record’ editoon (above) sums up Ehrisman’s feelings about the legislature’s repeated attempts to ban abortion.

Ehrisman’s editoon, at left, speaks to the issue of South Dakota being a ‘pharmacist’s right to say No’ state. There are few urban (or even quasi-urban) centers in the state. Women in many small towns find that their local pharmacist will not fill birth control prescriptions of any kind. In South Dakota, a pharmacist can deny a woman birth control, if birth control is against the pharmacist’s religion – as if that made any medical sense. In South Dakota, women have no legal right to birth control.

ProChoice artist Joy Crane discovered first hand just how conservative a local South Dakota arts council could be when she submitted her work, “Chastity Belt Circa 2001”, for exhibition in a college town called Brookings (a town that refers to itself as “progressive” on its website). Initially not accepted for exhibition because the Brookings Arts Council deemed the mixed-media piece “not appropriate” for that community’s viewing, the council later agreed to show the feminist work after the National Coalition Against Censorship, in New York City, became involved in a First Amendment case on Crane’s behalf.

The artwork that made the council nervous is made of foam core board painted and fashioned to look like brick wall, upon which there is attached a ‘belt’, rusty links and a padlock. The ‘belt’ features these words written on it: IMPLANTS, GENITAL MUTILATION, UNEQUAL PAY, BUSH vs. ROE/WADE, RIGHT TO LIFE, CHAUVINISM, MARRIAGE, RELIGIOUS RIGHT, DOWRY, RAPE, ABUSE, and DOUBLE STANDARD.

Crane says, “The word “JUSTICE” also appears on a gold bead-encrusted key hanging on a broken link above the padlock on the back of the belt, representing the view that justice is the key that will free females from all of the injustices that are listed on the belt itself.”

“Chastity Belt Circa 2001” is clearly a women’s rights piece, which the artist says she made because she was “driven to express my views…in response to the oppression I saw in the state of South Dakota after living in other, much more open and liberal places.”

Her views on Choice are simple: “The fetus is not a human, but only has the potential to develop into one. It is inextricably tied physically via the umbilical cord to the pregnant woman’s body, and thus is part of her until the birth and cutting of the umbilical cord. Until that time, she has domain over her body and whatever is inside or attached to it! It’s her choice.”

In an email, she wrote: “There are radical, religious, right-leaning, Republican legislators in the SD legislature and the governor is of the same persuasion. The Republicans have been entrenched as the ‘ruling party’ here for decades.”

Crane was also frustrated by responses from national groups to the 2006 ban bill, which is something I’ve heard from other South Dakotans I’ve interviewed. “NARAL and Planned Parenthood were using the fact that the anti-choice bill had no exception for a woman’s health, but I knew that such a defense would come back to haunt all of us. I think they thought it was the only way to stop the bill from going through, and they were probably right.”

However, she believes that “the problem now is they [national groups] are finally going to have to ‘get down to brass tacks’ and hinge the [Choice] defense on the fact that abortion is nobody’s business but the woman’s who is pregnant. She is the one who has the supreme right to her own body and her decisions regarding it.”

So, take heed ProChoice activists. Locals battling here on the front lines keep saying that the best way to get through to Western rural voters is to frame Choice as a ‘privacy ’ or ‘anti-government meddling’ issue and to forget about calling it a women’s rights issue. The battle continues to rage because, as anyone in SD can tell you, women already have few rights, here.

“Chastity Belt Circa 2001” by Joy Crane, 2001; foam core board, glass beads, thread, plaster, acrylic paint and found metal objects (rusty metal links, padlock and broken rusty metal link)

Bio: Suzanne Sunshower is editor/administrator for www.QuietMountainEssays.org, an e-journal of women’s writing. Versions of her print articles, “South Dakota: Killing Ground for Choice” and “Women Warriors Help Stem the Tide in South Dakota”, can be found online. Read more about Joy Crane’s censorship battle at www.NCAC.org, enter “Joy Crane Chastity Belt” in the onsite search. Read excerpts from (SD Native American Choice activist) Charon Asetoyer’s speech at the 2007 NOW National Conference, at www.QuietMountainEssays.org/Conference.