03/22/07
Sometimes a government bureaucracy is right and the people are wrong.
It's hard to think of examples, but there have to be some. Oh, here's one: the tit on the 1916 Liberty Quarter.
The coin's design went up for contest, as usual, and the best design for Liberty was chosen. It is, I think, the best design on any American coin ever, far surpassing the famous St. Gaudens $20 gold piece.
But Liberty's right breast was exposed.
It went through all the proper channels, but when it hit the public, there was an uproar. Indecency! Obsenity! Filth! Oh, the humanity!
There is nothing filthy
about an exposed female breast. Some exposures aren't exactly high art (think SuperBowl), but to get upset about an occasional baring of a breast is the sign of a truly stunted moral development, a dirty mind, or . . . American Christendom, c. 1916.
I have no sympathy with those yokels. Or today's yokels who still worry about such small matters. (And a breast exposed on a quarter is a small matter.)
Now, I do think it good manners to go around clothed most of the time. I don't want to see most female breasts.
But, should one hang out here or there, I won't get into a tizzy. And artwork that exposes the naked male or female form doesn't bother me.
This episode in American history helps give me some sympathy, some sense of cameraderie, with the state functionary class. When so many citizens are so foolish and prudish and crazy, it's not easy to think highly of the people whom you serve.
And yes, my Liberty has her breast exposed. If your Liberty does not, then, well, your Liberty does not represent the right liberty.
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