Sex worker's 'art' from 2007 show

The annual "Sex Workers Art Show," which in past years has promoted the sex industry with G-strings, pasties and nudity, is coming back to the historic College of William & Mary March 23, and its president is not happy.

President Taylor Reveley took over following the abrupt departure of Gene Nichol, under whose tutelage the show was begun at the school, which was founded as a Christian institution. Reveley allowed the sex show to return because a group of students wanted it, but he doesn't believe it's good for the school.

"This breeds controversy," he said in a prepared statement. "It lessens our capacity to move the college forward. This would have been a good year, in my judgment, for SWAS supporters to have called a time out – taken a break."

Reveley said whatever the goals of the "art show" – to shock, promote the sex industry or whatever – it does not fall within the guidelines of what an educational institution should be trying to accomplish.

"Repeated performances by a controversial group like SWAS, year after year, without a robust opportunity for the free play of ideas does not serve the Jeffersonian idea," he said. "Such a pattern is a singularly sterile way to explore ideas of artistic expression and sexual exploitation. The sponsors of SWAS and its performers must do much better on the Jeffersonian front than they have to date.

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"In addition to performing, they need to provide means for a serious discussion about pertinent issues, conducted with the intellectual rigor and civility characteristic of William & Mary. By the same token, those who find SWAS degrading and offensive should show up, prepared to articulate and defend their views," Reveley said.

WND has reported on the controversies surrounding the school, including its decisions to allow students to spend campus student activity money on the sex show. The school also created its own firestorm of controversy when Nichol ordered the removal of a cross from the historic Wren Chapel on campus, deciding that the Christian emblem in the historic Christian facility could offend visitors.

In 2008, the "art show" was performed twice Feb. 4. The year before, alumni and supporters were outraged, accusing Nichol of staging an affront to religion and morality.

Sex show performer

Reveley said the sex show was part of the "turmoil" in which the campus community was embroiled when he took over a year ago.

He said it attracted little attention in 2006, but "in 2007 and 2008, it fed the cultural conflagration in which William & Mary was then caught."

"Right now is an unusually critical time in William & Mary's long life. We are struggling every day with a very bad economy that shows no signs of getting better soon. We have a huge amount of strategic planning to do during the next couple of months. There are significant legislative challenges ahead. Reweaving the ties of trust and affection within the William & Mary family remains a work in progress. In short, diversion of time and energy from the tasks at hand will cost the university dearly," he said.

"Against this background, I am personally very disappointed – and quite frustrated – to find that the university must think yet again about SWAS," he said.

He said he ultimately decided to allow the program because the college "has long placed great faith in its students to choose the speakers and performers they invite to campus."

"For practical as well as philosophical reasons, I will not play the censor," he said in his prepared statement.

According to the student newspaper Flat Hat News, the school's decision-making Board of Visitors endorsed the president's decision.

"Guided solely by the college's best interest, [Reveley] made a clear and timely decision. The board fully supports his conclusion," Rector Michael Powell said.

The show was sought by the Lambda Alliance, the Meridian Coffee House, Tidewater Labor Support Committee, Voices for Planned Parenthood, the Feminists' Majority Leadership Alliance and the magazine Lips, the Flat Hat said.

The Student Assembly Finance Committee approved a grant of $1,625 for the event.

A commenter on the newspaper's forum page said bringing the show back will just cause problems.

"Protesters, seeing they've been unsuccessful, will gather more church buddies. Angry alums will continue not to donate and will call up other alums to encourage them to withhold. The media, I promise you, is already salivating over the crazy photos they can run," the contributor said.

Another spoke of his dread of the controversy.

"I dread it because of the consequences. We can't afford any more cutbacks from Virginia, and while the supporters of the art show may not feel those consequences are just, they are the consequences nonetheless. What about the students and parents who are barely able to finance a William and Mary education now? I, for one, cannot afford anymore drastic tuition increases. Are the benefits of this art show really worth the consequences? I don't think so."

Another forum posting said, "Unfortunately, folks, we are a state university, and our (presently pathetic) levels of state funding are determined by legislators who like to chop our budgets still further whenever W&M gets sensationalistic press coverage like this. For the students to host the Sex Worker's Art Show yet again at a time of fiscal crisis like this is the height of insensitivity to the needs of the rest of the community."

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