Iqra’i

The consensus (or, at least, my firm conviction) is that Aliza Shvarts can’t possibly have done what she said she did. If abortifacient herbs were that easy to come by and use, the abortion debate would be pointless. (Also, she is registered on the Yale website as an English major, which makes the story a wee bit implausible.)

Of the two cases (She Did It/She Didn’t Do It But Claims She Did), I think the latter is actually worse. There is a coherent worldview which holds that abortion has no moral content, and so making abortion art is no worse than making wisdom-tooth-removal art or appendectomy art. Helen points out that she’s making a statement about “what happens when you turn your body into an instrument of politics,” and as long as we ignore the moral question that’s true.

However, claiming to have done it in order to excite controversy? Evidence not of art based on moral and political convictions with which I disagree, but of being a deeply bad person.

Jake refers to the incident as “tarnishing Yale’s reputation in front of millions, if not tens of millions, of people.” It is, admittedly, depressing when Yale’s presence on the national stage is dominated by things like this, but the cool stuff does have some presence on the ‘tubes.

Google Wars: Embarrassing vs. Awesome

• “Aliza Shvarts”: 11,900

• “Sex Week at Yale”: 20,700

• “Yale Mafia”: 649

• “Yale Political Union”: 9,910

“Party of the Right” has more hits than all the above combined. Make of this what you will.