The role of gender bias in the censorship of art: Three international case studies

Sexism and gender discrimination remain an often unspoken and hidden aspect of a pervasive global patriarchal hegemony. Gender stereotypes intersect with art censorship to generate concerns with obscenity. The current research explores the media's specific role in the portrayal of stereotypical gender assumptions in cases of art censorship. Print and electronic media pertaining to three specific cases of art censorship are evaluated for adverse gender assumptions, revealing the influence of the media's power. The notion of "offensive" art reveals an underlying political structure. The three cases studied here illustrate how gender stereotypes are promoted and supported though acts of censorship and their subsequent portrayals in media. The artists featured here are Raphael Vella from Malta, Liu Xia from China, and Angela Strassheim from the United States. While each case is unique, examination of the stereotypes and political motivations in each case reveals that art censorship is about "offense," not about art. Challenges to patriarchal gender stereotypes and roles in art are found to be what incite offense.