The mother of a University of California San Diego student is upset and reaching out to the media due to the fact that her daughter is being forced to perform naked for the final performance exam of a visual arts class. The class requires that all students, along with professor Roberto Dominguez, have to be fully in the nude for the performance, which is described in the course syllabus as “a gesture that traces, outlines or speaks about your ‘erotic self(s).”
Dominguez has apparently been teaching the class for 11 years now, and claims that students are fully aware of what’s expected of them prior to taking the class, as he told San Diego’s ABC 10 News, as reported by Breitbart.
“It’s the standard canvas for performance art and body art. It is all very controlled…If they are uncomfortable with this gesture, they should not take the class.” He was defending the class after one mother spoke out, claiming the requirement was not clear and was a “perversion.”
While Dominguez claims that students should just not take his class, Breitbart also points out that the course is a prerequisite for a verbal performance art class. It’s unclear whether students have an option to take the class with another professor, but as anyone who’s ever navigated college course registration knows, it’s not always the case that a student gets his or her first choice when it comes to professor when enrolling in a class.
As someone who went to art school I can see both sides of the issue, however it seems a bit extreme to require students to participate in an activity that has the potential to make them extremely uncomfortable or cause them embarrassment to pass a class that they basically need to graduate from college.