Prudish neighbour: NJ family asked to cover up Venus de Milo snow sculpture

Those disgusting pervs ! ! !

Once, in the 70s, when a bunch of us were drunk, we made a reclining snowman who was "anatomically correct." I don't recall that anyone in the neighborhood objected.

Well, I'm glad that Thomas lives in NJ ...

Very funny, Walter.
Just imagine the reaction from the neighbours if it had been a snow replica of Michelangelo's David instead!

So I guess the "penis trousers" a Spanish designer came up with, will never
make it in the United States

Oh goodness me, Jane!
I must avert my eyes!
Far too early in the day for this sort thing!

I like that snow-woman. They did a nice job with the arms. And her new clothes are sassy!

Someone in the town I live in had replicas of famous sculptures, of course they were nudes, st the edge of her yard. It was actually nice - they and some shrubs broke up a solid fence. Someone complained and the owners of the statues had to pull them to the inside of their fence.

Me too (the nekkid one)

... and only seven miles from Rahway, where this incident happened. (It's funny that I read about it in my old German newspaper, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung.) But I certainly wasn't the one who reported it. Americans are weird about nudity.

Not only that, but also about hugging, kissing, and touching themselves or somebody else..

Quite weird indeed...

Oh, bullshit Thomas. Ever'body knows Jesus hates nekkid people.

I think the model is hiding under that ridiculous headgear because even he's embarrassed. Besides, the British had something similar 500 years ago:

Already in 1839, in A Diary in America, with Remarks of its Institutions, Frederixk Marryat claimed that even the word 'led' was considered indelicate. He wrote that he had visited a girl's school where the legs of a piano had been dressed by the headmistress "n modest little trousers, with frills at the bottom of them.:

copied/pasted via Googel books (page 154)

(Yes, I know what that book's intend has been. And that the poke on Americans became a "fact" about British Victorians years later. )

Oh what a droll and sophisticated lot we have here on this thread.

The "snow sculpture" depicted is not a replica of Venus de Milo. Yes it has bare breasts and no arms, but that's as far as the comparison goes.

If someone was talented enough to reproduce a piece of classical art in snow I would encourage them to tell their neighbor to pack sand (or snow as the case may be). This is not such a case.

I don't think anyone should be required to be a respectful member of their community, but when they choose not to be, I'm not going to get too excited about the police interfering with their childish fun.

Whether or not Americans attitudes about sex and nudity don't measure up to those of Europeans is entirely besides the point.

I'm sure there are some cultural mores that Europeans hold dear that Americans might scoff at, and I also doubt that Europeans react favorably, or even neutrally to Ugly Americans who flaunt or dismiss them.

I don't find the snow sculpture offensive, but I don't live across the street from the "artist," and I sure as hell don't consider it art.

The "artist" owns his home and his land, and unless he signed a contract with a Homeowner's Association limiting his rights, he's certainly free to create a snow woman that might disturb his neighbors, but that doesn't mean he's not a jerk or a bad neighbor.

Well, since I've started this thread, I'm clearly one of of those droll sophisticated persons.

I really don't know if it's replica of the Venus of Milo - it's too long ago that I've seen the original.

The papers reporting it the first time (and commenting on it and saying that the 'sculptors' meant it to be a copy of the Venus of Milo) weren't European.

completely armless

As usual Walter, you dodge the point made with what your perceive to be a droll and sophisticated reply.

Irrespective of the origins of whatever clown likened it to the Venus de Milo, it clearly is not a facsimile unless naked breasts and an absence of arms are all that matters.

But that's the dodge.

The preponderance of posts on this thread focus not on whether or not the snow sculpture looks like the Venus de Milo or is even "art," but how puritanical and provincial the people who objected to are.

Ha ha --- those sexually constipated dolts who objected to frozen tits on their neighbor's lawn! How American --- ha ha!

Now I've no doubt you and others will decry this post as paranoid overreaction.

Perhaps it is, but ask yourselves if you don't actually believe what I've accused you of.

Again, surely there are European mores you and Thomas would defend in the face of American dismissal.

Not a reason why you shouldn't scoff at perceived American peccadilloest, but certainly a reason why you should not be so smug when you do so.

As for the Americans who play lap dog to the Europeans on subjects like this, are you enjoying your self administered milk-bones?

This is giving me ideas for next year's snow...

This snow sculpture was, of course, a riff on the venus de milo and many other works of art. Nothing like two bumps to get people all worked up... in New Jersey yet. Now there's the surprise. Maybe it was just a mafia reference.