Provocative Posters Torn Down In Yard

Posters featuring a pornographic photo of a couple having sex were torn down from Yard kiosks Tuesday, leading two students to claim that their views are being censored.

Jason R. Semine ’04 and John R. Rapaport ’04, co-chairs of the Freedom in America Policy Group at the Institute of Politics (IOP), said the posters promote a meeting for the group, which discusses civil liberties.

“We were just doing our utmost to attract attention to this issue without crossing the line,” Semine said.

But Thomas J. Mucha ’03, an Undergraduate Council member who removed the posters, said he found them “obscene and offensive.”

“There are little kids in the Yard,” he said. “It’s just gross.”

Mucha said that he would not continue to tear down the posters after learning that the Freedom in America Policy Group is an approved student organization, but that he would still ask Associate Dean of the College David P. Illingworth ’71 to review the posters for obscenity.

Illingworth, who ultimately decides which groups can poster in the Yard, wrote in an e-mail to Mucha that the College generally “does not censor posters and other written materials.” Illingworth said he has not seen the group’s posters and would consider the issue further if he finds one still hanging.

The posters featuring a naked couple are airbrushed over the genitalia and read “Does Your Mother Know What Websites You Look At? The Government Does.”

The poster is one of three that the group had used to publicize its event last night. One poster juxtaposes a picture of a beer bottle with a U.S. soldier, implying a disparity between the legal drinking age and the draft age.

The other depicts the snow phallus constructed in the Yard last month and reads “Because Freedom of Expression Protects Even The Pricks of the World.”

Rapaport said while the poster may be controversial, it is not offensive.

“Do I think maybe people would disagree with the statement of the message?” Rapaport asked. “Yes, but I don’t think it was obscene in any way.”

The controversy began when Mucha e-mailed both Rapaport and Semine to notify them that he was removing their posters and would continue to remove them. He later said that having learned of the group’s legitimacy, he has stopped taking the posters down.

Semine said he e-mailed Illingworth to complain after hearing from Mucha.

“It’s not criticism we’re upset about,” Semine said. “It’s the actual act of tearing them down.”

Mucha said the posters are not protected speech because they are obscene.

“I have nothing against the group—I like freedom, I like America, I like policy, I like groups,” he said. “I don’t like having hardcore pornography staring at me when I come out of buildings.”

Semine said the poster was merely an attempt to focus people on civil liberties.

Mucha said he expected many other people were upset by the poster.

“I would be shocked if I were the only person who was offended by these posters,” he said. “They might as well have cut it out of Hustler.”

The removal of these posters was not intended to make any larger statement, Mucha said.

“I didn’t mean to make an issue out of this,” he said. “This is a no-brainer.”

But Rapaport said he worried that this incident forms part of the larger issue of poster removal and free speech.

“My worry is that this is indicative of a growing trend here at Harvard of people just tearing down posters they disagree with,” Rapaport said.

The incident comes on the heels of a controversy about the removal of Harvard Right to Life (HRL) posters, which led to the undergraduate council passing a resolution, supported by Mucha, condemning removal of approved posters and promising reimbursements to affected groups.

Semine said the group will consider seeking reimbursement from the council.

—Staff writer Stephen M. Marks can be reached at marks@fas.harvard.edu.