KNBC and the topless USC prof *

Channel 4 on Monday ran a news story about Diana York Blaine, a USC women's studies professor, posting three topless photos of herself in her Flickr stream. Yes, that appears to be the entire peg of the story—along with the claim that there is "concern" about it, though a university spokesperson only spoke in response to reporter Cary Berglund's query (and then said it was of no concern to USC.) The story currently ranks number two on the KNBC website's list of most popular slideshows—after "80s TV Legends We Have Lost" and before "Celebrity Vegetarians"—but Blaine seems not too concerned even though she writes on her website that "a couple of conservative USC students who have dedicated themselves to attacking me clearly grew frustrated at my refusal to react to them, so they upped the ante and contacted the media about my nudie pics. One station bit, and voila, we have a scandal." She also writes:

Oprah Here We Come! My friend just called to say the Channel 4 news used me as a tease for their upcoming broadcast! Is this a slow news day or what? Apparently they're interested in the naked pictures, well topless pictures to be exact, posted to my flickr site.

My husband and I rented a flat in London last Fall from one of our UCLA professors whose wife paints odalisques, those stylized nineteenth century nudes. They're hanging throughout the Bayswater apartment. One night as we got ready for bed, he and I were laughing about how much I look like them, and he took my picture in a similar pose in front of one of the paintings, which I then put up on my site as an intertextual homage to Ingres. The other photo is me at Burning Man, where I went specifically to confront and erase the body loathing that my culture foists on us women. I had an amazing time, which I wrote about here, and was happy to include a photo of me, arms up, celebrating life, along with all the other myriad photos I have, including those of friends, dad, dogs, mentors, lectures, rallies, parties, weddings, sporting events, travel, etc etc etc, the full panoply of my rich and meaningful life.

If this is true, and I guess it is, that anyone cares that some lady has her breasts on the internet--oops just saw the tease, hey I look great!--then it just goes to prove what I tell my students, that we don't really care about "news" in this culture nearly as much as sensation and sex. At least I am not on the news because I raped someone. Of course it's my "enemies" who did this, because they just don't get it, and they want to hurt me, which they can't.

Since KNBC ran her photos, Blaine says, she has received email calling her "fugly" and "fat" and telling her she has "national geographic breasts." I can see where her site would agitate idiots with lots of time on their hands and anonymous email accounts. She's a feminist Ph.D who describes praying every morning to the moon goddess, admits to turning away from her Christian upbringing, and talks about peace and the American deaths in Iraq. And she took off her clothes at Burning Man, like half the bloggers in Silver Lake.

* And more: David Markland at Blogging.la susses out the story's origins at a student blog called The Cardinal Martini.

Photo: dianablaine.com