The phrase \u201cseparate the art from the artist\u201d gets thrown around a lot, and usually generates one of two reactions: separating the art from the artist is an ethical way to continue enjoying your favorite pieces of media; and separating the art from the artist is impossible, so if a controversial figure releases a piece of media, that media should be boycotted. There\u2019s not much overlap between these two schools of thought, which I find incoherent, as it seems to me they both miss the bigger picture. First, what does \u201cseparate the art from the artist\u201d actually mean? When most people throw the phrase around, the implication seems to be \u201cI like this piece of art but not its creator, so I acknowledge that creator\u2019s wrongdoing but do not intend to stop consuming the media they created.\u201d Those who \u201cseparate the art from the artist\u201d might privately admit a creator\u2019s wrongdoing but take no concrete action as a result. This stance is diametrically opposed to the boycotting camp; boycotting is a concrete action that, if duplicated enough (which is, admittedly, rare), has concrete repercussions for a creator\u2019s income and livelihood. What I think these two stances miss, though, is any acknowledgment of complexity or nuance. Some of the best art in history was made by incredibly fucked up people: Pablo Picasso, for example, kickstarted a movement that revolutionized modern art, painted images that spoke to the horrors of war and gave voice to great pain, and at the same time abused women to the point of suicide. Do we gloss over Picasso\u2019s legacy and give all the accolades to Bruges instead? Or do we continue on ignoring his bad behavior and allow the trauma he inflicted on those in his personal life to go unacknowledged? Personally, I\u2019m uncomfortable with both of these solutions. The key here is critical consumption. Does an artist\u2019s particular controversy affect the art they create? If so, how? When Chris Brown raps about filming his sex life with a GoPro, that\u2019s his (overly) personal business, but when he (allegedly) refers to Rihanna\u2019s abuse suit as nothing but \u201cdrama\u201d and (allegedly) denounces her as a \u201cvulture\u201d for it, that \u201cpersonal business\u201d I referred to earlier becomes harder to ignore. Listening to Brown\u2019s music is an individual decision predicated on your belief in the power of the boycott, but it\u2019s important to keep an ear out for the moments where he does touch on that abuse. In those moments, think: is this song really so brilliant in context? Or should I just hit skip? It\u2019s impossible to completely separate an artist from the media they create. Being aware of where the lines blur and where there is no relation seems, to me, the best way to consume media by controversial figures. I know \u201cthinking about it\u201d seems like just another form of inaction, but the fact is no amount of not buying \u201cHarry Potter\u201d will make J. K. Rowling less rich. But having these conversations, refusing to sweep controversies under the rug, discussing where the lines blur, and, yes, boycotting the media that explicitly touches on the grossest expressions of an artist\u2019s personal contentions might just move the needle of cultural understanding in the right direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The phrase \u201cseparate the art from the artist\u201d gets thrown around a lot, and usually generates one of two reactions: separating the art from the artist is an ethical way to continue enjoying your favorite pieces of media; and separating the art from the artist is impossible, so if a controversial figure releases a piece […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11880","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rage"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev2025-2-2.movesflash.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev2025-2-2.movesflash.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev2025-2-2.movesflash.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev2025-2-2.movesflash.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev2025-2-2.movesflash.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev2025-2-2.movesflash.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev2025-2-2.movesflash.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev2025-2-2.movesflash.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev2025-2-2.movesflash.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev2025-2-2.movesflash.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}