A USC women’s studies professor has posted topless photos of herself on her personal Web site, but the school says she has not violated any university rules.
According to a KNBC-TV report Monday, University officials said 45-year-old Diana York Blaine is permitted to exercise academic freedom and her free speech right through her Web page where has posted topless photos of herself. She also discusses academic and personal issues on the site.
Today, Blaine defended the photographs saying she is within her rights to make the postings and that those who complained about her to KNBC were students who dislike her.
“The 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 wrote on her Web site.
“No doubt this event will have the opposite reaction than the tattlers hoped, causing many people to move further away from what looks to them like what it is, an attempt by conservative ideologues to shut down free speech by using sex as the shaming mechanism.”
Although she wrote that she enjoyed some of the media attention, Blaine complained about the nature of the apparent scandal, which ultimately was a non issue to administrators.
“(The photos) in and of themselves, they are not scandalous, for they have been there for months and nobody cared. All of my friends and family know of them, colleagues and yes some students have as well… These kids were hoping to capitalize on our Puritanical sense that we should be ashamed of something as banal as our own bodies.”
