Ballet's rape problem.

Siobhan Burkemay, writing in the NYT, is fed up with the "sleek, unexamined images of violence against women" that are "pervasive in contemporary ballet."

By “images of violence against women,” I mean not just depictions of violent acts but also the kind of forceful partnering that’s become so ubiquitous, so gratuitous, so banal in ballet — the yanking, dragging, prying open of women’s bodies by men — both with and without a narrative pretext....

Men lifting, turning, supporting women — it’s part of ballet’s DNA. But there are ways to work within these traditions, or subvert them, that give women equal power and agency, or at least try to....

She's gotten some pushback. Her colleague Alastair Macaulay "asked whether my call for 'no more' was a call for censorship: 'Must works of art only depict people behaving correctly?'" Of course, she answers no. It's not that the characters in the story need to behave well. The question, she says, is whether the artists are taking serious matters seriously or whether they are using violence against women as a cheap thrill:

If artists want to deal with rape, gang or otherwise, as subject matter, they should, as they should grapple with any difficult issue. But they must really deal with it: Say something. Don’t just toss it in as one more incidental plot twist, one more exquisite thing to behold. Acknowledge its urgency, its complexity and the fact that to many in the audience, it may not be so abstract....