Unknown Speaker 00:00 Very important thanks for coming, everybody. I want to describe a little bit how I got this particular piece of work, and what the framework of fuzziness in it are the problems that I'm dealing with, and then we're going to watch the silence for those of you who have seen it before, you don't mind seeing that. If you're okay. Okay, the format is roughly this, I will introduce, provide my background, discuss many things to say that we will let that happen, and I'm very pleased with the actions, and then I will try to do it for the deconstruction screen devoted to some other political issues, obviously raises the context in which I began this work, to be honest, it really began with the presidential elections and the the lesson that we learned that imagery, constructive politics and constructed the landscape of politics, more than ever, and those of us who have been versed in verbally, had to start turning into understand images and their impact on ideology, and particularly, I think, an ideology patriarchy, then silence me with a purse that we enforced. And I began to look at what's happening on abortion, political. And to see a number of contradictory trends. Particularly, it seems to be a situation in which the anti abortion forces have in some ways lost ground and conventional political units, certainly in Congress and Supreme Court have not succeeded in, in in, in getting past a single piece of major legislation since the Hyde Amendment. They've sort of not made very much headway in the Supreme Court, although many people think that they made a point. And yet in the cultural arena, it seems to me they've made very great headway. They've gained ground. And they've done this by shifting the terms of discourse in the media through which they operate, for example, from traditional, as I will say, from traditional political arenas, to the drain of popular culture, especially through electronic and visual media. And at the same time, for more religious authorities language to pseudo scientific and medical authorities in language, we've all seen that silence was a paradigm shift. What that has meant is a definition of the abortion debate, increasing increasingly as a conflict, not over women's rights. But as a context over the means that the fetus. This is something we're all experiencing now is the very theocentric definition of the abortion debate. So that was sort of the context in which I approached this piece of work, this study that I call fetal images, the power of visual culture, in the politics of reproduction. Now, clearly, anti Abortionists have long understood the power of visual images, they've applied the portable that a picture of a dead fetus is worth 1000 words and used still photographic images to evoke a number of specific responses, in particular, to evoke sympathy or identification, to evoke the idea of the fetus as they are and to evoke a reduction of the idea of the person to its physiological formula. I can repeat that that was just saying that still images, all of those photographs in supermarkets, you know, in shopping center malls on billboards, and I'll have a lot more to say about but I cannot repeat, Unknown Speaker 04:50 have tended or their intention was to evoke responses, specific responses number one, the sympathy or the implication of the viewer with the fetal image. Number two, the idea of the fetus as baby, the conjunction between the baby. And number three, the reduction of the concept of person to its mere physiological overlocker shape or form. But I think that's well, that's that heritage of fetal imagery is carried through in this on the screen, but it doesn't, it's certainly not introduced by it. Now, these images have since been given personality in a way, in their introduction in a number of contexts, in courtrooms where fetuses play with tort liability, lawyers argue on their behalf in hospitals and clinics, with physicians working with his patients, instead of all the abortion centers, legislative committees, first class animals and other places that right to life. These images kind of float it they're like spirits in these scenes. So in a certain way, it seems to me the cultural strategy is to make the idea of fetal personhood, almost a self fulfilling prophecy, by making the fetus a public presence in these domains. The silent screen was introduced, as you know, into the media in the winter, last year, when you're at 45, January, February. Or you can say, Oh, I know it seems like it's been hit. Right? No, but I really think it is public debut, it was only dreamed up with 83. And then it was produced in 84. So it's only been with us one whole year. And what it did, I think was very funny. And I do think it despite the fact maybe it's run its course at this point, I do think its impact has been very, very serious. It was distributed not only to television networks, but to schools, churches, state and federal legislators and anyone like us who wanted to rent to rent it rented for $50. And in this way, the video can provide a mass commodity form for the right to life message. Very, very widely disseminated, disseminated with the aid of the neoconservative state, which has assisted the right to life with the industry with the lead to legislatures, state and federal. What the videotape does, in general, and of course, we'll talk about the specifics of what it does in detail. It has translated the still and now stale images of fetus as baby into her time video. And this interview, has given those images at first an immediate interface with electronic media. Second, it's transformed anti abortion rhetoric from the mainly religious mystical to a medical, technological. And third, it's brought the fetal image to life. It's animated. I don't know how many of you watched this array of fetal piece in patients on TV when it really peaked last year. I think there was a period sort of curve. This isn't scientific, but I believe it was sort of January, February, it was through the period of the 12th anniversary of Roe versus Wade, and coincidentally or not. It was simultaneous with the escalation. That I think that that was a very important conjunction, because what happened in the media was that the model was in some way, heightened the presentation of the silent scream in the fetus, and its presentation, in some ways, I think suddenly legitimated the violence. I think there was an interaction there. That was powerful at that moment. It was also at that moment that Geraldo Rivera, ABC 20, showing the silent scream held up this fetus and this thing being aborted this potential person, Schumer looks like Unknown Speaker 09:37 the various statement it's more than just propaganda. It encapsulates what Stuart you have is called the politics of style that dominate late capitalist culture and transport surfaces into the whole message. What something or someone looks like, is what he or she is, and this concept of appearances not only as the defining characteristic of our nation politics, through it, but it's nourished by the language and technique of photo image. So it challenges us, or people like me, visually to examine very carefully the visual elements and contemporary patriarchal, powerful ideology. Now, what I tried to do in my study of this was to, to what I wanted to see, seemed to be a number of audiences. In lately, feminist sort of progressive audiences in spite of people's awareness of the ways and contrived, manipulated, it was still a power that I wanted to understand what the problem was and why it was, why it was there, what constituted and secondly, because a lot of us whites were concerned about reproductive technologies and optimistic religious women themselves think about pregnancy, abortion, Todrick Hall, a range of reproductive experiences, I wanted to understand better the interface between this film as a piece of property and the actual clinical situations where ultrasound imaging is going on today. What does it mean to see an ultrasound image of one's own fetus either in the case where one is desiring the pregnancy, or in the case where one is looking for an abortion in the context of the cultural construction of imagery through things such as my answers to this I'm not scientific, I haven't done any real empirical study. It's very speculative and sort of, maybe this is a little apologetic, but I'm just saying that this word is working to a certain degree speculative and generally questions and comments from you, and just things to keep in touch but those are the two kinds of questions I'm concerned about and that says more accuracy. Let's view the film Unknown Speaker 12:25 and the. Now we can discern the chilling solid Screen Face of this child who's now facing imminent extinction Unknown Speaker 14:41 My name is Bernard, as a physician, practicing out patrician gynecologist think I've had some experience in matters of course. Now, when I was a medical student, Nathan What if we had no such science as being taught, we were taught that the unborn child fetus was something in the spirit is really an article as to whether or not there was a human being and whether or not that human being had any unique personal call. But the whole story has changed since the 1970s. It was at that time that the science and technology exploded in the medical community. It exploded by means of the introduction of great new technologies, such as ultrasound imagery, electronic fetal heart monitoring, fee ontology, history, philosophy, radio, chemistry, and a host of other dazzling technologies, which today constitute a corpus of the science of real time. That is imaging of the child in motion has been available as a clinical tool since 1976. The role of the ultrasound examination consists of a conventional examining tape, as well as the ultrasound imaging device itself. Hearing machine here now the pregnant woman is positioned on the table for the examination, the abdomen is suitably draped, the head of the instrument is now placed over the uterus. This device in turn consists basically of a crystal, which sends out pulsing high frequency sound games, and a transducer which collects the echoes of these but the echoes are then collected by a computer, which in turn assembles them into a recognizable image of the living unborn child. And the child can be imaged by either a linear scan, which is useful later pregnancies, or a sector scan, which is more accurate for delineating the child in an early pregnancy, such as this. The image reconstructed from the echo app is capable of truly an amazing resolution. And so discerning is this, that the tiny valves of the heart can be studied, as they snap open and shut during the contractions of mothers and fathers, for the first time, have been afforded a view of their unborn child by this spectacular technology. And those technologies, those apparatuses and machines, which we now use every day, have convinced us that beyond question, the unborn child is simply another human being another member indistinguishable every way from any of us. Now for the first time, we have the technology to see abortion from the victim's Vantage ultrasound imagery has allowed us to see. So for the first time, we are going to watch a child being dismembered, disarticulated, crushed and destroyed by the steel industry. What we are looking at here is a depiction of the development of this child in its prenatal stage of life. Virtually the very beginnings to the end of that stage. We have here, child four weeks, eight weeks, 12 weeks and 16 weeks, 18 weeks 20 weeks and that 28 Unknown Speaker 19:40 As you can see, there is no revolutionary or dramatic change in the form or in the substance of this person throughout this development stage. Unless no personal weakness is a fully formed A Dubai. He has had brain waves for at least six weeks. This has been functioning for perhaps eight weeks. All this is indistinct any of this is Williams upstairs 16th edition, the standard textbook used throughout every medical school in the United States. Preface of this book published in 1980 cautions us as follows. Happily, we have entered an era in which the fetus can be rightfully considered and treated as our second patient who would have a dream you can use that we could serve as physician. Traditional medical ethics and precepts command us that we must not destroy our patients that we are pledged to preserve their lives. Let's see what abortion does to this. Second. You have been 12 weeks unborn child uterus, uterus being this muscle surrounding John, thank you worship this commences the procedure, he will first place this instrument which is known as a speculum into the woman's vagina and will then open it in order to visualize the surface the neck what we're doing here. Having visualized servings portions then takes this instrument which is known as a Tenaglia. And fastens it secure through the spectrum onto the surface in this manner, what have been shoved. But that's an act and getting a firm grasp the surface plays all sound this instrument is then introduced into views and it is then removed. The abortions haven't ascertained Exactly. And in fact, I watched this set of dialogues, these metallic curve instruments are used to affect the opening of the service in order to introduce finally the Washington. So the abortionist first introduces the most slender of these instruments into the cervix to dilate the cervix, turns the instrument around to a slightly larger introduces that and then works his way through the various graduated increasingly larger and of this dilating, he will then take the instrument knowing that suction apparatus which is open to this in a sterile container prior to the actual use of the instrument, and then this will be inserted through the dilated surface up into the uterus, and will then puncture the SAC surrounding the child allowing the amniotic fluid to escape the instrument and will come into direct contact with the child and with a pressure of approximately 55 or so millimeters of mercury applied to the end of this insert as it is attached to a long suction tubing at this end and to the abortion instrumentation that is the machine the other the suction tip will begin to tear the child the pieces of the body are torn away. Unknown Speaker 24:18 Until finally, all of the meanings or shards of the body and the head itself, the head will be to compute this instrument itself. This will assess the introduction of this instrument called a power force into the uterus through the already dilated surface. And the Washington will then attempt to grasp the free floating head of the child in the years between the throwing of this instrument. The head is then crushed the contents of the head and finally the bones of the head. and worship has been effectively added. We've seen what the 12 week child appears on the ultrasound screen. And we will also see the mechanics, the actual steps of a 12 week course. Now for the first time, we're going to see a film made the real time ultrasound picture of a 12 week abortion. Bad mine, this is not an unusual instance, late abortion. This is one of the 4000 or so with that done every day in the United States. This film was made an abortion. The physician performed the abortion it was a young man who was working in two different abortion clinics at the time. He had already done close to 10,000 abortions in his young life. When he was asked to attend the editing session, to do the film, he was so tall that what he had done, that he left the room came back to finish the editing. But Never again did another abortion. You don't want to use the real time ultrasound counter was a feminist and a strong pro abortion. And she too, was so moved by what she saw the editing session that she never again discussed the subject of abortion. Now, let's turn to the actual film itself. You're now looking at a sector scan of a real time ultrasound image of a 12 week and orange child is orientated this direction. We're looking now at the head of the child here, the body child here and this image was the child's hand approaching its mouth. Looking a little more closely, we can discern the eye or the orbit of the eye, hear the nose of the child hear the mouth of the child. And we can even look at the ventricles of the brain. Here, this is a fluid filled space in the brain. We see the body of the child here with the ribs in the silhouette and the spine of the child at the back. This whatever the granular area of tissue at the top of the sector appears to be able to sell or afterwards in your job. And we can begin to see down here the size, the lower extremities of the child coming off as the boss dismount. Now, let's move to the we now see the heartbeat. Here in the child's chest. The heart is beating at a rate of approximately one or a minute. And we can see the child moving rather serene in the uterus and see it shifting position from time to time it is still orientated in this matter Unknown Speaker 28:52 and the mouth is receiving the thumb the child or the child again is moving quietly in its sanctuary. Now, this shadow, which we are seeing down at the bottom of the screen is the exception tip we colored the suction tip deliberately in order for you to discern clearly, but the abortionist has now dilated the cervix and is now inserting this suction tip which you can see moving back and forth across the screen. You will know that as the suction tip, which is now over here moves towards the child the child will veer away from and as we go much more violent, much more agitated movements child is now moving in a much more purposeful manner. Its orientation change changes from time to time it is reiterate again here. That assumption tip has not actually touched the child even though the child was extremely The agitated, violent child has now moved back to the profile and the suction tip is flashing once again across the screen. The child's mouth is now open, we will see that again a freeze frame. But this suction tip that you can see moving violently back and forth. On the bottom of the screen is the lethal instrument which will ultimately terrify and destroy the chart. It is only an act of fluid has been broken. The SAC has been disrupted, that tip will actually come against the child and we can see the tip moving back and forth. As the abortionist seeks the child's buck. Once again, we see the child's mouth wide open in a silent scream, this particular freeze frame. This is a silent scream of a child from imminent with extinction. Now the heart rate has speeded up dramatic, the child's movements are violent. Does sense rushing into the sanctuary is moving away when you see it moving to the left side of the universe in an attempt to escape the inexorable instruments, which the abortionist is using to extinguish his life. Now has again for separately speeded up. We put the time they said approximately 200 beats per minute. And there is no question this child senses that most of the mortal danger match. The membrane has now been punctured and the fluid has escaped when no longer sees that large reservoir fluid surrounding the truck. But once the fluid has been drained off, the suction tip has now been firmly clamped to the child's body. A child has been pulled in a downward direction by the Abortionists suction tip with the negative pressure of five and the body is now being torn systematically from the head to head of the child being this direction here. Now outlining chakras at the lower extremities have already been lost. And you see the suction tip flashing from time to time in the screen as a typhoon Light series of errors and the child is being tugged back and forth. As the assumption tip has now been applied to the body and the abortionist is exerting his traction on the child this man child's head is still discerning. Here, the body is no longer discern. It has now been torn from the head. Unknown Speaker 33:04 What we see now is the head itself with what is called the midline of the head and the speculoos fragments of bone. This head which I'm outlining here, this 12 week child is simply too large to be pulled in one piece out of the universe. abortionist is going to have to play this instrument, the power force in an attempt to grab the head portion is put into attempt to crush with this instrument this matter and remove the head piece field from the years with the abortionist, the anesthesiologist of a secret language between shields, grisly reality was going on. The abortionist and the anesthesiologist together referred to the head of this child which is now being sought as number one and the anesthesiologist will require the abortionist is number one out of yet Are we finished. We now see intermittent the shafts or blades of this instrument appearing in the image here. The head tends to float freely in the universe here are the shank blades of the instrument coming across here. And the head is now being locked on by this pole and the head is being pulled down toward the surface. Now all we see remaining are certainly the shot I broke into fragments, pieces of tissue which document there was once living, defenseless tiny. You can see really impact on our society. Let's look at some figures as to what has actually happened in the last 20 years. We have reliable figures in 63. For abortion, legalized by the infamous Roe v Wade decision. There were approximately 100,000 illegal abortions done annually in the United States. And very few legal 1973 first year in which that Roe v Wade decision prevailed in this country, there were 750,000 abortions. And in 1980s, last year for which we have full there were 1.5 million abortions. Let's look at abortion as an industry. Last year, there were 1.5 million abortions done in this country. And the average cost is about three to $4 per operation. This has created an industry in this country about five to $600 million a year, which would fall to be on the list, largest industries in the world. 90% these monies are going into the pockets physician remainder into the pockets of the entrepreneurs who run the clinics. Now we've had some recent investigations question these clinics. Clinics are being franchised out fast food services across the country. We know there are changes of women in California and through the Southwest, and even in the southeastern United States. And there is some evidence now that increasing these clinics are falling into the hands of the law by the United States and that this money Washington is tainted not only by the blood of the innocent victims of abortion, but by the dark and finds in discussing abortion we must also understand that the unborn child is not the only women themselves or victims just as the unborn children. Unknown Speaker 38:04 Women have not been told the true nature of the unborn child. They have not been shown the true facts. What an abortion really is. women priests in those hundreds 1000s Even 10s of that have had their wounds perforated affected stroyed women have been sterilized, castrated all as a result of an operation which they have no true. Now, this film, other films which may follow like must be made part of the informed consent anyone before she submits herself procedure in the sole. I accuse national abortion rights actually I accuse Planned Parenthood, all its CO conspirators in the abortion industry have a consistent conspiracy of silence, keeping women in the dark with respect to the true nature of abortion, and I challenge all those purveyors of abortion to show this real time videotape or one similar tool to all well before a consent to think about abortion was one of the founders never 1869 It's not a national abortion rights action. And for a period of two years, I was the director of the largest abortion clinic in the Western world. Since those times Imams, we have a science which is known as feet tall, which has allowed us to study. And all those studies have concluded our exception, and the unborn child is humanly indistinguishable from any of us and an integral part of our human without the destruction of a living human being, is no solution because basically, social need to resort to such violence is an admission of scientific, even worse, ethical. Somehow I refuse to believe that Americans put mental lives a better solution than resorting to violence. Think we should all be renowned devote ourselves untiring effort devise a better solution solution compounded with love and compassion and a decent regard for the right priorities let's all for Humanity's sake here and now. Stop the Killing Unknown Speaker 42:28 it was it was referenced to the manual every single one of those making eyes downcast. Attention to them we only saw her and the only time they referred to us as victims that is the word women is introduced when he says you know when we're the victims before that women are mothers whether it Unknown Speaker 43:38 was mentioned there about just the fact that Unknown Speaker 43:51 coffee was pointing out Unknown Speaker 43:55 I don't know people watching and feel frustrated saying Unknown Speaker 44:04 What did you feel? Did other people feel frustrated? Or did they allow Him to fill in the outline Unknown Speaker 44:12 to use the first version Unknown Speaker 44:28 and it's free like you can call it try to clean sharp, sharp Hey what's up? Unknown Speaker 45:21 Did other people feel a certain twinge? With that wasn't that sharp? It's somewhere it was. Yeah, I read somewhere that's part of the, you know, critique the empty film is is, you know, points out that there's a there's some camera tricks here there's a lot of conventional uses of film is of course you know constructs what we're seeing and one of the most crude is simply speeding up Unknown Speaker 46:05 actually made you stay one to one Unknown Speaker 46:13 abortion exactly that source described to me, I remember going through it. Unknown Speaker 46:18 And this is so much more than willing to either what I was told or, or what I experienced. And even though there was some, there was discomfort because this is really Unknown Speaker 46:28 the Grand Guignol. Unknown Speaker 46:32 actually shocked by that for the governor, blah, blah, Unknown Speaker 46:34 how really scary to someone who might just decide didn't want you to know, all the reasons you did, just because that's just scary. Unknown Speaker 46:45 My reaction was, well, I've been manipulated, both verbally Child, child, child, this is not a child. And also, I think that when you really see these as maybe you will see it more, which is what they want as a human being than you would otherwise because you're seeing not only Unknown Speaker 47:09 when you're being told what you are seeing most of the time I'm expected to right. So what is attorney and yet those kinds of other things coming from Goldman. On the boat, his vision Unknown Speaker 48:00 seems to me to be done by convention. Unknown Speaker 48:10 The format is everybody's going to Unknown Speaker 48:18 this is the second time I've seen it now. And I suspect that every time he sees it would cease to move things. But what I mean when we record this time is the way in which the actual ultrasound CT is, is framed by these two other things that are really much more, much more, you know, how it's always the first one where he's describing Yeah, we've had a 10 year history with the beginning with his office with his arm smaller than it was to put on his white coat. And describes the describes the bush with the diagrams, which in certain ways I've opened the the diagrams, but the model, which in certain ways isn't like is more distressing than what you actually see on the, on the screen. And then and then you see the screen images, where again, most of the time you can't really see anything, though this time, one of the first time they get it probably grows on people when I saw more than I'd seen the first time that I suspect that happens to other people too, especially at the moment of emotion. That's the only time that it moves, that the only time that you can even begin to see sort of even the shape of the fetus. But that's also when it's in motion and it kind of makes you dizzy and you can't really see what's going on and then there's some sort of slight seeing the wedge shape and then it cuts which is I guess in certain ways you know the most despicable part and then it cuts to the you know, to the blemish which Of course are you know, which of these concentration camps very, very clearly and or was not a ritual Unknown Speaker 50:10 in no way Unknown Speaker 50:13 and, and somehow, you know, that framing completely I think overpowers the lack of what you see on the other side and the other and the other thing that certainly just kind of that I hadn't heard the person was actually talking about the sonogram and says the computer assembles the recognizable image Unknown Speaker 50:36 Yeah Unknown Speaker 50:40 I heard this well anyway Oh, that's which is no which is absolutely true, but it's an interesting sort of in a way confession for him to make or well maybe I thought that was striking in a way that in fact you know, what we are not seeing you know, I mean, we are not seeing we are seeing this is a collection of of computer images that are put together well there's so much to explain this great Unknown Speaker 51:16 technology. Unknown Speaker 51:36 Washington once again Unknown Speaker 51:42 there's a double message about that, because he's played very much on the heroics of advanced the technology and using that that's part of the framing and then the other side of the bad side just the good. Unknown Speaker 52:21 sonogram image objection titles there are also the racial images, I mean, everybody is white, and then there's the Dark Hand of the crime syndicate. Monitoring that crime being dark. Unknown Speaker 53:00 There's that aspect of it as well. And one other point is when I had my head to sonograms, and my experience watching my little tadpoles I called them they just looked very, very different. And in my experience, they took Polaroid pictures who made the pictures if you're little bit and it just it was just a good thing I saw was totally different from what I saw on that. I hope we get to that point actually, if we have enough time to talk about responses actually are to ultrasound images Unknown Speaker 53:39 kept showing up Unknown Speaker 53:48 and he opened them so they were wide enough to get the head of the screening instead of Unknown Speaker 53:56 and it looked like this large was what was going to be put inside. Right and then they show you this this sucker doctor who seems to be pushing the corner and was Unknown Speaker 54:16 because I made the solution to pornography and paper and that's a question that I think got mixed up into pornography and said no I did with maybe a Grade B movie but not necessarily pornography but Unknown Speaker 54:37 business without Unknown Speaker 54:43 so much water and we get so quickly. She was in high school And I remember that being very uncomfortable and I also remember them having to move the institute is just about down to two year Unknown Speaker 55:25 well, I was just so infuriated over and over again use Unknown Speaker 55:32 Google Images that he can use at the end when he was pointing at a second activity video telling you just heard the audacity of telling us what to do I Unknown Speaker 55:45 don't know and what about how many women died because of Unknown Speaker 55:51 just the whole language do not Unknown Speaker 56:13 know nothing about my house Unknown Speaker 56:54 police counting the hegemony of science and scientific and technological discourse and the idea that we accept it as given. And you pointed out the framing that Tina referred to as well in the very beginning that's how we produced the film in the end we're brought back to that point that science in fact gives you a perimeter of authority to the entire verbal discourse it's gonna go throughout the film in fact as you notice much of which was the plaintiff it's very moralistic and very sensationalist Unknown Speaker 57:31 if you don't know anything about what your system image looks like in person and so that you have to assume seems to Unknown Speaker 58:13 be after abortion then you have mixed reactions you're supposed to respond to revolution much it's written motion Unknown Speaker 58:51 image all night clothing Unknown Speaker 58:57 into something I thought Unknown Speaker 58:58 it was potentially leaving the store and I found that actually Unknown Speaker 59:24 was things that struck me that I really wasn't expecting to integrate was an indication that we're bad guys are the greedy doctors. Unknown Speaker 59:35 For $600 million a year industry 80% goes to change their mind to that feeling. Unknown Speaker 59:50 That's been a position of our life for quite some time some years to portray women as victims. And Unknown Speaker 1:00:01 yes, and doctor says, but that's the whole story there were a couple of more and then I shouldn't continue this Unknown Speaker 1:00:21 I was extremely offended. Nathan, would you waste in the silence. He said we have to shave. She never again she was. And here again that idea she's become a big woman Williams Unknown Speaker 1:01:17 the sort of disjuncture, that Rhonda pointed to is interesting in that it really does express that tension in late in the anti abortion movement as a whole between on the one hand has moved away from new moralism in religion to sort of, you know, dispassionate science and there is, as he's describing the abortion, there is this sort of pseudo dispassionate Doctor tone that hasn't been on the other hand, you know, especially at the end this return back to the sort of apocalyptic tone of which that it's been, it's been sort of the apocalyptic rhetoric, in certain ways, borrowed from the left again, with, you know, shocking news, right. Back to so he was talking about informed consent, and this conspiracy of silence, I mean, these are, these are all great phrases that we know Unknown Speaker 1:02:20 that we know so well, as well as Unknown Speaker 1:02:24 the music. And that comes in Unknown Speaker 1:02:33 just comment on that and come back to this a minute after because I think that juxtaposition Unknown Speaker 1:02:40 Yeah. And the other thing was that sort of subliminal, which is part of the non scientific part of abortion, it's taller than that, which is there. I mean, he would never say that. But I think again, it's not an accident or the basis of the Jewish record, you know, the ones who have Jewish representative of the pro life this adding sort of more legitimacy to those concentration camps? And then of course, us in the greater good, never again, Unknown Speaker 1:03:10 yes, which yes, there is. Unknown Speaker 1:03:13 riches in there. And I Unknown Speaker 1:03:15 think that's a part of that's a part of the subject, which is meant to be in disjunction with celebrity, the five to pick authority. In other words, the tension I believe, in this film between what seems to be opposite modes is is deliberate. And it constructs you know, I think it is faster to film and makes one less aware of the power of the moral text it's Unknown Speaker 1:03:54 almost hard to get a professional to get it depends Unknown Speaker 1:04:04 with the last one to just stick right on Unknown Speaker 1:04:13 the post opposed to climbing into he's got Unknown Speaker 1:04:21 a sense waves Unknown Speaker 1:04:29 to match. There's a there's a long tradition in this culture in a way in the United States of the position as both technocrat and soothsayer embodies both of those images of authority and Nathan's intention is in fact, its object. It's utilized in reference to one another to be enforceable. So it's not an issue of smoke. It should be in one breath. Very clear on this breath. Got leaning desk pointing out with his corridor to make up just technical to his ominous jokes and then the Oregon enters I believe that that's the strategy I don't think it's just something that they missed Absolutely. Unknown Speaker 1:05:34 I'm struck by all the scientific radio and using as many articulating medicine not how I think Unknown Speaker 1:06:06 that rebuild scientific scientifically Unknown Speaker 1:06:20 you can find it is inappropriate, right? To have insisted, not insisted upon openness and insisting on knowledge, there is that kind of remove what's happened to all the ideas. So I think that there's something really male. Unknown Speaker 1:06:51 And also all those images of the women, the women cow, the women, pathetic, who must be rescued by this. Unknown Speaker 1:07:02 I'm sorry, I just wait because it's what you say Right? immunoassay is a technique that has absolutely nothing to do with this procedure. To kind of say we are scientific. We know more than you do. I was curious and focused on the dismembered just the muscles is a sanctuary. For now, Unknown Speaker 1:07:46 one small point when you discussed in the very beginning that one thing the film does, it reduces a person to its physiological shapes. But one common definition of pornography is and reduces a woman to the sum of its parts. So the whole question not that it's a pornographic film, but it does the it has the same sort of function. Unknown Speaker 1:08:08 I wouldn't I wouldn't use the instrument. But by the end who's talking about? I really, yeah, I, I had, I had talked to this Catholic priest about, you know, Unknown Speaker 1:08:28 contradicting nature. And I was like that, along with music, and some of the Panthers technology, there's also this unnatural, no interruption of the growth of this child being able to I was waiting for some time. Unknown Speaker 1:08:55 We'll be cheering. I mean, there are no stress tests. So why not a whole battery? Did anybody say? Well, this is this is very rich, I'm not worth a lot for this discussion. Once you have complexity of elements, especially stuff especially about this, this garbage can, you know, Holocaust extinction. So that whole piece of this, the language and imagery of it and how it kind of fits into the rest. I don't think I've quite figured that out. And it's very interesting to think about it. I have figured out that there's a double, a double message on one plane, everybody was seeing it, that there's a disjunction between the visual and the verbal, is a distant junction between what claimed to be informational and what is the story? And what what is going on with this film, it seems to me is that rather than presenting a medical event, we are seeing pregnancy reduced to from theater to a movie. And that's how we have to read it. It is a movie and it's constructed like a movie and it uses medical authority figure medical language tries to, to shape our predisposition to how we view it. However, the medical personage is a character in the story. As much as he is, supposedly the bearer of authority and the narrator. I think we sort of we did a good job of deconstructing deconstructing what you see, and what we hear. The only thing I would add to that a little bit. Thinking about it. The the image that remains with me the most, like the thing you raised first is the penetration. And I think it's, it's not surprising that we are women, and this is someone's grabs the instrument and how am I kind of a funny Association when I thought about that instrument? Partly it was the visual association with all of those anti communist fields that choke arrow or the or the head approaching the United States in the era of Coronavirus this coming in is going to penetrate and then, of course, the way which which everybody Unknown Speaker 1:11:45 noticed Unknown Speaker 1:11:49 the wild were presented with this visual and verbal text of technocracy underneath it or encounter. Point to it is this continual morality play of the living unborn child indistinguishable from any of us? The instrument that suction cannula moving violently toward the child the lethal weapon will dismember, crush destroy, and the point of my mother's life, it does sense aggression in its sanctuary, you know, attributing volition to the fetus, making it a little person in there. And I then thought, because we have this group that's been and I missed these cartoons, but I thought it is fun to have Voltron neoconservative reliance, culturally apocalyptic imagery during mythic tales of good and evil, and evil is this impersonal force that is going to invade good. Rip it apart, destroy it in its peaceful abode. So all of that is, is transparent to us. And the tribe characters are transparent to us. That it's you know, some doctors put together a counter film. And there's this piece of literature that addresses the ways that the film is in fact distorted. Medically, it points out, for example, without a cerebral cortex, that can be misinformation, the idea of a screen is crazy, because we got error rules, there's no way that we can screen points out the distortion of not having this dog, it's about this big situation in front of the screen. And when in fact, for the 12 week bake experiences about this big the camera tricks of speeding up and so on. And I think it was that the Seattle one. This is a Planned Parenthood. They just have one copy of this. It's sort of myth reality is sweeping. Unknown Speaker 1:14:21 But I am less interested actually in this more literal kind of rebuttal than I am in trying to understand why even those of us sitting here. I think it's true. I mean, I think if you're honest, there were aspects of things about it, that affected us are able to move us visually are told that this problem I mean, it's it's a not a cultural view. This is a kind of simple minded problem. That is the problem of how it is possible that people can vote simultaneously see behind the artifice is visual images and also be moved by them. To me it's an interesting problem. I mean, I think it's really mysterious. Yeah. I mean it doesn't do his job its job as good as it used to be Unknown Speaker 1:15:27 this film is designed for certain groups of people it doesn't have three that negatively disturbing it's really activating the right to life chapter Unknown Speaker 1:15:51 also it has to maintain its tension within science you know it's claimed to be Unknown Speaker 1:16:00 your show a few figures that are probably factual and then he went on misfield absolutely Unknown Speaker 1:16:14 across these two three fingers Unknown Speaker 1:16:16 your call it says we're at in the numbers Unknown Speaker 1:16:23 we don't really know but the the estimate is anything between about 150,000 to 2 million so I mean that it's very difficult to have that work but he can't claim it's interesting starts couldn't have been shown on five different major network shows that morning because they didn't want to have to see to meet you together it's not it's not going to be when they show up Yeah. Conscious of the question and that's the reason. Argument. Unknown Speaker 1:18:43 As the audience for this film is predominantly the audience that this was intended to be this women contemplating abortions, the idea is reconsider and not so much that they will be repelled I think that there was a deliberate de emphasis of the repressive powers because what is supposed to happen is a bar that the woman will look at the sun and she was gone she will immediately identify with that image and what that feels instead of not Unknown Speaker 1:19:25 meeting. Especially during the abortion Unknown Speaker 1:19:59 bill So here's what she was because she thought it was just, it was just there was to be still I think it was uncomfortable. But also that explains why he seems to move so much. Is she made a jerk? And that would make her her stomach jerk, then that would have Unknown Speaker 1:20:47 made it I mentioned to she's in this place when there was this collusion between Unknown Speaker 1:20:52 anesthesia it doesn't make sense for an early abortion you're not Unknown Speaker 1:20:55 you we could go on with all of these points. I think there's a more I think there's a more subtle Unknown Speaker 1:21:30 Did anyone see that? That was? Bad. Actually, what I understood was that there was an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, three, by Joseph culture and another person Unknown Speaker 1:22:09 claiming on the basis of two or three cases, viewing a Saturday image of a woman contemplating change, what would transpire would be updated bonding, coin kind of relationship. And the writer like the National Academy and decided, aha, this is, this is a wonderful strategy, that we can use ultrasound images as a tool to this article. Unknown Speaker 1:23:10 is assuming that, simply by virtue of you, this fetal image, she will have a sense of it as separate. That is the code of fetus as separate little condiments will be replicated for her in her consciousness by viewing it on the screen. And, you know, that's something that we have to deal with, we have to talk about because in fact, there are reportedly many ways to do it. experience that fetal image as an expression of its separateness of its being. Just to say, she feels she says, Oh, she's supposed to be separate and bonded well. Unknown Speaker 1:23:59 I, when I was starting to think about this film, but decided to try to put it in the context of something that we know about photographic and filmic images and what they do. Because it seemed clear to me that that the silent screen was a movie, that it had to be read according to the codes of photographic and cinema to correct that representation not to read an x ray or CAT scan, it's not like that. And that there are certain essential paradoxes that we know are those who scores and photographs know, our convention in such images, and the one that struck me is most relevant to this is the idea that every photographic image every film in its image contains within it a deception. The deception is an appearance of literal reality. This thing we're seeing is a slice of light, right? It's a, it's like an input with a tracing. And we're simply looking at, okay. And that is basically the message of the photograph. And it is it has a certain real power, I don't think we can deny it. I, in this paper, I tried to situate that historically, the history of photographic images, and they won't go into that at all. But it's, you know, photography emerged in the 19th century. And it emerged in the context of industrialization, in the context of positively science, the assumption, in fact, that absolute objectivity, that science could produce these images now, that could capture the dazzling waves of the sun, a battle field in all of its little delineated details, perfectly. In fact, reality existed out there empirically, as it appeared. Photography was an unreasoning machine that produced in an era record. So it's founded photography, and I believe, you know, Phil, as well, certainly, documentary film, and this would partake of documentary film. Like, and I would even extend this sort of interest to ultrasound imaging, radiology, filming of the body, even in clinical context, contains a kind of it is embedded in a flaw with this terminology, and that is the epistemology that sees reality as discrete. People talking about the disembodied, that woman that we mentioned this sort of uterus, as though it existed integrally outside of her, despite her and that's a fact what a lot medicine does the medicine developed in western medicine developed in a contest? Unknown Speaker 1:27:12 I don't know how much time to get out, okay, I've tried to do it just just briefly. Unknown Speaker 1:27:28 But what interested me an analysis that interested me and I found helpful was that a run on that? Unknown Speaker 1:27:45 In an image, I mean, an essay on photographic imagery, talks about the same paradox of the appearance of the photographic image as a mechanical analog of reality, an image which is without a code, it appears to be without a code, when in fact, it is heavily heavily coded. And to show how it's coded. He talks about three different domains, what he calls the source of emission of the photograph, the channels of transmission and the point of reception, the source of admission, the channel of transmission, and the point of reception are also jargony terms. But to me, they made sense they helped me understand what was going on in the silent scream, right, the source of emission was simply means just, you know, who produced it, in which social and instructional sources produced it. The television production team, the national right to life committee, the channel of transmission is the medium itself and all the ways that it gets constructed. The camera, the screen, the captions, people notice, like, for example, how the the somebody pointed out how the captions were done, like, oh, you know, poor horror movies. The point of reception, of course, refers to the viewers, the public us how we see our ways of seeing the film and what we bring to that experience of seeing. And we can look at each of these domains. I think, in reviewing the silence screen, we can look at it in terms of each of these domains. We can also look at it as containing this double text of pandas.