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When I was an undergraduate and reading a lot of feminist theory and literature for the first time, there was one image repeatedly conjured to demonstrate the misogynist, wrongheaded attitude of the healthcare industry to childbirth: that of a pregnant woman in labor, on her back with her legs up in stirrups. The accompanying story decried the position as one that was devised not for the health and safety or ease of delivery for the mother and her child, but for its convenience to doctors. To wit:
For the last century, society’s relationship with normal childbearing has been tragically flawed because it was based on faulty assumptions. The central and erroneous belief was that childbearing in healthy women was fundamentally and inextricably dangerous. This false assumption was based on the notion that a woman’s reproductive biology is inherently defective, or as Freud would say, biology is woman's (unfortunate) destiny. [..] This notion gave rise to the idea that normal childbirth had to be made safe by the medical profession through the corrective use of powerful drugs and risky surgeries. The laboring woman would be saved by becoming a passive patient delivered by others. [link]
What I meant was:
In the new century, society’s relationship with art has become tragically flawed because it is based on faulty assumptions. The central and erroneous belief is that anything made by unregulated artists is fundamentally and inextricably dangerous. This false assumption is based on the notion that an artist's ability to create is inherently defective.... [...] This notion gave rise to the idea that creativity had to be made safe by the legal profession through the corrective use of powerful licenses and preemptive laws. The laboring artist would be saved by enforcing a system of controlled environments where creative products can only be licensed and delivered by lawyers.
Saying that copyright will make better artists is like saying that forceps births makes for healthier babies. Looking to Patrick Cariou for wisdom about copyright is like looking to the RIAA for guidance on fair use. Glib articles that promote the forceps birth model of creativity only reinforce ignorant attitudes about art.