ART... OR PORNOGRAPHY

Seems I’ve been here before, except it was “art…or cruelty”. If it happens again, I should take notice … maybe the bourgeoisey types are taking over.

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In a nutshell: a 13 year old girl is the subject of a photographic exhibit in a Sydney Art Gallery. Oh – and she’s naked.
If you want the drivel that accompanies the facts, read the daily rag.

But for the important stuff:

It has caused quite a stir amongst many:

The authorities have leapt into action, the public joining them in a collaborative voice of condemnation.

The Police have been cajoled by their outraged masters and public opinion into becoming involved, citing an unlawful act as their justification. Except – well, they are as yet unsure as to whom they will charge and what those charges will comprise – just that someone is going to face them. They have seized twenty of the images and closed the exhibition down, just a few hours before it was due to open.

The popinjays who consider it art, have spoken out in defence of it claiming it as ‘just art’ – nothing more. Asserting that they can view the images objectively and not, as is feared, as paedophiles. (No-one is suggesting they are paedophiles, it should be noted, but that such fiends do exist and therefore could and would visit the exhibition. And that, is quite obviously unacceptable to anyone).

The photographer, who has created both the items of outrage and the subsequent furore, hasn’t said anything at all but it has crossed my mind that as enormous a risk it may be, “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”, and this could be a shrewd move on his part. Mind you, twenty of the forty images have been seized so…it could backfire before it gets any momentum).

The authorities, I suppose in an effort to restrict access by paedophiles have also barred the website so I haven’t seen the pictures. Bear in mind there’s a world of difference between “knees four feet apart” porn, and “artistic photography”.

Mweantime, while all this hullabaloo continues, one section of the seemingly wide array of concerned parties who’ve become involved, has been forgotten. All day, the parties have been letting loose statements; the police, the supporters, the condemners. Each individual program on talk radio, has discussed the matter. Television has carried it too. Charges, they claim, will be laid.

Well, as usual, it comes down to Professor Muttars to get to the crux of the matter. That being – the parents.
A 13 year old, be it girl or boy, it’s thought, cannot make that decision, (in all but few cases – none of which are western), therefore it’s incumbent on the parents to do it for her – and of course act in her best interests.
The question … demands more than begs: what parent would permit their thirteen year old to pose naked, no matter how “tasteful” for a public camera? Being that it’s generally believed that any taste there may be in the image of a just naked teenager is all “bad”.
That said… I could care less what the law says. The law as they say is an ass. And more – It’s also corrupt, sanctimonious and politically correct to the point of absurdity. My moral standards stand head and shoulders above anything society has to offer.
Nor do I care a jot about the pompous, disassociated from reality, “artists”. These people will undoubtedly look down on the lesser as they would see them as undignified and ill-educated because they don’t “understand” art.
The photographer himself? Until I learn why he shot the images, I won’t have a singular opinion. Could be a dozens reasons why he did.

I don’t have 13 year old daughter so I have to rely on the hypothetical but to assist me in this I would refer to others I know who do have such children and I like they can’t imagine ever being in a position where I would allow such a thing.

Funnily, all this would have been avoided if the parents had done the, well, the thing that one would expect a parent to do – that is, to deny the participation. But this in itself leads me into yet another area; the powerlessness the average parent feels towards his or her teenager.

But that’s for another time…