A Victory for Decency?

Hah!

The thought police have got their comeuppance as Henson's 'controversial' images are cleared for general release by the classification board. And this despite that great art critic K-Rudd declaring them "absolutely revolting".

Good then... a strike for the good guys.

The problem is now that every man and his dog feels compelled to comment on it... and yes kids I am aware of the irony as I too spill virtual ink over this issue.

Paul Sheehan recently wrote in the SMH what amounted to a somewhat backhanded defense of Henson, given the title, Artists Crying Out for Martyrdom. It was a more condemnation of the police action than support of the artist.

At its heart Sheehan is running the line if you play with fire you expect to get burnt.

Fair enough. Except that in Australia we don't burn people at the stake. Good art should create debate and should make us ask questions... that is part of the function of art and part of our responsibility as audiences.

But we proved yet again are seemingly endless capacity for moral panic and in our timidity tattled and ran to the cops.

Shame!

But in a victory for decency those of us who a re not degenerates and who can distinguish between art and porn will be able to see Henson's pictures on display. All of them.

Finally in Sheehan's article he wrote this:

Why? Because pederasts and child sexploiters have had a dream run in our
society. A subculture of pedophilia among gays, an epidemic of child sexual
abuse in the Aboriginal community, and a multimillion-dollar porn industry
on the internet have all been protected variously by privacy laws, artistic
licence, freedom of expression, and Aboriginal rights. What these rights have
done is mask, exacerbate or even rationalise a significant and growing problem.

For real...

Apparently even when you are defending art you can still get a dig in at gays and blackfellas... and God knows we have to take every opportunity!