Politicians really are the most appalling of opportunists, and over the weekend they excelled themselves. Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Malcolm Turnbull, John Brumby and the federal Minister for Sport, Kate Ellis, all spent their weekend beating up on one of Australia’s finest artists, photographer Bill Henson.
Mr. Henson was allowed to visit a Melbourne primary school by that school’s principal because he was looking for possible subjects for his work. Outrageous, sick, undermining of the innocence of children, a full inquiry will be held, the principal of the school will be burnt at the stake of public opinion etc, was the reaction of our political leaders.
Leaving aside the fact that underpinning their collective outrage is a defamatory assertion by those politicians who joined the weekend’s bully pulpit that somehow Mr. Henson should not be allowed near children, there is also an extraordinary level of hypocrisy about the attacks.
Every day of the week our political leaders allow children to be abused at schools right around Australia, because they sanction the sophisticated and relentless efforts of fast food and soft drink companies to market to children through the education system and sport.
We have an obesity epidemic in this country, due in large measure the presence of too much fast food and drink in the diets of children.
Only last month one of those who was crucifying Bill Henson over the weekend, John Brumby, refused to rule out the idea that McDonald’s should be allowed to sponsor educational programs in Victorian schools. On September 2 AAP reported that fast food chains “like McDonald’s will not be excluded from forming partnerships with Victorian schools, but the decision will be left to school authorities, Premier John Brumby says.”
And what does Julia Gillard think of the sponsorship by Coca Cola Amatil of the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation’s Remote School Project in the Northern Territory which “provides accredited literacy course work in English to classroom teachers and in First Language to teachers’ aides in Central Australia”?
Kate Ellis’ disgust at Henson’s school foray was based on her wanting children to remain as innocent for as long as possible. Why then does she think it’s okay for McDonald’s to sponsor a soccer in schools program throughout New South Wales, or for Cricket Australia to take money from KFC?
And do Ms Ellis, Ms Gillard, Mr Brumby think it’s okay for Krispy Crème doughnuts to facilitate junior sporting clubs and schools fundraisers by selling their fat and sugar laden product?
Bill Henson’s fleeting presence at a school in Melbourne provokes a torrent of abuse from politicians, but these very same people are content to allow the children they say they care about to be exposed to companies that will ruin their short and long term health. How’s that for sickening hypocrisy.
Politicians also go into primary schools looking for children to pose for photographs with them while on the campaign trail. Hypocrisy indeed.
I find this quite breathtaking. KFC and/or Krispy Creme donuts may indeed be bad for the health of children and lead to obesity if eaten to EXCESS and maybe they shouldn’t be in kids lunches, but that is a parental decision surely. And in any case linking that to Henson and the school principal’s invitation is a complete non sequitor surely.
This article misses far too obvious a point: those putting so much effort into decrying Henson are not just distracting from other issues affecting children (of which obesity and nutrition issues are just one), they actually distract from protecting kids from real child sex abuse (involving actual sex offences usually in a highly secretive and scary way, as opposed to non-sexual nudity with parental approval and supervision). Marketing junk food to kids is just one of the miriad of issues picked up by Kevin Rudd’s statement (repeated on the weekend by Kate Ellis) “Let’s just let kids by kids”. I’m all in favour of letting kids be kids and not exposed to overly ‘adult’ practices (as, arguably, nude modelling may be considered to be). This would include kids with sporting talents forced to practice and train for hours on end, kids engaged in any form of modelling or acting professionally, as well as kids being subjected to intensive marketing campaigns. But Kate Ellis would never want her ‘let kids be kids’ statement turned into policy – our gold medal tally in the pool would be drastically smaller if teenage girls were not allowed to waste their childhoods following the black line rather than ‘being kids’.
Greg, I agree with you about Bill Henson, it’s a total beat up. I hardly think Mr Henson would have taken a single photo without long and protracted negotiations with the prospective model’s parents.
Nudity in art, both of adults and children has been around for thousands of years. In the great religious paintings of the middle ages naked children, in the form of Cherabim and Seraphim are almost universal. It stands to reason therefore that the great artists of the time used naked child models.
If the shock, horror, “Peds Under the Bed” mob want to be consistant, shouldn’t they be demanding that works by Da Vinci and Donatello etc be burnt and the roof of the Sistine Chapel sprayed a nice Duck Egg Blue to rid the world of this “kiddie porn” ?
Your slander of the fast food companies however, was total BS.
No person has ever been forced into a Maccas or KFC at gunpoint !! Nor has anyone ever been coerced into drinking Coke. If these companies want to return some of their profits to the community, why get so high handed about it ? I bet you cheer when a mining company donates a few tree seedlings to “Greening Australia.
Recent research is starting to show that the “Childhood Obesity Epidemic” doesn’t exist as [url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/04/2382147.htm]this item[/url] on the ABC web page. It was a relief to see this item as I thought I must have been going blind, because when out shopping, the number of obese people I see is definitely NOT the supposed “one in four” that “researchers” are claiming
Yes Greg, it would be terrible if the schoolkids were too fat to be photogenic! Come on, get real: isn’t the overriding issue here that the parents weren’t consulted? Or shouldn’t a “great artist” respect minor details like that?