The Bill Henson Debacle - It's Not About Porn

Australia...where your opinion on art places you, the opiner, in a box you never wanted or expected to be in.

The Cultural Cringe is alive and well in one of world's best countries. You'd have to be living under a rock not to have heard of Bill Henson by now. Tabloids and broadsheets the world over have been splashed with the news of a police raid on Paddington's Oxley9 Gallery to seize twenty images by celebrated photographer Bill Henson.

The art world has gone bananas. The media has of course beaten the story to a pulp, conveniently excoriating what dignity the subject of the photos, a naked thirteen year old girl, had left. Cate Blanchett led the charge with a letter to the newspapers and Michael Gow joined in, later by the irritating (but occasionally astute) David Marr and eventually Germaine Greer.

One of the big targets of the art ridicule is Kevin Rudd - he expressed an opinion ('protesting too much' says Greer) for which he was instantly skewered. In a moment of great irony, Gow mentioned Rudd's own words before the 2020 Summit where he discussed the need for contention in society, to which the artista were very amenable, because at the time it suited them, it made Rudd 'one of them.' Until he disagreed with them, of course, setting them on fire and rapidly denouncing Rudd. Gow went as far as to say that he now regrets attending the summit. Sigh.

Rudd's comments, I thought, were ill-considered. The images were not 'revolting' - the girl in the is quite striking and she is very beautiful. I can't imagine she would have felt all that pleased about the quote. The images are not pornographic in themselves (no matter what Henson's intentions were). Rudd should have been more considered.

You see, the problem I have here is that this girl has been forgotten in all of this. Every adult who has been involved in the handling of this image has failed her. The media has splashed her across its pages, unobscured, a number of times. Her face was published in the Herald Sun yet again on Saturday. She will forever be known as the naked girl. So what's the real problem here?

Exploitation. There's an always entertaining and heated blog over at theage.com.au, called the Religious Write. Moderated by religion editor Barney Zwartz, it attracts a group of libertines, pagans, militant atheists and on the other side a range of religious views dominated by various flavours of 'theism' and Christianity, but mostly Christians. What's been interesting about this particular debate is that the usual alliances are not so clear. Some who would be expected to brand Henson's opponents as morality crusaders are themselves decrying Henson as at the very least creepy, at worst a pornographer.

A mostly lone voice, who calls himself Ray H, continues his campaign as a pro-Hensonite while others mass against him. What has been interesting about the argument are the repeated agreements that it probably isn't porn (unless, of course, Henson turns out to be a kiddie-porn purveyor, which is unlikely) but that it is actually exploitation. The Ray H's of the world are calling the anti-Hensonites Philistines for not understanding art, a supremely arrogant assertion, one put by the Gows and Blanchetts of the world, parroted by artista across the globe.

Calling someone a Philistine is not a unique attack. John Howard, the (thankfully) former PM would brand those who disagreed with him un-Australian

Across the internet, the question 'Would you let your child do this' is met with a stony silence, or a dismissal that this 'isn't the point.' The fact is, it's precisely the point. That this girl has been exploited by Henson is obvious and unsurprising. It's what he's best at. That the media has also exploited her is even less surprising. That her own parents allowed this is is by far the most disturbing part of this equation. How could a parent dream of allowing this to happen? How could a parent be such a slave to art that they are willing to effectively pimp out their own daughter (who Henson says he has known for ten years)?

There will be no answer because the media will drop it shortly. The sooner the better and the sooner that little girl can return to relative obscurity.