bill Henson. freedom of expression

I was in Canberra when the  2008 storm over his pictures, broke out in Sydney.   'Nasty Nanny state sickness'  was  the thought that came to mind. In all the maddening media coverage that followed it was Germaine Greer's voice that stood out  -  for its bold clarity of thought.The lucid light it shed on a dark, very political reaction (even the newly elected Prime Minister weighed in) was enlightening to say the least. 



Anyone who believes that the great artists of the past waited for their models to reach puberty before daring to portray them naked is a blind fool. Renaissance paintings are festooned with the naked bodies of babies displayed in the most fetching of poses; small naked boys sit splay-legged on the steps of temples and astride beams and boughs. The public that saw them included pederasts and pedophiles, but nobody deemed that a reason for not showing them. The Christ Child sat astride his mother's knee displaying his perfect genitals. Though dirty old priests might have taken guilty pleasure from contemplating them, the rest of us are still allowed to see them.

Any man who calls Henson's pictures "revolting" protests too much. Our culture sexualises girls from infancy; they learn to flirt and be coy; the clothing designed for them is flashy, trashy and tarty. Every little girl is Daddy's little girl and is not allowed to grow up. Kate Moss, the world's most successful model, is a 34-year-old with the body of a 14-year-old. Signs of sexual maturity, spreading hips, darkened nipples, body hair, are considered unsightly.

Mothers may look at Henson's pictures and howl with fear; the man who rejects them with exaggerated horror is denying his own complicity. If our culture were not pedophilic, if our children were not already grossly sexualised, we would not be so dismayed by Henson's unerotic images, or so frantic to persecute and punish him for making them.

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/through-a-lens-darkly-20080601-2kgo.html



 And today,  the reaction seems to be more enlightened. Something we need  in these dark times. 



Art exists to explore and thereby cast light on the world around us. So, of course, some of the best art makes us uncomfortable. In fact, if you are wondering whether Bill Henson's luminous pictures of young bodies constitute pornography, that sense of doubt probably proves you are looking at art.

Art - like prayer or yoga - creates a psychological space to enable us to contemplate the world in a different way. Of course, not everybody finds solace or enlightenment in these spaces: the impact for any individual will always depend on what they bring to the encounter. But our society is enriched by those who help us see differently, and Henson deserves our gratitude, not our derision, for giving us a powerful lens.

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/with-light-must-come-shadow-20120917-262dp.html