Thanks for the link, CJ.

The only truly pornographic image was of the drowned children in the Irrawaddy, images from cyclone Nargis.

The lack of perspective here is scary. In a week where tens of thousands are dying through the overt acts of power-driven denial by an uncaring government in Burma, what do we here in Australia worry about?

500 dead kangaroos and an exhibition of photography.

Well said Pericles.

Jolanda, "Adults should do everything in their power to protect the children from pedophiles, exploitation and even psychological abuse"

If I did "everything in my power" to protect my child from pedophiles I'd be inflicting psychological abuse on him. He'd be home schooled, never left alone with others, effectively living in a prison.

Parenting involves accepting that there are risks that we take with our children in order to allow them to gain the life experience they need to make decisions as adults and to aid their evelopment. We try and find the balance between risk and protection which best suits our childs age, temperment and circumstances.

Hetty Johnson who reportedly made the complaint which triggered this issue is one of those who appears to lack balance.

I saw her in an interview some years ago claim that she was quite willing for innocent men to go to prison if it reduced the risk of children being abused. Children need protection but not in a manner which is at the cost of their developmental needs or which creates an over regulated cultural climate destructive to all or where the government becomes the abuser.

Hetty if she still stands by the views expressed in that interview is willing to destroy the lives of adults (male ones anyway) to protect children who may not have been at genuine risk.

I'm not comfortable with the theme of the exhibition as described in the media. I'm even more uncomfortable with the intervention and the direction that seems to be taking us.

R0bert

Which of you would be prepared to have your own daughters, or sons, (if you have any 11 to 12 years old) photographed naked and put on public display?
Posted by Mr. Right, Saturday, 24 May 2008 9:36:17 PM

Vanilla,

You are the only one with the guts to respond. Even so I have to say that I think your reply makes you an unfit parent: the kind interviewed by the police after the Henson affair.

To those who cannot, or will not respond, I can only assume that, to you, being a loud mouthed, permissive 'arty' type is OK only as long as your own kids are not involved.

Excellent post R0bert, although I would like to add that there are as many male wowsers as female.

CJ - superb link - really puts Henson's images into perspective and, as with all of Henson's work they are superb art. Like Pericles, I found the image of drowned children very disturbing and now I wish I could get it out of my head.

When the Howard government banned the book, The Peaceful Pill, I was disturbed by the 'big brother' mentality and now we have a Rudd government deciding what we should and shouldn't see. Oh for the liberation of northern European countries, like Holland or Denmark.

We cannot live our lives to the full wrapped in cotton wool, the best we can do is educate and inform our children. I was very much overprotected as a child and have had to learn about the adult world the hard way - something I wouldn't wish on anyone, but unfortunately still continues for many overprotected children today.

Henson has made us realise how uncomfortable we are with our bodies and sexuality. If we, as a society, were not so sexually disfunctional, the advertising industry would be an impotent beast in its sexualisation of everything.

Meanwhile, no doubt well-intentioned people, protest Henson and our media laughs all the way to the bank.

Robert if you are incapable of thinking normal and can only think at the extremes then that is not my problem. We are not talking about homeschooling or locking kids up, although I know that my kids would have loved to have been home-schooled they hated school so much, we are talking about keeping clothes on our children so that they are not exposing their private parts...They are called private parts for a reason!