Bloody hell! This is really getting out of hand.

Police have now visited the Newcastle Regional Art Gallery, and the National Gallery of Victoria. In the case of the latter they said they'd received a complaint about a Henson photo. After looking at it for 15 minutes they said the complaint was unsubstantiated and went away. They did not ask to look at the 93 other Henson works in the gallery's collection. The Albury Regional gallery has taken its Hensons down pending an outcome of the Sydney "investigation".

In an open letter released today, 43 people [including the lovely Cate] who were part of the creative stream at the federal government's 2020 Summit in April declared their support for Henson's work and warned of the effects of censorship.

The AGNSW, meanwhile, bravely keeps its Hensons on show and yesterday they were still being studied by school children. As the curator of photography said, the allegations that these photos are somehow criminal suggests that the people making the charges are carrying around some unsavoury baggage. I think this comment gets to the nub of the matter far more effectively than the worries about censorship because any community will censor words or images that people feel are causing harm. The problem here is that it's not the pictures that are causing harm, it's the people who find them "revolting".

Meanwhile, I've seen several statements of this nature:

Royal Australasian College of Physicians child health expert Dr Anne Smith said child welfare was more important than art.  "At 13 years old, the girl in question is a minor. Her guardians have a responsibility to keep her safe," Dr Smith said.

Dr Smith seems to miss the point entirely (though it's true that she may have been quoted out of context). What is "unsafe" about being depicted in a work of art? What does the damage to the children is the not the depiction of their bodies, but the sleazy, prurient attitude of those creating the outcry. This is actually a version of the old view that says women are asking to be raped because they've dressed sexily. It's a version of the argument that says that women should be in purdah, that women should not go out of the house in case they're attacked or even looked at by a stranger. Now we're applying the same double standards to children, especially of course, girl children. It's not the women/children who are the problem it's that percentage of men/adults who carry around the unsavoury baggage who are the problem.

In this way, neither women nor children are permitted to see their bodies in any light other than as mere objects of male desire and male domination. And then they wonder why teenage girls have so many eating disorders!

Henson has been doing photos like this for 30 years and they've been all over the internet for 15. There is no evidence that any of his models have been harmed by the process. My mind is just boggling at the damage that is being done right now, by the police and the "child protectors."