I was at our year 7 school camp, the same age as some of the kids in the exhibit - 12 - and we were going to go swimming in the afternoon. In the girls' dorm I started to get changed into my swimmers, I just stripped down and put my swimmers on. The other girls in the dorm were shocked, which they then covered up by mocking me. It wasn't anything particular about my body that sparked it, just that I was so uninhibited about being naked before them. Already neurotic from the duel forces of the constant barrage of ridicule over the years for being the socially-awkward smart kid in the school, and emotional abuse and a dysfunctional family at home, this mocking hit me with the force of an explosion. I learned that the naked human body, my body, was shameful, and that I should be ashamed of my nakedness. Up to that point I'd always been reasonably proud of my body - I was a bit unco, but not too badly so, but I was physically strong and a decent enough athlete. In that one moment, I was robbed of all the joy that I might have had as my body changed from that of a girl to that of a woman.
Luckily, I didn't, like so many other girls, come to loathe my own body and punish it with diets and ridiculous exercise regimes, the Scylla and Charybdis of anorexia and bulimia, but it took me nearly 15 years and lots of conscious effort to reclaim that joy in my own body. Even today, I still have some difficulty with being told that I have great legs or a great arse or a beautiful body, but at least I can be naked and be comfortable with it. I regained my innocent joy in my own naked flesh.
Kevin Rudd talked about "protecting kids' innocence", but I wonder if this whole furore isn't having the opposite effect. I wonder if there aren't some girls out there, like I was back then, having their innocence, their joy in their own blossoming bodies, stolen away by all the hullabaloo and replaced with shame.
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darkstardeity- Dark Star
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hmmmm. mixed feelings, while it is the artists and models right as human beings to do as they wish with their bodies, and while the human body is beautiful in any shape, i dont believe his girl's pictures should be seen publicly while she has no clothes on.
legal considerations aside, i believe the girl is in danger of loosing her self-respect and the value of the worth of her mind when others regal in her nude beauty at her age.
the reason the age of consent is imposed on us is because that young people, no matter how willing, cant be expected to make a real informed decision.
it's one thing to impart your freedom with and amongst people known to you, it's quite another to have your change room pictures shown to a world of strangers.
Children cannot consent to that. They might not understand the concept of sexualisation, but that is in the eye of the viewer.
I mean, is it now okay for People who start showing pics of 16 year olds topless?
And how does the nudist community deal with this issue?
And consent to *what*, exactly?
Standing in a room with no clothes on, and then having the photo "sexed up" in post production?
What about if no consent is required - e.g. completely generated (hand drawn, painted, digitally painted) child porn, no model required?
This is all a nasty grey area, and it revolves around a major issue - children, and especially adolescents, can be and often are sexual beings.
No, that does *not* mean we should allow them to have sexual relations with "adults" - there are inherent power-relational issues that make that as bad an idea (and possibly much worse in scale) as "boss/employee", "lecturer/university student" sexual relations.
However - there's no magic line at 18 that says "omg you can be sexy now". Kids and adolescents are going to want to be sexy much much earlier than that. 18 just happens to be where our current culture has drawn the line on "okay, you're *supposed* to be old enough to make up your own mind and live with the consequences".
(I have some fairly strong opinions on art. The guy who got corpses from China, skinned them and dipped them in plastic? "Not cool". Art for shock's sake is just wank - but the women on my f-list seem to have less of an issue with Bill than I do, so I may be missing some subtle vibe. I doubt it).
And, lets be honest, this exhibition, had it been staged 30 years ago would have made not one lick of difference about how they reacted to you. Teenagers, girls and boys, are like that.
They would react the same way regardless. They would have made you feel bad regardless. It seems clear from your post that you were already somewhat isolated.
You Slitheen, you!
i love what you said here. its such a difficult and confusing issue, but the only reason why is because of the stigma against the human body, and i hate the fact that innocent young people have to pay for the insecurities of their elders.