Like Bill Henson in ’08, Del Kathyrn Barton – Archibald Prize winning artist, COFA lecturer and sometime Romance Was Born collaborator – has reignited the sexualization of children debate after officials from The Sydney Children’s Hospital called a portrait of her son “inappropriate”. Though best known for hypnagogic paintings which explore familial relationships, connectivity and the perculiar beauty hiding in human reproductive organs, it was a photograph, ironically, which irked the hospital’s draconian PC police.
The photo, depicting Barton’s shirtless six year old son adorned with googly eyes, was originally submitted to the hospital’s charity exhibition, titled, ironically again, Out of the Comfort Zone. The entire exhibition was then canceled as the image failed to comply with the hospital’s internal guidelines concerning the depiction of children.
The hospital released this statement: “In December 2010 Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation and the organising committee of the Out Of The Comfort Zone art exhibition amicably decided to not continue its partnership as charity recipient for the art exhibition…The Sydney Children’s Hospital deemed one work could be interpreted by some members of the community as inappropriate as part of a fundraiser for a children’s hospital charity.”
Now, I can understand why officials made the decision. They have jobs at stake and they’re the ones, not us, held accountable for noncompliance to company guidelines. Guidelines which must be pretty black and white (eg. no toplessness ever) unfortunately however, such absolute definitions of what is and isn’t appropriate completely disregards the photographer’s intent and more importantly, the audience’s better judgement. I mean c’mon, the image (above) is so innocuous and devoid of sexuality it could cover a cereal box.
Still, the debate has opened anew. Australian brand Witchery faced similar scrutiny last year but as opposed to an inherently sexualized industry like fashion, this “scandal” involves an artist photographing her son for charity, accusations of inappropriateness are surely more offensive to Barton than the image could ever be to morally outraged parents.
Fortunately, this appears to be the prevailing sentiment. Writes Punch columnist Carrie Miller in a post published today, More hysteria over the ‘sexualisation’ of children:
“An entire industry has emerged around the fear of children being sexualised. Bizarrely, the effect of this desire to protect children’s innocence has reached a tipping point where the very thing that is feared is in danger of being created. It seems the widespread obsession with sexualising children is being generated by the very people who claim to want to stamp it out.“
I agree wholeheartedly. This preoccupation with the sexualization of children must first stem from a desire to protect our children not a desire to punish artists who dare to depict children as anything but lolly eating innocents. I mean, sexualization of children is obviously dangerous – in the short term for the child being sexualized and in the long term for a society that normalizes children as sexual beings – but we must balance the protection of our children with the protection of artistic expression and recognize when an artist is truly sexualizing their subject. As many have pointed out, it’s misguided to think a single image will induce pedophilic urges in adults, there might be a slight correlation but for the most part our sexual desires are innate characteristics developed over a long period of time. Sadly, it’s also misguided to think suppressing such imagery will curb child abuse in any meaningful way. Let us focus instead on the problem’s real root cause.
Look at the photo again and I’m sure you’ll agree it’s not inappropriate, morally ambiguous or questionable. Sadly I can’t say the same for those who’ve accused Barton of sexualizing her son in the first place. It’s the hospital’s loss anyway. The exhibition was expected to fetch $200,000 – money that will instead go to a charity called Midnight Basketball. God, won’t somebody please think of the children?
