Written in stolen moments...

[catsidhe]

Quickly, to keep up with events...

(It seems that when I write a monster post, that it is utterly out of date by the time I find time to post it, so, quickly it must be.)


Bill Henson's photographs. It turns out that they were never pornography in the first place. (Those whose job it is to know the difference have given their imprimatur.) And he won't be charged. And the exhibition is going back up.

Rudd has already stood up and said that he doesn't care what anyone who knows what they're taking about says, his 5 second glimpse of one picture out of context has convinced him. But at least he has the grace to add that it doesn't matter a damn what he thinks.

Further, there has been some news recently about what, precisely, the difference is between an artist, and an actual paedophile.

Some of those — who would deserve more sympathy, if their actions had not shown them to be shrieking monomaniacs — would benefit from a careful comparison of these two situations; they may learn something. Methinks they have stared into the abyss so long, it has covered their eyes that they can no longer see anything else. Which is sad, when you think about it. I personally would much prefer to see my daughters as happy children, even when they're gleefully running around the house naked in preparation for their bath, than eternally incipient victims. Especially (but not solely) since I am the putative predator.


Meanwhile, when Rudd's government suggests overturning a certain restriction on giving overseas aid, Nelson and various conservatives jump up and down and oppose it vigorously. Why? Because they are douches.

For crissake, the ban is on any aid project which mentions abortion as an option. Removing the ban would make it possible to say the word 'abortion' on an Australian paycheck. It wouldn't make it compulsory. And don't forget, this restriction was only brought in in the first place to get something out of an obstreperous Catholic who was happily willing to make his own personal beliefs universal and compulsory.

But no, an act of political expediency, twelve years old, to a man who is no longer even in parliament, let alone in sole possession of the balance of power, must stay as Holy Writ, preventing Australian funded aid from even mentioning the possibility of abortion, no matter how dire the need.

Don't mind me, I'm just choking on some bile.



Um... Indiana Jones IV, good. Stupid, but fun.
Iron Man. RoXX0r.
Hancock. Saw a preview. Had never heard of it before. Looking forward to it.

And on the subject, why did no-one tell me about The Fall? I mean, go look at the trailer! WANT!!

Comments

[omnot.livejournal.com]

"prefer to see my daughters as happy children, even when they're gleefully running around the house naked in preparation for their bath"

Pervert! ;-)

Seriously though, I agree that a naked child (or a clothed on for that matter) is not intrinsically erotic to the vast majority of people. Some people have become quite hysterical about the fact that a portion of the population can see naked children as sexually desirable. But, dammit, people! It's not the images of naked adolescent children that are repugnant, it's the paedophiles! How has our culture gotten it so turned around?

[sjl.livejournal.com]

And I'll also comment that it's less repugnant for somebody to be attracted sexually to a young teenager than for them to be attracted sexually to a five year old kid. At least the young teenager is actually physically capable of breeding. (Note that I am talking comparative repugnance, not absolute - I can understand the former, although I don't approve of it, whilst I have no good words for the latter whatsoever, under any circumstance.)

[catsidhe.livejournal.com]

As opposed to the world where repugnance must be absolute, or it is as good as none at all.

Absolutist worldviews leave me cold. And a little bewildered. Although I can see where they come from: When something is absolutely good or bad, no more thought need be expended on the subject.

I should add now that I was going to predict that the hue and cry would shortly rise that if the laws had determined that Henson's work is not pornography, that the laws were obviously, therefore, wrong and must be changed immediately to declare that pornography is anything Hettie Johnson doesn't like.

This has since happened.

[(Anonymous)]

*sigh*

Everyone has to suffer because of the paedophiles! I bet they have weapons of mass destruction too.

-- mpp

[tooticky.livejournal.com]

It's nice to hear some of what you've been thinking, catsidhe, and that you're nolonger in the throes of a man-cold (to quote M)!
Haven't seen any movies since The Big Move. Very jealous.
Bill Henson's photographs are beautiful, eerie, unsettling - pubescent bodies can be beautiful (they're what we're culturally used to seeing as the ideal in the media - flat bellies, little up-tilted breasts and all) ugly and awkward, or disturbing because they both remind us of what we're not anymore and that they're on the thresh-hold of desire themselves and of being desirable. Aesthetically, I like his work, and it creates big gut and head responses in people, which is what good art should do. We project our feelings about youth onto the images, and then talk about what we think we see.

movies

[(Anonymous)]

- Indiana Jones IV: dissapointing. Far too much CGI and far too over-the-top (eg: monkey swinging from tree to tree by the junior-junior-indy). It wasn't the traditional Indiana Jones movie, and not what I was looking forward to. The only classical thing about it was the theme music, sadly.

- Iron Man: unfullfilling. The banging of the guns was cool, some of the CGI was stupid, and overall it lacked cohesiveness. It just didn't do it for me. I wanted more. And I was pissed off I had to sit through a crap load of credits just to see a 30 second sequel-buster (perhaps I should have taken the hint when Hoyts started closing the blinds during the post-credits scene).

- Hancock: looks very promising. You must have missed the morning tea when I played this trailer on enthuse. It has some originality about it, and I think Will Smith is the perfect actor for the part. I like to think of it as a bit of 'Superman' and 'I Am Legend' but with cheekyness ;-) Should be good fun, especially since his most recent movie is the best movie I've seen in a while.

- The Fall: what's with these Russian movies??

-- mpp