Art Monthly Australia Features Nude Child on Cover

And it's caused an uproar:

Premier Morris Iemma immediately threatened to withdraw future funding after he was contacted about the images yesterday.

"Images of this kind are distasteful, exploitative of children - a cheap, sick stunt at the expense of a young child,'' he said.

"We've now reached a sad point where some people think naked kids can boost their sales and get them a headline. We will have no role in funding them while they use images that exploit children.''

This is typical of the hysterical reaction of many who think that all nude images of children are exploitative, or pornographic, which they are not. Magazine editor Maurice O'Riordan defended the image, and hoped that it would bring back some "dignity" to the debate, while the artist, Polixeni Papapetrou, who used her own 6 year-old daughter as the subject, added her own defense.

"We need to be clever enough to distinguish art from other types of images, otherwise we live in danger of eradicating any image of childhood in this culture for future generations to see.''

As I said in an earlier post, that which we seek to cover up becomes perverted.

Right: Boy with Duck, National Museum of Athens

Tags: nudism, naturism, nudist, nudists, naturist, naturists, nudity, nudes, bare, au naturel, nude, naked