[Leica] Re: A REPLACEMENT TOPIC

[Peter Klein <pklein@2alpha.net>]

At 10:17 AM 03/11/2001 -0800, "Julian Thomas" <julianthomas@terra.es> wrote:

>I have a mate who is a teacher in the UK. We started teaching together. We
>also became the male 'abuse' rep in different schools at the same time.
>After the training he refused to even bathe his young children.

A few years ago, the father of an immigrant family we know came home from 
work and greeted his daughter with a hug and a kiss, as he had always 
done.  The girl shrank from him and said, "Papa, you can't do that!  That's 
child abuse!"  They all laugh about it now, but it was pretty scary at the 
time. The girl's school had done a program on stopping abuse, and had so 
effectively brainwashed the kids that some were afraid of their own parents.

...and Michael Berube said:

>...What I was trying to say is that in the current cultural
>climate, it is too easy for you to become victim to accusations of being a
>pervert for taking such a photograph. This being so, it is probably smarter
>for one to avoid such situations in the first place. As I told Tim, I
>disagree with the western cultural climate that is so prudish as well, but
>until it can be changed, it is best to not face prosecution for something
>so easily avoided.

Speaking of which... last year I heard a story on NPR about the mother of 
an adolescent girl in Ohio.  She had photographed her daughter nude at 
various stages of the girl's life.  A local photo tech turned in some of 
her pictures to the local police.  The mother ended up facing child 
pornography charges that could put her away for a *long* time.  The case 
smacked of a prosecutor who was trying to gain noteriety for a run for 
higher office.  But from a description of the photos given on the program, 
the mother may have gone a bit beyond innocence in her depictions, thought 
she herself didn't think so.  Does anyone know what became of this case?

It's chilling to think that many of our parents took pictures of us that, 
if we took them today, could get us into *big* trouble in the U.S.  In some 
areas, photo techs are legally obligated to report all nude photographs of 
children to the local authorities.  A photo of a little naked kid used to 
be considered the picture of innocence.  Cute and funny.  Hardly anyone 
thought anything of it.  Now, sadly, we've lost that innocence.

A different perspective:  When I was in France 3 years ago, I often saw two 
or three generations of bare-breasted women sunning themselves together on 
ordinary public beaches along the Mediterranean.  This is considered 
perfectly normal in France.

And *no*, I did *not* use my camera!  :-)

- --Peter