I think I'll ring Lost & Found and ask has anyone turned in some common sense yet. What's grinding my gears today is the banning by Facebook of the picture known as The Naked Farmer. It's a great picture. It shows a young farmer standing in the rain, which if not drought-breaking is definitely drought-softening, fists held aloft to the sky. His body language just shouts joy and relief. He is standing on a little patch of bright green lawn, and the lush mud around is a rich brown and you see the contrasting-yet-complementary colours of the Australian outback. From the angle of his black Akubra you can tell his head is tilted back as he praises the sky from which the life and livelihood saving elixir that is RAIN pours. This is the first thing that most of my friends noticed from the picture. It's a wonderful picture for what it represents, and the subtext that is inferred. It's a bit like that pic from the 1966 Rugby League Grand Final of Norm and Arthur, two captains of opposing teams caked in mud and giving each other a relieved embrace. In fact, that picture (known as 'The Gladiators') has been used as an engraving on the League's trophy at Grand Final time, such is its pathos and beauty. But getting back to the picture Facebook has banned; first thing that's really obvious is the utter, unadulterated elation of a farmer whose family has been suffering dreadfully in the drought. The next thing you see is that aside from the aforementioned black Akubra, the dude's in the nude. But all you see is his bottom, folks. And as someone pointed out to me, it's just a bottom and it's not like he was bent over doing a deliberate Brown-Eye at people, which could be deemed worthy of complaint. Now before I rant any further, I will table my personal interest in this picture: the young man is, by virtue of my marriage to his wonderful uncle, my NEPHEW. I don't care that I saw his butt in this picture; Jesus Christ jumping on a motorised pogo stick, I saw his backside years ago when I bathed him as a toddler. And I imagine that revelation has probably embarrassed him more than the picture on Facebook.
This picture was originally posted on a page dedicated to farms. Somebody apparently saw it, then cried, 'Eeeeeek, a bum!' before swooning. Whoever it was then brought round, if not with smelling salts then with a sweaty sock that had been pulled from a hot gumboot. This person then twisted their pearls, and made a rather pointless complaint.
My husband shared the farmer's picture, which had been dressed up with a quote from my total mind-crush Stephen Fry about how easily people take offence and that it appears to give them some total rights, and Fry's reply is 'So fucking what?'. I have shared the same picture. The picture has been removed from both our FB pages. I am infuriated by this. What infuriates me more is that White Supremacists can run a page with utter filth and obscenity, or cowardly numbskulls can run bullying sites, and they're left alone. Yet, someone sees a BUM, and all Hell breaks lose like a water gushing through a crack in the wall of the dyke.
I'm kind of likening the fuss to the Bill Henson scandal a few years ago. You might remember that. I personally saw beautiful photographs, but some people saw depraved filth. I reckon it says more about the people who complained, then it does Henson's subject matter, but that's another rant.
It's leaving us all bummed out. It's making us crack up. We wish spurious people would just butt out. It's the bottom of the barrel. What a sad date it's been. And I guess that's enough of the bum metaphors from me.
No comments:
Post a Comment