Perspective: Porn is not great in any shape
In the classic story Charlotte's Web, we find at first a newly born litter of piglets in which there is a runt. The eight-year-old daughter of farmer John Arable, named Fern, saves the wee pig from a probable death, takes him under her wing and calls him Wilbur. When Wilbur is sold to her uncle, Homer Zuckerman, Fern tries to see him as often as she can, but her visits become sporadic as she grows older.
Wilbur grows lonelier until the dulcet tones of Charlotte, the spider, start to soothe him. When the animals on the farm tell Wilbur that he is to be slain and eaten for Christmas, Charlotte helps the fearful pig by extolling his virtues via her web: into it she weaves the words "Some Pig", "Terrific", "Radiant" and "Humble" in the hope that farmer Zuckerman will take notice. Before her death, Wilbur's life is spared and he goes on to win a prize at the country fair.
In some ways, the book represents an allegory for the relationship between us and Christ, in which Charlotte takes on the Jesus-like figure, saving the young pig from an inevitable death, his anxiety and his loneliness, by taking it upon herself to point out to farmer Zuckerman (God) why Wilbur is worthy of being saved; in the process, the little pig grows to believe that he is quite excellent and worthy. After Charlotte's ultimate death, as with the Cross, Wilbur repays her by nurturing her brood of baby spiders: Joy, Areana and Nellie.
I admire anyone whose cause is to build up and encourage those who might otherwise fall victim to the status quo – to keep the proverbial pigs from the slaughter – and who, like Fern and Charlotte, stand up and say, "That's not right – this pig is worthy of a good life!". Like Wilbur, through circumstance, unfortunate childhood events, wrong belief, low self-esteem, ill-formed self perception, or simply because we're human, many of us are easily led down paths that devalue life, and cause a disconnect: from the self, from each other, from humanity.
Shouldn't any decent society protect the most vulnerable and its young and build people up so they become all they can become?
Last Friday evening, I joined Melinda Tankard Reist, ABC Religion and Ethics editor Scott Stephens, academic Caroline Norma, feminist ethicist and psychotherapist Dr Betty McLellan, clinical psychologist Dr Robi Sonderegger and about 100 other people at a café in Brisbane for the launch of
Big Porn Inc, co-edited by Tankard Reist and Dr Abigail Bray.