It has been very aggravating for me not to have the time to give Pigtails in Paint the attention it deserves. Lately, I have been busy with professional development courses so that I can do my job effectively.
Keeping Their Distance: If museums and libraries can’t keep controversial (but historically relevant) materials safe from destruction, who will? Perhaps some readers are aware of the bizarre Chadwick Hall image of Samantha Gates that appeared in Taschen’s 20th Century Photography. The book was meant to showcase a collection of photos donated to the Museum Ludwig in Cologne by collector L. Fritz Gruber. When inquiries were made about the possibility of other images in the museum’s collection, the employee in question said the museum was trying to distance itself from parts of this collection and added that that particular photo was “disgusting”. It is unfortunate that employees, docents or curators should be allowed to work for institutions whose materials they have little regard for.
Nothing New Under the Sun: Anyone who knows anything about history realizes that the whole debate about the eroticization of children is hardly a new one; it simply manifests itself in different forms. There is an interesting essay about childhood innocence in connection with vintage postcards.
Promoting Sex Trafficking? Netflix’s new series ‘Baby’ is accused of promoting sex trafficking. A statement was released by The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) condemning the Italian drama series. The program centers around two teenage girls from a wealthy part of Rome who are drawn into the city’s underworld. NCOSE is claiming that the show glamorizes the teenagers entering into prostitution as a coming-of-age story.
The Pigtails Film Archive: A lot of tips come my way, mostly in the form of individual artists or films. In light of the tendency for the more controversial materials to “disappear”, I immediately seek out copies and keep them in an archive for later review. For a while now, I have wanted the over 400 cataloged films on hand to be published temporarily until a more complete review can be written in the main body of the blog. This should help us avoid duplication of effort as well as encourage people to come forward with genuinely fresh leads. The titles and short details will be added a little at a time in the coming month. In addition, I will be introducing a ‘Random Scenes’ category as a counterpart to our ‘Random Images’ to accommodate short posts that deal with intriguing short scenes featuring little girls but do not warrant a full review.
Spike in Visitors! I don’t know if this is good news or bad, but our technical staff has informed us that we had a record number of visitors (for a single day) last month, with over 5000 visitors. This is the highest it has been since we were hosted in the U.K.