The Case of Kristina Pimenova

Whether nine-year-old Kristina Pimenova is the most beautiful girl in the world is debatable, but I'm more than happy to concede she's a serious contender for the title. 

The young Russian is certainly very lovely to look at (if perhaps a little too angelic for my tastes) and has been modelling since the age of three; landing contracts with several of the big names in fashion and a cover of Vogue Bambini. She also has a large following on social media, which, unfortunately, exposes her to some unsavoury individuals and a raft of lurid comments and fantasies.  

But it's unfair and ludicrous to blame Miss Pimenova for this; or, indeed, her mother, Glikeriya Shirokova, who, despite successfully managing her daughter's career and profile with all due care and diligence, has recently found herself subject to criticism; accused not only of exploiting her child, but of wilfully turning Kristina into an object of illicit desire.

I think that Shirokova is justified in rejecting claims that she has prematurely sexualised her daughter and thus made her vulnerable to predators. I also think she is entitled to suggest that, just as equally damaging and dangerous ideals of innocence and purity are projected onto Kristina by enchanted strangers, obscenity too is in the mind of the beholder.

That is to say, in order to find pictures of children sexually arousing or provocative, you need, in Shirokova's words, to think like a paedophile and must therefore examine your own secret thoughts and desires. The problem, of course, is that we all live today in a profoundly pornified culture of images and so cannot help viewing (and judging) everyone and everything as a sex object.