“<subject> porn” has become shorthand for gratuitous objectification in order to cheaply moralise and has been for a while (eg “inspiration porn”).
They’re being a monumental arsehole about it, but they do have a point - this comic isn’t trying to change the system, or even point it out - it’s a cheap shot designed to make you feel satisfied in recogbising how screwed up things are.
A comic that would have been very different with the exact same images but a “remember that your child’s Christmas joy may come from exploited children elsewhere” and a suggestion to shop local, or even linking to ethical shopping guides and apps, international groups advocating worker and / or children’s rights would do a thousandfold more than the comic as it stands. Which like the subject matter it claims to decry is cheap, nasty and exploitative.
Basically: this comic as it stands is doing the exact same thing it’s “condemning”. Using exploited children as fodder to serve.
“<subject> porn” has become shorthand for gratuitous objectification in order to cheaply moralise and has been for a while (eg “inspiration porn”).
They’re being a monumental arsehole about it, but they do have a point - this comic isn’t trying to change the system, or even point it out - it’s a cheap shot designed to make you feel satisfied in recogbising how screwed up things are.
A comic that would have been very different with the exact same images but a “remember that your child’s Christmas joy may come from exploited children elsewhere” and a suggestion to shop local, or even linking to ethical shopping guides and apps, international groups advocating worker and / or children’s rights would do a thousandfold more than the comic as it stands. Which like the subject matter it claims to decry is cheap, nasty and exploitative.
Basically: this comic as it stands is doing the exact same thing it’s “condemning”. Using exploited children as fodder to serve.