How is this still acceptable in this day and age?

[Eumaybe]

Picture attached, not sure it will show straight away, but it shows a photo of someone called David Ross sitting next to a table by Allen Jones.

YABU: it’s just art.
YANBU: appalling, just another example of sleazy male nonsense disguised as art.

Did you mean Vargas?

Thankfully I never purchased anything from Carphone Warehouse. And am glad I have not contributed to his wealth. And lack of taste.

While I think art should be generally uncensored and people should be free to purchase as they wish, the issue here is the public element of it. To be pictured beside something so crass tells you everything you need to know about this man. Either he is totally clueless and self absorbed and doesn't stop to think that this might he offensive or he understands it is offensive and doesn't care because he wants to cause controversy and offense. I'm not sure which is worse. I would take issue with the media that published it too.

I feel sorry for his dog living with someone like that.

So what do you say about women who are into BDSM now? Are they unacceptable?

surely this is just depicting a bdsm kink. Many women are also into that. As long as it’s 2 consenting adults enjoying themselves then crack on! (Literally!)

They didn’t! They knew it would get people talking which, look, it has.

What’s worse than doing an article that offends people? Doing an article that nobody reads or cares about!

I don’t like the table but the article is about an arts festival on his estate and all of the photos are him with sculptures etc so in that context it makes more sense but in the current climate it seems like a very bad PR move to have this photo at the start of the article…

Or maybe a very good one - they say there’s no such thing as bad publicity and it’s got people talking.

The only thing in the entire picture I like is the gorgeous dog.

The table stand is grotesque, sexist, chauvinistic, vile, derogatory, women-hating, etc. But even if it wasn't, it's still just plain hideous anyway!

Both of these 2 so-called ''men'' should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves and each other, but of course, they never will be.

But if a woman and a woman artist did the same thing but as a male table stand, with his y-fronts around his ankles and naked, on his hands and knees, the ''men'' would be in uproar!

Same here.

I voted YABU because I think it’s a slippery slope to start saying art (or someone’s taste) is “unacceptable”. Censorship at that sort of level is dangerous. But - it’s a horrible thing. And the fact that he has it front and centre in a picture of himself in a newspaper makes me think very poorly of him.

I think it could be interpreted that women always carry the weight on their shoulders.

I mean that we nearly always bear responsibility for our children whereas men don't.

I assume the reason the photographer placed him there is to highlight exactly the sort of person he is - so the decision to run this image in the paper is valid. The table should never have been made in the first place though

I’m a Times subscriber and can’t find the article anywhere - which bit of the paper is it in @Eumaybe?

To those who believe domination and subservience is a perfectly and normal acceptable sexual practice I would strongly disagree.

The harm done to women in the name of this so called “kink” is enormous.

The desire to humiliate yourself or someone else to get sexual pleasure requires professional therapy not public celebration.

The pendulum of sexual repression has now swung so far in the opposite direction that we are supposed to think everything and anything is not only permissible but in fact better than so called “vanilla” sex.

God forbid anybody disagrees because then you are a “pearl clutcher” prudishly shaming the wonderfully brave fetishists.

To quote Catherine Tate’s gran:
What a load of old shit.

Yep, the artist has dressed her to look exactly like a symbolic mother

Seedy artist. Very similar. He frequented brothels. Some of Vettriano's work was very graphic. Like the example in the OP.

Pornography is far worse. With women being violently abused, "teen" pedophilic, racist, incest genres & nobody bats an eyelid

3 in 4 teen boys who rape girls avoid jail. Men are WORSE today. Look at all the gang rapes & grooming gangs

No. Jack Vettriano.

Fucking awful.

David Ross: The super-rich are leaving the UK. But I’m not https://share.google/t0VhG5GHCgtcOrhXW

I’m not opposed to the art itself but it’s wonderfully telling of the kind of person who would happily associate themselves with it.

Thank you. The link isn’t working for me. Could you tell me which section of the paper it’s in?