Genitalia censorship in dispute

Genitalia censorship in dispute
Image: Last week's controversial cover of Honi Soit

The fallout has continued after 18 vulvae belonging to women of Sydney University appeared on the cover of student newspaper Honi Soit last week, in a protest against the stigmatisation of female genitalia in contemporary society.

In an editorial, the newspapers’ editors wrote: “We are tired of vaginas being either artificially sexualised (see: porn) or stigmatised (see: censorship and airbrushing). We are tired of being pressured to be sexual, and then being shamed for being sexual.”

Honi Soit Editor Mariana Podesta-Diverio said it was a powerful way of expressing the paper’s message and effecting change.

Honi Soit is an iconic newspaper, so having vulvas on the cover was bold and the best way to do it,” she said.

“Hannah Ryan, Editor-in-Chief, came up with the idea,” she said. “But no one had reservations – everyone on the editorial team was really supportive of it.”

Following legal advice, the Students Representative Council (SRC) warned that the cover might contravene Section 578C of the NSW Crimes Act.

The SRC requested black bars be placed over each vulva to prevent the cover from appearing ‘obscene’, ‘indecent’ or causing offence to a ‘reasonable adult’.

In response, the Honi Soit editors questioned: “What is offensive or obscene about a body part that over half of the Australian population have? Why can’t we talk about it – why can’t we see it?”

Four thousand copies of the student weekly were circulated around campus, but the SRC demanded they recall it after it was discovered the black bars were opaque and failed to entirely censor the images.

By then, hundreds of copies had been collected by students or salvaged by editors and the Sydney University Women’s Collective, who had helped Honi Soit in obtaining subjects for the cover. The remaining copies had their covers guillotined and were released later in the week without a cover.

As SRC actions intensified, the focus of the cover image shifted from sexual liberation to incongruous censorship laws. The laws impose restrictions on the publishing of female genitalia in comparison to the male, including an inability to publish labia minora as it is far more difficult to distinguish an aroused vagina from an aroused penis.

“The motivation behind this cover was to say to women that their vaginas were just body parts like any other,” said Ms Ryan. “But this is the perfect example – women have to be ashamed by their bodies and they have to hide.”

In a precedent, a flaccid penis was featured on the cover of Honi Soit in 1993, with minimal furore.

In a rare show of support for progressive student actions, Vice-Chancellor Michael Spence defended Honi Soit’s editorial freedom.

“Personally, my view is the cover is demeaning to women but I do realise I’m not the target audience for Honi Soit. However, the student body at the University of Sydney has a long and proud tradition of independence and it’s a tradition we will continue to uphold,” Dr Spence told Fairfax Media.

Ms Podesta-Diverio said: “Some things, such as hypersexualised nudity, should be censored based on context, but when it comes to a part of anatomy in an unsexualised context, I don’t think it should be censored.”

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