Girls Galore!: Photography in Australian Men’s Magazines in the 1960s
2022; Routledge; Volume: 47; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/14443058.2022.2157036
ISSN1835-6419
Autores Tópico(s)Cinema and Media Studies
ResumoABSTRACTMen’s magazines have formed a significant part of Australian illustrated magazine publishing since 1936. In this article, I broadly survey the field up until 1971, concentrating particularly on bikini and nude photography, which defined the category. I then focus on the period of the 1960s, when men’s magazines were most relevant to Australia’s rapidly changing sexual politics and its censorship debates. I reveal that, although they were by their nature visually repetitious, far from being a marginal or trivial category, they were deeply implicated in the development of broader Australian visual culture and its sexual politics, and fundamental to wider innovations in publishing, as well as the careers of several important Australian photographers.KEYWORDS: Australian nude photographyAustralian sexual politicsAustralian illustrated magazines1960s AcknowledgementsI would like to thank Graham McCarter, Robert McFarlane, Manuela Furci, Gael Newton, Sian Powell, Caroline Gollan, Jeanette Luke and my editors and readers for their help in researching and writing this article.Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Frank Moorhouse, “Girls Galore,” Dissent 20 (Winter 1967): 13.2 Moorhouse, “Girls Galore,” 13.3 Moorhouse, “Girls Galore,” 14.4 Catherine Lumby, “A Tribute to Frank Moorhouse,” Australian Book Review 445 (August 2022).5 Michael Wilding, “Tabloid Story,” in Cross Currents Magazine and Newspapers in Australian Literature, ed. Bruce Bennett (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1981), 228.6 For a discussion of the short stories in Man during this period, see Victoria Kuttainen, “A Lost Australian Story: Man in the 1930s,” LiNQ (Literature in North Queensland) 36 (2009): 161–80.7 See, for instance, Susan Sheridan, Who Was the Woman?: The Australian Women’s Weekly in the Post War Years (Sydney: UNSW Press, 2001); Hannah Viney, “‘Women are Born Diplomats’: Women, Politics and the Cold War in the Australian Women’s Weekly, 1950–1959,” Journal of Australian Studies 44, no. 3 (2020): 367–83.8 For more on the changing relationship between the public and the private in this period, see Michelle Arrow, The Seventies: The Personal, the Political and the Making of Modern Australia (Sydney: NewSouth Publishing, 2019).9 In the 1970s and 1980s, the ideas of widely read articles such as Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” Screen 16, no. 3 (October 1975): 6–18 were found to be readily applicable beyond classical Hollywood cinema to photography. See also “Male Gaze and the Politics of Representation,” in Objectification: On the Difference between Sex and Sexism, ed. Susanna Paasonen et al. (London: Routledge, 2020).10 For changes in the consumption patterns of pornography over this period, see Alan McKee, Kath Albury, and Catharine Lumby, The Porn Report (Melbourne: Melbourne University Publishing, 2008) and Rebecca Sullivan and Alan McKee, Pornography: Structures, Agency and Performance (Cambridge, MA: Polity Press, 2015).11 Caitlin Fitzsimmons, “‘A Glorious Run’: Closure of Picture and People Magazines the End of an Era,” Sydney Morning Herald, 27 October 2019.12 For changes in broader magazine publishing during this period, see Phil Barker, Axed: Who Killed Australian Magazines? (Sydney: Simon & Schuster, 2022).13 For instance: Sally Percival Wood, Dissent: The Student Press in 1960s Australia (Melbourne: Scribe, 2017); Patrick Mullins, The Trials of Portnoy: How Penguin Brought Down Australia’s Censorship System (Melbourne: Scribe, 2020).14 Brian Carroll, “Counting the Heads,” Walkabout, December 1969, 39–41.15 The support men’s magazines gave to short story writers is discussed in Michael Wilding, “Tabloid Story”, and Victoria Kuttainen, “The Lost Australian Story”.16 Richard White, “The Importance of Being Man,” in Australian Popular Culture, ed. Peter Spearritt and David Walker (Sydney: George Allen & Unwin, 1979), 147, 162.17 Although other general interest magazines existed, such as Weekend and Parade, these three had the largest and most longstanding readerships.18 Carroll, “Counting the Heads,” 39–41.19 Advertisement for Cavalcade on back cover of Adam magazine, August 1963.20 White, “The Importance of Being Man,” 158.21 For a description of the cartoons in Man from the 1950s, see Ross Laurie, “Fantasy Worlds: The Depiction of Women and the Mating Game in Men’s Magazines in the 1950s,” Journal of Australian Studies 22, no. 56 (1998): 116–24; and Chelsea Barnett, “Man’s Man: Representations of Australian Post-War Masculinity in Man Magazine,” Journal of Australian Studies 39, no. 2 (2015): 153.22 Victoria had tighter censorship legislation than New South Wales, and its magistrates were likely to be stricter. Peter Coleman, Obscenity, Blasphemy and Sedition: 100 Years of Censorship in Australia (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1974), 116.23 White, “The Importance of Being Man”.24 Barnett, “Man’s Man,” 153.25 Barnett, “Man’s Man,” 166.26 Moorhouse, “Girls Galore,” 13–16, 15.27 Madeline Hamilton, “‘A Girl Cannot Be Beautiful Unless She is Healthy’: Nationalism, Australian Womanhood, and the Pix Beach Girl Quests of World War II” (paper presented at the Historicising Whiteness: Transnational Perspectives on the Construction of an Identity Conference, University of Melbourne, 22–24 November 2006); Pix, 13 May 1939, 3–4.28 Madeline Hamilton, “‘A Girl Cannot Be Beautiful Unless She is Healthy’: Nationalism, Australian Womanhood, and the Pix Beach Girl Quests of World War II”. Paper presented at the Historicising Whiteness: Transnational Perspectives on the Construction of an Identity Conference, University of Melbourne, (22–24 November 2006); Madeleine Hamilton, “‘I Found a Lovely Photo of You and Just Thought I Would Drop You a Few Lines’: Australian Servicemen, Mateship, and the World War II Pin-Up Girl,” Eras 8 (November 2006), http://www.arts.monashedu.au/eras; Madeline Hamilton, Our Girls: Aussie Pin-Ups of the 40s and 50s (Melbourne: Arcade Publications, ca. 2009). See also Angela Buckingham, Paper Dolls: Australian Pinups of World War 2, directed by Angela Buckingham, featuring Claudia Karvan (Melbourne: Marina Films, 2009).29 Wayne L. Murphy, “Australasian Post,” in A Companion to Australian Media, ed. Bridget Griffen-Foley (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2014), 308.30 Robert McFarlane on the boxer Bob Dunlop: “His Life Is Fighting,” People, 31 January 1968, 31–35.31 See, for instance: “‘THEY ASK FOR IT!’ Shock Report on the Pathways to Rape,” Australasian Post, 9 January 1969, 6–8.32 In an early issue of Man, a supposed reader admits to reading the magazine in “a quiet spot near the fowl ’ouse, where the missus can’t see me”: Man, March 1937, unpaginated.33 Pix, 23 April 1960, 50–51.34 Australasian Post, 20 February 1969, 20.35 Michelle Arrow, The Seventies, 64.36 Examples of independent offset printers in the 1960s who printed girlie magazines include Griffin Press in Adelaide and Grant & Walker in Sydney. As Victoria Kuttainen notes in her discussion of Man, the OED traces the word “girlie” in the context of erotic entertainment to 1906, but in the context of a magazine not until 1942, consistent with changes in printing and distribution technologies I discuss here: Kuttainen, “A Lost Australian Story,” 179.37 Wilding, “Tabloid Story,” 229.38 Moorhouse, “Girls Galore,” 16.39 Sydney Morning Herald, 12 January 1964, 15; 26 December 1966, 5; 14 April 1967, 13.40 Gentleman’s Choice, February 1966, 46.41 As well as numerous pulp novels, other examples include James Holledge, Inside Kings Cross (Sydney: Horwitz, 1963); Robert Walker and Kenneth Slessor, Life at the Cross (Adelaide: Rigby, 1965); Wesley Stacey and Rennie Ellis, Kings Cross Sydney: A Personal Look at the Cross (Melbourne: Nelson, 1971); and the important Channel Nine television documentary The Glittering Mile, 1964. See also Louis Nowra, Kings Cross: A Biography (Sydney: NewSouth, 2013).42 “Exclusive, The Jackie Kane Story!!, as told to Earl Wilson,” Darl, no date, unpaginated.43 James Cockington, Banned: Tales from the Bizarre History of Australian Obscenity (Sydney: ABC Books, 2005), 166.44 Sydney Morning Herald, 22 June 1966, 10; 29 July 1966, 6; 23 August 1966, 1, 6; 11 September 1966, 53.45 “Another Tale of Woe,” Sunday Herald, 12 November 1950, 2; “My First Australian Christmas,” Sunday Herald, 24 December 1950, 2; “Attila Could Keep his Promise: Now He Has Room for Baby,” Good Neighbour, 1 August 1950.46 Sun, 31 May 1951, 5.47 Sydney Morning Herald, 17 January 1957, 1.48 Front cover of the Australian Women’s Weekly, 5 May 1965.49 My thanks to Jeanette Luke for providing me with this information.50 “Who Wants to Be a Movie Star?” Australian Models, ca. 1965, unpaginated.51 For more on Horwitz, see Andrew Nette, Horwitz Publications, Pulp Fiction and the Rise of the Australian Paperback (London: Anthem Press, 2022).52 The careers of popular US glamour photographers such as Irving Klaw and Bunny Yeager are well documented online. For an international history of men’s magazines, see the six-volume set: Dian Hanson, Dian Hanson’s: The History of Men’s Magazines (Köln: Taschen, 2004).53 Attila Bujdoso, Glamour Photography in FULL Color with Technical Details (Sydney: Horwitz International, ca. 1966), 35.54 Sydney Morning Herald, 26 July 1967, 9.55 My thanks to Caroline Gollan for this information.56 Frank Bongiorno, The Sex Lives of Australians: A History (Melbourne: Black Inc., 2012).57 Geoffrey Dutton and Max Harris, eds., Australia’s Censorship Crisis (Melbourne: Sun Books, 1970).58 Barbara Sullivan, The Politics of Sex: Prostitution and Pornography in Australia since 1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 102.59 See Wendy Bacon, “Being Free by Acting Free,” Overland 202 (Autumn 2011); Sullivan, The Politics of Sex, 88, 94; Wood, Dissent; Bongiorno, The Sex Lives of Australians, chap. 8.60 For the student magazines Tharunka, Farrago, Lot’s Wife, Honi Soit, On Dit, Woroni and Semper Floreat, see Wood, Dissent. Other relevant magazines included Thor, Phillip Frazer’s Revolution (1970–1971), Cinema Papers (1969–2000) and Circus (1971–1973).61 Bacon, “Being Free by Acting Free”.62 Bacon, “Being Free by Acting Free”.63 Quoted in Bacon, “Being Free by Acting Free”.64 Stan Rofe, “The Shocking Songs: A D.J. Tells the Inside Story of Restricted Airplay,” Go-Set, 28 August 1968, 17.65 “Minister’s Plans on Censorship,” Sydney Morning Herald, 12 July 1966. See also Sydney Morning Herald, 1 April 1966; 12 July 1966; 3 November 1966; 29 September 1967; 4 October 1968; 12 November 1969.66 Quoted in Frank Moorhouse, “Porno Politics,” in Uni Sex: A Study of Sexual Attitudes and Behaviour at Australian Universities (Melbourne: Eclipse Books, 1972), 31. Although a conservative, Coleman had a longstanding interest in censorship. See Coleman, Obscenity, Blasphemy and Sedition; Peter Coleman, Censorship: Wendy Bacon versus Peter Coleman, ed. Ann Turner (Melbourne: Heinemann Educational Australia, 1975).67 Max Harris, “Satire Blunt and Sharp, Browsing with Max Harris,” Australian, 3 April 1965, 10.68 Terry Blake, Kings Cross Whisper: The Way It Was (Sydney: Kings Cross Whisper, 1988), 33.69 C. J. Barwick, Crowe v. Graham (1968) HCA 6; 121 CLR 375; Richard G. Fox, “Obscenity and Indecency: Interpretation of the Obscene and Indecent Publications Act 1901–1955 (NSW),” Adelaide Law Review (1969): 392–402.70 Australian Law Reform Commission, “History of Censorship and Classification,” National Classification Scheme Review (DP77), 29 September 2011.71 My thanks to Robert McFarlane for this information. A member of the Sydney Push, Chandler is most remembered today for his involvement in the Bogle-Chandler mystery.72 Sydney Morning Herald, 15 October 1966, 4.73 Sydney Morning Herald, 27 October 1967, 19.74 Some sources suggest Playboy was banned only until 1963, but it appears it was effectively unavailable until 1967. Sullivan, The Politics of Sex, 44; Hamilton, Our Girls, 72.75 Squire, May 1965, 2.76 Moorhouse, “Girls Galore,” 15.77 Moorhouse, “Girls Galore,” 15.78 Moorhouse, “Girls Galore,” 15.79 Sydney Morning Herald, 21 July 1965.80 Frederick May, “The Case against Censorship,” Squire 1, no. 7 (1965): 6–7; subsequently, in Squire no. 8, 9, 10, 1965.81 Squire 4, no. 6 (1965): 8–14.82 See Wood, Dissent.83 “For People Who Count,” Bulletin, 3 April 1965, 9.84 Sydney Morning Herald, 3 August 1966.85 “A Friendly Tip from G. & G.,” Sydney Morning Herald, 19 September 1966.86 Age, 3 February 1967, 3; 9 February 1967, 7; 1 March 1967, 15; 17 March 1967, 8; 25 March 1967, 7.87 Squire 2, no. 1 (August 1965): 31.88 Squire 1, no. 7 (February 1965): 34.89 Squire 1, no. 7 (February 1965): 8.90 Squire 2, no. 9 (April 1966): 44.91 Squire 1, no. 12 (July 1965): 34, 21.92 Squire 1, no. 12 (July 1965): 12.93 Squire 3, no. 2 (October 1966): 6–8.94 “Charles Perkins: Some Unanswered Questions,” Squire 4, no. 9: 41. (This issue, like some others referenced below, was published without a month or year, only a volume and issue number, because printing and shipment could be delayed.)95 Squire 5, no 2.96 “The Young Professionals: David Mist,” Squire 2, no. 8 (March 1966): 16.97 Squire 1, no. 7: 35.98 Squire 1, no. 8: 35.99 Squire 1, no.10 (May 1965): 34.100 Squire 1, no. 12 (July 1965): 2021.101 Squire 4, no. 6: 8–14.102 Squire 5, no. 6: 16–20.103 For instance, Tony Merrick, Val [Valentin] Sowada, Gene Lett, John Bradbury, Bruce Fleming, Frank Bez, Jack Parker and Serge Jacques.104 Squire 3, no. 11 (September 1967) and 4, no. 10.105 Squire 4, no. 8.106 “For People Who Count,” 9.107 Sydney Morning Herald, 24 September 1967, 11.108 Wilding, “Tabloid Story”.109 Moorhouse, Futility and Other Animals (Sydney: Gareth Powell Associates, 1969). For a brief discussion of Moorhouse’s relationship with Powell, see Janice Shaw, “Moorhouse and the Angry Decade,” Antipodes 27, no. 1 (2013): 31. The collection was republished by Angus & Robertson in 1973.110 Sun Herald, 24 September 1967, 11.111 Sydney Morning Herald, 28 September 1968, 20.112 Other photographers included David Miller, Chris Wright, Kurt Vollmer, John le Brun and Greg Gibbons.113 Quoted in Ziv Cohen, “Landscape of Virtue: The Life and Work of Photographer Wesley Stacey” (unpublished research paper, 2003), https://www.photo-web.com.au/papers/cohen/default.html. McFarlane interviewed Stacey for Camera World magazine in 1968.114 Australasian Post, 27 November 1969, 14.115 Quoted in Cohen, “Landscape of Virtue”.116 Chance International 3, no. 10: 9–11.117 Chance International 3, no. 1.118 Chance International 2, no. 2: 44–47.119 “Hancock Unashamed,” Chance International 1, no. 3: 29–34.120 Sydney Morning Herald, 28 September 1968, 20.121 Sydney Morning Herald, 28 September 1968, 20.122 Oz (March 1968): 15; Chance 1, no. 12: 30.123 Oz had been subject to a famous censorship trial in 1964 because of another Garry Shead cartoon about a pack rape in the February 1964 issue.124 Sydney Morning Herald, 5 November 1968, 7.125 Mullins, The Trials of Portnoy.126 Sydney Morning Herald, 5 November 1968, 7.127 Sydney Morning Herald, 25 October 1968, 25. Sandra and James Hall, Australian Censorship: The XYZ of Love (Sydney: Jack de Lissa, 1970), 18.128 For more on POL, see Robert McFarlane, POL: Portrait of a Generation (Canberra: National Portrait Gallery, 2003).129 POL, Re:collection, https://recollection.com.au/articles/pol.130 Although Oz had lambasted him in Garry Shead’s cartoon, Powell probably financially supported that countercultural magazine through its legal troubles. My thanks to Sian Powell for this information.131 Sydney Morning Herald, 20 August 1968, 6.132 Sydney Morning Herald, 6 November 1968, 6.133 Chance International 3, no. 11 (1971): 2.134 Wilding, “Tabloid Story,” 228.135 Wilding, “Tabloid Story,” 228–29.136 Wilding, “Tabloid Story,” 228–29.137 Justine de Lacy, “Germaine Greer’s New Book Stirs a Debate,” New York Times, 5 March 1984.138 “Female Eunuchs, Women’s Lib, Germain Greer (our Cover Girl) and All That,” Bulletin, 22 January 1972, cover. Reproduced in Arrow, The Seventies, 154–55 (plates).139 Germaine Greer, The Female Eunuch (London: Fourth Estate, 2012), 39.140 Germaine Greer, “As Women Bare All in Protest of Violence, Racism, Sexism and Harassment, Germaine Greer Asks: Is this Feminism?” Sunday Telegraph, 17 March 2013. For more on Greer’s writing for Suck, see Alison M. Gingeras, “Revisiting Suck Magazine’s Experiment in Radical Feminist Pornography,” Document Journal, posted 28 November 2018, https://www.documentjournal.com/2018/11/revisiting-suck-magazines-experiment-in-radical-feminist-pornography/.141 Moorhouse, “Girls Galore,” 13.
Referência(s)