Exposing Indecency: Censorship and Sydney's Alternative Press 1963-1973

Abstract

The ‘alternative press’ arose in the Sixties as a medium of protest that gave voice to the concerns of the emergent youth revolt. This thesis uses these magazines as a lens through which to analyse how censorship was challenged. The thesis begins by examining how the act of producing the alternative press reflected a form of direct action. An anti-authoritarian gesture borne particularly out of the politics of Sydney Libertarianism they challenged the style and focus of the mainstream media. Their most dramatic realignment focussed on the politics of sexuality. I demonstrate for the first time how the sexual revolution was theorised by its self-assigned agents. By publishing otherwise taboo material the editors predictably became entangled with the state’s censorship apparatus. The final portion of this thesis analyses these often- neglected clashes over ‘obscenity.’ It demonstrates the centrality of these contests to the demise of censorship regimes at both the state and federal level.