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Sexuality Booklet

"NZUSA has proved beyond all shadow of doubt that it is a collection of fuckwits and fools who haven't a shred of integrity amongst them"—a member of the Dunedin Sexuality Group in a letter to the Auckland studetn paper, Craccum.

In August 1976 a group of Dunedin students took on the job of updating the NZUSA's booklet on sex. They called themselves the Otago Human Sexuality Group (later changed to the Dunedin Sexuality Group) and in the next five months they devoted over 1,000 hours to discussing and writing the contents. It was a dedicated effort.

After NZUSA had made its comments on the first draft, and the group had done the appropriate rewriting, the booklet came to me for the job of doing the layout.

As I understood it from a discussion with group member Jane McChesney, the thing had to be ready for university enrolment and I was free to sustitute graphics for some of the photos, which we both agreed were not particularly interesting or relevant. And there the trouble began.

McChesney denies she gave me this permission, I claim that she did.

Unfortunately the group objected to the nature of the graphics I chose and brought down on the heads of National Office the twofold charge of breaking the copyright agreement and "reducing the book from something intended to be moderately serious on the subject of sexuality to no more than titillating capping book material." They asked that an apology be published and distribution stopped until a disclaimer from the group could be inserted in every copy.

None of the campuses (to the best of my knowledge) except Otago, or National Office was prepared to do this. The booklet was proving popular with students and people professionally involved in the field throughout the country, there was no contractual obligation in the first place, and the taste of the graphics was an open matter of interpretation. For my part it surprised me that the group could not see the place for humour when they themselves had allowed such phrases as, "Masturbation is. . . the easiest way of coming to grips with yourself" to get in.

When the booklet was published just before enrolment a number of rumours over just what the group found objectionable were bandied about, and they even threatened to sue NZUSA, but by April 1st the main argument had been concentrated on the communication breakdown between National Office and the group. Although there was general agreement that there was no point in debating the merits of the changes, things were not made made any easier and a long, stormy and at times quite nasty wrangle over what should be done was held.

Part of the problem was that there had been an ill-defined change in personnel making up the editorial committee. Last year's Education Vice President Mike Shaskey and National Vice President David Tripe handed over responsibility to this year's incumbants Stephanie Dale and David Merritt in a somewhat haphazard way, and with the only constant member of the committee (President Lisa Sacksen, who is serving her second term) out of the country for most of the time the layout was being done, no one was too clear about who was supposed to be in charge at the NZUSA end. Dale approved the changes, while Merritt, who had seen the booklet in varying stages of layout completion, declined to have a final look through it when it was finished.

There was agreement that for the sake of integrity all round and because some of the group's objections were valid (regarding the cover for instance) changes would be made before the rerun. A compromise was eventually arrived at, including this last point and an apology for the fact that changes had been made without the group's approval.

However, although the group itself appeared content with this Guest was not happy and even now remains unsatisfied. In view of his own personal opinion, (expressed before the whole matter blew up) that there was nothing wrong with the booklet, it is interesting that he has stuck to his guns so long after everybody else has stopped shooting. Not surprisingly, he blames Sacksen.

One thing the Sexuality debacle has shown up is the general tendancy whenever anything goes wrong for people to jump in and scream blue murder at National Office. Underneath all the recriminations and viciousness (as expressed for example in the quote at the beginning of this section) was a genuine communications misunderstanding. That was where the real problem lay and that is what NZUSA needs to look at most carefully if it is to retain its credibility. But it took a long time for people to gather together enough sense to see the problem in this way.