Writing about sex openly in media is a privilege we take for granted. Having the internet as an endless resource for information about anything sex related from benign to extreme and illegal, it’s easy to forget that there was a time when any talk of the ‘s’ word was heavily restricted and censored. Watching Asher Keddie reenact Ita Buttrose in the TV movie Paper Giants, recently screened on ABC, audiences were reminded of this era, and the importance of trail blazers like old Buttrose.
Despite not being a Gen Y favourite today, Buttrose still carries kudos for bringing matters of the bedroom into the mainstream media back in the ’70s with the advent of CLEO magazine. Rumoured to have had an affair with the late Kerry Packer, and abandoned by her husband and left to raise two children on her own, this early day Buttrose lived a controversial and dramatic personal and professional life. The present day Buttrose however appears to have taken her turns toward conservatism, particularly evident in her latest literary venture A Guide to Australian Etiquette where topics such as tackling ‘trolley rage’ and ‘attire for the theatre’ have vetoed feminism and sexual liberation. So in a hat tip like gesture, we salute Ita Buttrose for bringing sex out in the open 40 years ago, but perhaps publications like this can take it from here.
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