REGISTER OF CLASSIFICATION DECISIONS Date of entry in Register: 13 January 1998 Name of applicant/court: Comptroller of Customs Applicant to the Labelling Body: Not Applicable Title of Publication: Lesbian Love 35 Other Known Titles: Not Stated Director: Not Applicable Producer: Not Applicable Publisher: Color Climax Corporation Author: Not Applicable Format: Magazine Country of Origin: Denmark Language: English, German, French, Spanish                                      Components of film originally examined: Not Applicable. Feature: Running time: Trailers: Running time: Total Running time: Excision/Alteration: Not Applicable. Reason(s) for Excision: Not Applicable. … Please turn over tmpC12E.tmp Classification Decision: Objectionable. Display conditions: Not Applicable. Descriptive Note: Not Applicable.                                      Direction to issue a label has been given on: Not Applicable.                                      SUMMARY OF THE REASONS FOR DECISION: The magazine Lesbian Love 35 is classified as: Objectionable. The classification is due to the extent and degree to which Lesbian Love 35 degrades, dehumanises and demeans its women models and women more generally. The magazine is solely devoted to explicit visual and textual depictions of women engaging in sexual activities. These depictions have an artificial, ‘staged’ appearance. Many show women posed with dildos or objects such as a hair-brush penetrating their vaginas and anuses. Several show women sucking dildos. These images appear contrived for the camera and demean women. Numerous graphic close-focus images of the genitals, particularly those in which women splay their labia for the camera, are degrading and dehumanising. The manner of presentation of these images reduces women to sexual objects. The text reinforces this negative message by portraying women in a demeaning way. The Classification Office has weighed the competing considerations of the issues raised under s3 of the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993 (FVPC Act), and s14 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 (NZBR Act). The Office is of the opinion that the extent and degree of the degrading, dehumanising and demeaning material depicted in Lesbian Love 35 renders the availability of the publication likely to be injurious to the public good. The classification of objectionable is therefore considered a reasonable and justified limitation on freedom of expression as set out in s14 of the NZBR Act. OFLC Ref: 9700876 tmpC12E.tmp