The First Stone

The First Stone by Helen Garner is a highly controversial non-fiction book about a 1992 sexual harassment scandal at Ormond College, one of the residential colleges of the University of Melbourne. It was first published in Australia in 1995 and was published in the United States in 1997.

The book revolves around Garner's attempts to interview the two young women at the centre of the scandal who decline to meet her, along the way exploring the politics, sexual and otherwise, of the college, as well as Garner's personal feelings about the original events and the people she meets in the course of her research. The book was condemned by some Australian feminists for a variety of reasons, and a collection of essays critical of it was published under the title bodyjamming (1997).

References

• Garner, Helen (1995). The first stone : some questions about sex and power, Pan Macmillan Australia. ISBN 033035583X.
• Mead, Jenna (Ed.) (1997). bodyjamming, Vintage. ISBN 0091834031.