How one guy fought off vice squads and censorship
There are parallels and differences between the 19th Century mission for American “decency” and the current debates taking place across the country, according to a new book.
In the years after the Civil War, a moral panic was spreading throughout the United States. Soldiers ogled titillating images. Women exercised sexual and reproductive autonomy. Teens sought out sexual education and self-pleasure.
Some saw these acts as a natural progression of a more secular and technologically advanced society, while others saw them as indicators of a culture descending into depravity and chaos. One such man—Anthony Comstock—made it his personal mission to quell this sexual revolution, and his efforts led to sweeping legislation prohibiting provision or procurement of any “obscene, lewd, or lascivious book, pamphlet, picture, print, or other publication of an indecent character.”
The 1873 Act for the Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of, Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use (known as the Comstock Act) made criminals of a large swath of the population, including doctors providing contraceptives to patients, artists portraying nude bodies, and authors whose books mention sex. Nearly 150 years later, the spirit of the Comstock Act can be seen in the recent overturning of Roe. v. Wade, legislative efforts to restrict access to abortion, and bans on books with themes of racism, LGBTQ+ identities, and sex.
How did the Comstock Act eventually weaken? Brett Gary, associate professor at New York University, details the successes of attorney Morris Ernst against obscenity laws from the 1920s-1950s in his 2021 book, Dirty Works: Obscenity on Trial in America’s First Sexual Revolution (Stanford University Press, 2022).
Ernst’s defense of novelists, reproductive rights activists, and sex educators led to a redefining of obscenity and recognition of free speech and sexual autonomy.
Here, Gary speaks about the backlash toward the sexual revolution, Ernst’s legal strategies, and how scholars might apply this history to present-day censorship:
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