In the tumultuous early decades of the twentieth century, women
reformers provoked tremendous political and cultural change.
Temperance activists succeeded in enacting Prohibition and then saw
it repealed. Welfare reformers built and then dismantled the
Children's Bureau. Suffragists cheered their momentous victory and
then quarreled over its meaning. This period also saw the emergence
of an increasingly sexualized popular culture comprised of
burlesque shows, risque vaudeville acts, and indecent moving
pictures. Politically active middle- and upper-class women began
mobilizing against these lewd public amusements, challenging the
male-led organizations that had for several decades defined and
regulated obscenity. By the 1930s, women leaders of the
anti-obscenity movement enjoyed the support of millions of American
women and were courted by presidents, congressmen, and Hollywood
moguls. Yet today their influence has been all but forgotten.
In Against Obscenity, Leigh Ann Wheeler restores female
anti-obscenity activists to their rightful place in
twentieth-century women's history, uncovering a fascinating and
largely untold aspect of the Progressive Era. At the center of
Wheeler's study stands Catheryne Cooke Gilman, an indomitable woman
who led the anti-obscenity movement in her native Minneapolis, as
well as national grassroots organizations. Through the activities
of Gilman and her fellow reformers, Wheeler explains how the rise
and fall of women's anti-obscenity leadership shaped American
attitudes toward and regulation of sexually explicit material even
as it charted a new era in women's politics. She also addresses the
passionate disagreements between and among various
reformorganizations over these issues (and the interesting reasons
for the divisions) -- whether or not to ban a touring stage show,
for example, or close a local burlesque theater, disseminate
explicit sex education pamphlets, or create a federal agency to
regulate Hollywood films.
Today's efforts to protect children from sexual imagery on
television and the Internet echo the concerns of this earlier
generation of reformers, as do feminist battles over pornography.
By recovering the voices of earlier activists -- their concerns and
conflicts, victories and failures -- Against Obscenity offers a
fresh perspective on contemporary discussions concerning freedom of
expression and the moral supervision of American entertainment.
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