Coat Hangers --Government in the Bedroom

 

The government tried to make laws that attacked the privacy of people’s private lives. There were those that fought back. The Comstock Laws are being reconsidered.

The Government in the Bedroom

Anthony Comstock (1844-1915) had a mission to eliminate any obscene material or anything related to what he considered sin.

Government has been in people’s bedrooms far too long. Almost every creature on the planet wants the activity that leads to reproduction. To try to limit this or add all kinds of rules and regulations is a waste of time unless a government camera is placed in every bedroom.

The public concept of what is moral has often been at odds with reality. Politicians might decry prostitution but would frequent brothels. It is no different today. It was recently revealed that a politician who is publicly against abortion wanted his pregnant mistress to have one. A Congressman who has been anti-gay was outed for propositioning another man in a public bathroom and had to resign. Politicians, community leaders or clergy might have a mistress but blab on about the sanctity of marriage.

This hypocrisy is as true today as it was in the 1800s when the Comstock Laws were enacted.

Having sex and/or a child is a personal decision that should not be a government decision, then or now.

For many years the government was even more controlling than today, but it is still in our bedrooms.

How Did It Start?

There were always religious and social pressures. However, they were not backed up by law.

In the U.S., the Comstock Laws codified sexual behavior under the law, but the new laws did not necessarily change habits in the bedroom.

Part of the Comstock Laws, under the title Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of, Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use, stated: “That whoever, within the District of Columbia or any of the Territories of the United States... shall sell... or shall offer to sell, or to lend, or to give away, or in any manner to exhibit, or shall otherwise publish or offer to publish in any manner, or shall have in his possession, for any such purpose or purposes, an obscene book, pamphlet, paper, writing, advertisement, circular, print, picture, drawing or other representation, figure, or image on or of paper or other material, or any cast instrument, or other article of an immoral nature, or any drug or medicine, or any article whatever, for the prevention of conception, or for causing unlawful abortion, or shall advertise the same for sale, or shall write or print, or cause to be written or printed, any card, circular, book, pamphlet, advertisement, or notice of any kind, stating when, where, how, or of whom, or by what means, any of the articles in this section…can be purchased or obtained, or shall manufacture, draw, or print, or in any wise make any of such articles, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof in any court of the United States... he shall be imprisoned at hard labor in the penitentiary for not less than six months nor more than five years for each offense, or fined not less than one hundred dollars nor more than two thousand dollars, with costs of court.”

At the time the law was passed, there were regular advertisements in for abortifacients in what was called the penny papers, cheap, mass-produced tabloids.

It passed on 3 March 1873. By making the sending of such materials through the U.S. Postal System illegal, there was a greater chance of prosecution. Forbidden were:

        Abortifacients

        Contraceptive devices

        Erotica

        Letters referring to sexual information

        Sex toys

Washington D.C. barred obscene materials. Some states followed, and the bans included birth control and birth control information.

The law was such that even anatomy textbooks for medical students could not be sent through the U.S. mail.

Comstock’s Mission

Anthony Comstock (1844-1915) had a mission to eliminate any obscene material or anything related to what he considered sin. The fanatical Comstock was alleged to have kept a diary where he wrote about the personal temptations he had vanquished. Stomping out sin was a lifelong passion. Some reports say he was reacting to the death of a friend, probably from venereal disease, but that is only conjecture. His motives for wanting to control the sexual lives of others have never been explained

Comstock worked with the YMCA’s Committee on Obscene Literature, later called Suppression of Vice. His salary came from the committee. Using his connections, he saw that a bill was drafted and presented to Congress.

Ever vigilant against immorality, Comstock created the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice.

George Bernard Shaw wrote: “Comstockery is the world's standing joke at the expense of the United States. Europe likes to hear of such things. It confirms the deep-seated conviction of the Old World that America is a provincial place, a second-rate country-town civilization after all.”

The laws did not stop what they were set out to do, despite allegedly destroying 15 tons of books, 284,000 pounds of printing plates and four million pictures. People continued to seek ways to stop conception, end pregnancies and look at “obscene” materials.

It was laughable that still in the 1950s married people could not be shown in the same bed in movies and on television. We all knew that Lucy and Desi shared a bed in real life.