Against Obscenity: Reform and the Politics of Womanhood in America, 1873-1935 (Reconfiguring American Political History) Book PDF, ePub eBook

Join our eBook service for unlimited books & audiobooks. Get a free 7 day subscription! ↓↓↓↓↓


Book Descriptions:

Radio "shock jocks," Super Bowl entertainment, music videos, and internet spam―all of these topics inspire passionate disagreements about whether and how to regulate sexually explicit material. But even in the midst of heated debate, most people agree that children should be shielded from exposure to pornographic images. Why are children the focal point of debates over sexually explicit material? And how did a culture rooted in Puritanism and Victorianism become saturated with sex?

In Against Obscenity, Leigh Ann Wheeler offers new answers to these questions through a study of women's anti-obscenity activism from 1873 to 1935. This period saw the emergence of an increasingly sexualized popular culture comprised of burlesque shows, risqué vaudeville acts, and indecent motion pictures. It also witnessed the enfranchisement of women. These momentous cultural and political developments come together in a story about middle- and upper-class women who mobilized against lewd public amusements and, simultaneously, challenged the men whose work as activists, jurors, and even law enforcement officials, had defined and regulated obscenity for several decades.

By the 1920s, women who led the anti-obscenity movement enjoyed the support of millions of American women and the attention of presidents, congressmen, and Hollywood moguls. Today we live in a world profoundly shaped by their work but largely ignorant of their influence. Using primary sources as intimate as private correspondence and as formal as meeting minutes, Against Obscenity tells the story of these all but forgotten women, exploring their passionate disagreements over whether to ban a touring stage show, close a local burlesque theater, disseminate explicit sex education pamphlets, or create a federal agency to regulate Hollywood films. It shows that 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. In the end, the book argues that essentialist identity politics divided and ultimately disarmed women's anti-obscenity reform, helping us understand the curiously muted impact of woman suffrage. It also cautions against framing debates over sexual material narrowly in terms of harm to children while highlighting the dangers of surrendering discourse about sexuality to the commercial realm.

Against Obscenity: Reform and the Politics of Womanhood in America, 1873-1935 (Reconfiguring American Political History) by Leigh Ann Wheeler

From reader reviews:

Kevin Buckley:

Do you have favorite book? In case you have, what is your favorite's book? Publication is very important thing for us to understand everything in the world. Each e-book has different aim or goal; it means that e-book has different type. Some people truly feel enjoy to spend their time to read a book. They are really reading whatever they take because their hobby is actually reading a book. How about the person who don't like looking at a book? Sometime, person feel need book whenever they found difficult problem as well as exercise. Well, probably you will require this Against Obscenity: Reform and the Politics of Womanhood in America, 1873-1935 (Reconfiguring American Political History).

Jesus Reeves:

In other case, little men and women like to read book Against Obscenity: Reform and the Politics of Womanhood in America, 1873-1935 (Reconfiguring American Political History). You can choose the best book if you like reading a book. Providing we know about how is important a new book Against Obscenity: Reform and the Politics of Womanhood in America, 1873-1935 (Reconfiguring American Political History). You can add information and of course you can around the world by way of a book. Absolutely right, since from book you can realize everything! From your country until finally foreign or abroad you may be known. About simple thing until wonderful thing you can know that. In this era, we can easily open a book or even searching by internet product. It is called e-book. You can utilize it when you feel fed up to go to the library. Let's go through.

Cornell Warren:

In this period globalization it is important to someone to acquire information. The information will make professionals understand the condition of the world. The healthiness of the world makes the information quicker to share. You can find a lot of recommendations to get information example: internet, paper, book, and soon. You can see that now, a lot of publisher which print many kinds of book. The actual book that recommended for you is Against Obscenity: Reform and the Politics of Womanhood in America, 1873-1935 (Reconfiguring American Political History) this publication consist a lot of the information of the condition of this world now. That book was represented so why is the world has grown up. The terminology styles that writer value to explain it is easy to understand. Often the writer made some study when he makes this book. This is why this book appropriate all of you.

Carol Rosborough:

As we know that book is vital thing to add our understanding for everything. By a publication we can know everything we really wish for. A book is a range of written, printed, illustrated or perhaps blank sheet. Every year has been exactly added. This publication Against Obscenity: Reform and the Politics of Womanhood in America, 1873-1935 (Reconfiguring American Political History) was filled regarding science. Spend your free time to add your knowledge about your technology competence. Some people has distinct feel when they reading some sort of book. If you know how big selling point of a book, you can really feel enjoy to read a publication. In the modern era like today, many ways to get book you wanted.