Censoring Sex: A Historical Journey Through American MediaRowman & Littlefield, 2007 - 301 páginas In this gracefully written, accessible and entertaining volume, John Semonche surveys censorship for reasons of sex from the nineteenth century up to the present. He covers the various forms of American media--books and periodicals, pictorial art, motion pictures, music and dance, and radio, television, and the Internet. The tale is varied and interesting, replete with a stock of colorful characters such as Anthony Comstock, Mae West, Theodore Dreiser, Marcel Duchamp, Opie and Anthony, Judy Blume, Jerry Falwell, Alfred Kinsey, Hugh Hefner, and the Guerilla Girls. Covering the history of censorship of sexual ideas and images is one way of telling the story of modern America, and Semonche tells that tale with insight and flair. Despite the varieties of censorship, running from self-censorship to government bans, a common story is told. Censorship, whether undertaken to ward off government regulation, to help preserve the social order, or to protect the weak and vulnerable, proceeds on the assumption that the censor knows best and that limiting the choices of media consumers is justified. At various times all of the following groups were perceived as needing protection from sexually explicit materials: children, women, the lower classes, and foreigners. As social and political conditions changed, however, the simple fact that someone was a woman or a day laborer did not support stereotyping that person as weak or impressionable. What would remain as the only acceptable rationale for censorship of sexual materials was the protection of children and unconsenting adults. For each mode of media, Semonche explains via abundant examples how and why censorship took place in America. Censoring Sex also traces the story of how the cultural territory contested by those advocating and opposing censorship has diminished over the course of the last two centuries. Yet, Semonche argues, the censorship of sexual materials that continues in the United States poses a challenge to the free speech that is part of the f |
Dentro del libro
Resultados 1-5 de 94
Página 1
... moral drift and other social ills . . . . Fears of unbridled .. sexuality , of a world without clear moral compass , and of the impact that a gigantic multimedia universe is having on our children , have contributed to the continued ...
... moral drift and other social ills . . . . Fears of unbridled .. sexuality , of a world without clear moral compass , and of the impact that a gigantic multimedia universe is having on our children , have contributed to the continued ...
Página 2
... moral status quo . That status quo was based on a con- ception of the family that not only gave to husband and wife and mother and father certain closely defined roles , but also gave to children a special status that displaced their ...
... moral status quo . That status quo was based on a con- ception of the family that not only gave to husband and wife and mother and father certain closely defined roles , but also gave to children a special status that displaced their ...
Página 3
... Moral guardians assume that individuals cannot be trusted to make the right choices . In the commercial marketplace , companies that produce products that do not sell are weeded out ; the same holds true in the mar- ketplace of ideas ...
... Moral guardians assume that individuals cannot be trusted to make the right choices . In the commercial marketplace , companies that produce products that do not sell are weeded out ; the same holds true in the mar- ketplace of ideas ...
Página 5
... moral or- thodoxy . This search is coupled with a perceived need to protect the men- tally weak , the less than well - regulated persons in the community . Today , sex censorship , except for the proscription against obscenity that ...
... moral or- thodoxy . This search is coupled with a perceived need to protect the men- tally weak , the less than well - regulated persons in the community . Today , sex censorship , except for the proscription against obscenity that ...
Página 6
... moral well - being of so- ciety . Beginning with the earliest and most primitive moving pictures , cru- saders against the industry were active . To limit protests , local and state leg- islation , and threats of federal action , the ...
... moral well - being of so- ciety . Beginning with the earliest and most primitive moving pictures , cru- saders against the industry were active . To limit protests , local and state leg- islation , and threats of federal action , the ...
Contenido
Books and Periodicals Seduction by the Written Word and Maybe a Picture or Two | 9 |
Dirty Pictures Naked Statues Etc You Call That Art? | 55 |
The Movies Teaching the Wrong Lessons and in the Dark as Well | 95 |
Music and Dance Stirring the Senses and Unleashing the Beast | 137 |
Home Invaders Radio Television and the Internet | 177 |
Epilogue | 223 |
Endnotes | 231 |
275 | |
About the Author | |
Otras ediciones - Ver todas
Censoring Sex: A Historical Journey Through American Media John E. Semonche Vista previa limitada - 2007 |
Censoring Sex: A Historical Journey Through American Media John E. Semonche Sin vista previa disponible - 2007 |
Términos y frases comunes
ACLU adult advertising album Amendment American Anthony Comstock appeal Art Censorship artists breasts Breen Broadcasting Censored Hollywood challenged Chicago Comstock concern Congress controversy critics crusader culture dance decision episode erotic exhibit fact Fanny Hill federal film free speech Hays Office indecent industry instance Intellectual Freedom Internet Janet Jackson judge Justice legislation literary Louie Louie Mae West magazines mails Marjorie Heins Mark Parisi Miller moral motion pictures MPAA National Newsletter on Intellectual nude nudity Nuzum obscene obscene material obscenity law offensive Office oral sex Parental Advisory PMRC political popular music pornography programming prosecution protection published Purity in Print radio ratings record regulation scene screen sexual content sexually explicit social society song sought stations story Suppression Supreme Court target television tion Tipper Gore titled United States Supreme University Press viewers woman women words worried York