Etty Kadi 23 September 2014 Policy Analysis Paper #1 In 1873, Congress passed the first nationwide obscenity law known as the Comstock Act (McGarry, 2000, p. 8). As the title of the Comstock Law of 1873 suggests, the ruling was a means to suppress trading and circulation of “obscene literature and articles of immoral use”. Meaning, the law set into motion a form of censorship in which people could not disseminate what was considered obscene mostly through the United States postal system. Among the items considered obscene were pornographic images, sex toys, different forms of birth control and information about abortions (Bailey, 2010, p. 104). The Comstock Act was named after it’s primary lobbyist, Anthony Comstock. Anthony was born and raised …show more content…
In both the beginning of the Comstock Act and in section 148 of the act, it discusses the ramifications of distributing obscene materials. There are two possible ways to look at the impact that the Comstock Act has had on our perception of sexuality. By criminalizing what is “obscene,” we make sex and all things related to it a shameful act, one that people do behind closed doors and sexuality becomes an almost taboo subject because many important tools are outlawed. Further, sex becomes an act that is solely meant for procreation and not a pleasurable activity between two consenting adults. In such an instance, sex is scene as a purely hetero-normative act and it completely excludes homosexuals, ostracizing them even more than usual. However, according to gender theorists like Judith Butler, by banning the spread of “obscene” items, she believes that the law is actually providing a space to discuss sexuality amongst humans, making it more accessible (Dennis, 2007, p. 75). In these same two sections of the Comstock Act, women’s bodies are being policed in a way that men’s bodies are not. Because both these sections forbid the distribution of information and all forms of birth control and abortion, sexually active women are being shamed and forced into early mother hood or potentially harmful situations when it comes to abortion. It seems as though women are being punished for being sexually active while men are not obligated to deal with the consequences of unprotected