Margaret Sanger, 1879. Underwood & Underwood – Library of Congress Prints and Photographs division, reproduction number LC-USZ62-29808.
There’s another reason the right is going to push the Comstock Act; in its original form, it also sought to ban all forms of contraception as “obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent filthy or vile.” Now that the Republicans have succeeded in banning abortion by turning it over to the states—the two year anniversary of Dobbs was Monday—they may well push forward with their secret agenda: to ban birth control.
At that point men might join the fight. For four decades, men averse to wearing condoms have depended on the fact that women were usually “on the pill.”
Doris Duke‘s donation of 1.5 million between 1935 and 1951 to Sanger’s National Committee saved birth control for women. Who will come forward to save birth control now?
Doris Duke, most likely taken at Duke Farms, 1920-1930 (Doris Duke Photograph Collection, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University)
Who indeed. I just learned about the Comstock Act while watching a rerun of Comedy Central’s “Drunk History” on Paramount +. The moral minority has been running Hollywood and every other corner of American life since???
We all understand that Puritans were some of the first white people to populate the East Coast of Turtle Island. They fled from religious persecution in England which then they began doing here in the New World once established. The wise women of the land were called “witches” and killed off quickly on both sides of the pond.
Why has feminism gotten a bad name in recent decades? Pure and simple ignorance. I was listening to a British female comedian years ago on NPR. She was in a pub with a group of women all younger than she. The comedienne started a conversation saying, “we are all feminists here.” Well, she got looks of denial and dismay from the ignorant young ladies. Then the comedienne got serious with these stupid little girls. She asked them a couple of questions. “Do you have a vagina?” “Yes”, they said in unison. “Do you want to be in charge of it?” “Yes!”, was the obvious answer to that query. Then the bomb was dropped on these non-feminist blockheads. “Guess what?” “YOU’RE A FEMINIST!!”