Sentence:  Even in the confident era of bourgeois patriarchy prior to 1848, actresses had ben, at best, disgraced women who might atone for their mistakes through self-sacrifice. In the three ensuing decades, fear of <WSD>pornocracy</WSD> had run high. Could views of theater women transcend fears of sexual indulgence and seduction so that actresses might become honored citizens? Would they ever take their places as members of the second sex along with bourgeois wives and mothers? Improbable before 1880, these changes were realized under the Third Republic. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A government by, or dominated by, prostitutes or corrupt persons.