Anthony Comstock

{{cquote|Comstockery is the world's standing joke at the expense of the United States. Europe likes to hear of such things. It confirms the deep-seated conviction of the Old World that America is a provincial place, a second-rate country-town civilization after all.|||George Bernard Shaw}}

{{cquote|“Books are feeders for brothels...”|||Anthony Comstock<ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/11/13/book-burning-history/</ref>}}
[[File:Anthony_Comstock.jpg|right|thumb|180px|Anthony Comstock, a true butthead]]
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'''Anthony Comstock''' {{lived|1844|1915}} is one of the reasons Americans are so squicky about [[abortion]], [[birth control]], [[pornography]], and [[sexuality]] in general. While his title was United States Postal Inspector in the late-19<sup>th</sup>/early-20<sup>th</sup> centuries, Comstock bragged that he caused fifteen people to commit [[suicide]] and had arrested 4,000 people.<ref>[http://www.economist.com/node/10852872?story_id=10852872 The Economist: The hypocrites' club]</ref> In addition to the arrests and [[suicide]]s, Comstock is estimated to have destroyed 15 tons of books, 4 million pictures, and 142 tons of printing press plates. He seems nice.<ref name=Sproul>[https://saynsumthn.wordpress.com/2015/05/26/birth-control-and-the-church-how-did-we-get-here/ Just ask the Christian fundamentalist makers of *Birth Control: How Did We Get Here?*, who laud Comstock's censorship policy: "The film describes Anthony Comstock as a young Christian who saw contraception as 'the devil’s attack on young people. He frames contraception as one that had to be tied to abortion and pornography.'"]</ref>

==The Comstock Act==
The Comstock Act<ref>[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=017/llsl017.db&recNum=0639 The Library of Congress]</ref> was a law that made it illegal to send "obscene, lewd, and/or lascivious" materials through the mail, i.e. [[pornography]]. However, the law also banned sending contraceptives ''and'' information about contraceptives, as well as educational information about abortion through the mail.<ref group=note>Yes, abortion was legal in much of the [[United States]] at the time.</ref> Thanks to these laws, during [[World War I]], American troops were sent abroad without condoms, resulting in a very high [[STD]] rate.<ref group=note>The Army promoted [[abstinence]] instead.</ref> The law was popular, and state level laws were also enacted. [[New England]] was under draconian law for years, with birth control being completely illegal in [[Connecticut]] until 1965's ''[[Griswold v. Connecticut]]'' decision, and nearly illegal in [[Massachusetts]]; the other states were little better.<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pill/peopleevents/e_comstock.html The American Experience on Comstock]</ref>

President [[Ulysses S. Grant]] signed the Comstock Act into law on March 3, 1873 following congressional approval the same day.<ref>Charles Figley, ''Encyclopedia of Trauma: An Interdisciplinary Guide,'' p. 143.</ref>

==The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice==
[[File:NewYorkSocietyForTheSuppressionOfVice.jpg|right|thumb|150px|Their emblem: Book burning and imprisonment]]
Comstock founded the NYSSV along with his supporters, the [[YMCA]]; it was essentially the exact opposite of the [[ACLU]]. John S. Sumner succeeded Comstock as the head of the NYSSV after the latter died in 1915,<ref name=gertzman>''Bookleggers and Smuthounds: The Trade in Erotica, 1920-1940'' by Jay A. Gertzman (2011) University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0812205855.</ref> continuing to [[Book burning|burn books]], and prosecuting purveyors of allegedly obscene literature with the help of the New York City Police Department.<ref name=gertzman></ref> The NYSSV eventually disbanded in 1950.<ref name=gertzman/> They are most famous for their opposition to ''Lady Chatterly's Lover'' by D.H. Lawerence, though they protested many other works, such as James Joyce's ''Ulysses'',<ref>https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/09/26/ulysses-on-trial/</ref> and the works of Oscar Wilde.<ref name=gertzman/> At one point, it was actually alleged that the NYSSV was actually selling porn that it had previously confiscated.<ref>Gertzman, op. cit., page 165.</ref>

==Influence in popular culture==
* The main enemy in the videogame {{wpl|BioShock}} Infinite is called Zachary Hale '''Comstock''' in his honor and the main character is named '''Booker'''.
* Gordon Comstock, the protagonist of [[George Orwell]]'s 1936 novel ''Keep the Aspidistra Flying'', exhibits somewhat different modes of puritanicality.

==See also==
*[[Censorship]]
*[[Jack Thompson]]
*[[William Donohue]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

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Categories: Anti-abortion activists, Authoritarianism, Authors, Christians, Fundamentalists, Military, Moral panics, New York, Purity culture, Right-wing activists, Sexists, Sexuality