Why are children the focus of debates over sexually explicit material? Against Obscenity answers this question in a provocative examination of women's anti-obscenity activism from 1873 to 1935. By recovering reformers' debates over whether to ban a touring stage show, close a local burlesque theater, disseminate explicit sex education pamphlets, or create a federal agency to regulate Hollywood films, this insightful book shows how the rise and fall of women's anti-obscenity leadership shaped American attitudes toward the regulation of sexually explicit material even as it charted a new era in women's politics.
