Hello everyone,
This is a subject I’ve been meaning to cover for a while! The Comstock Act is one of those pieces of legislation that sounds innocuous but actually has a huge impact on society. It bankrupted businesses and devastated creatives for decades, and is—frighteningly—still technically on the books today. So let’s dive it, shall we?
🎙️ Transcript
Hello everyone,
Welcome to another bonus episode of Unruly Figures. I’m your host, Valorie Castellanos Clark and today I’m covering The Comstock Act. This devastating piece of legislation has come up in several episodes, including Edythe Eyde and Blanche Ames Ames… and is going to come up again in our next episode. So I figured now was the perfect time to do a deep dive into this piece of legislation and what it actually does.
Our story starts with Anthony Comstock, a man born in New Canaan, Connecticut, in 1844—a deeply religious community at that time. (I’m not sure about today.) He fought for the Union in the US Civil War, where he first established himself as a bit of a bummer—he took strong enough issue with the cursing and profanity of his fellow soldiers that that detail makes it into some historical records.1 History books usually don’t even mention women’s names, but that tiny detail about his service record gets remembered. How big a stink do you have to make about soldiers cursing for history to remember that? And remember, these were men at war; if ever there’s any moment in life that cursing should be given a completely free pass, it’s probably on the frontline when a rusty bayonet is coming at you.
