Censoring Sex

by John E. Semonche

"In this volume, John E. Semonche surveys censorship for reasons of sex from the nineteenth century up to the present. He covers the various forms of American media - books and periodicals, pictorial art, motion pictures, music and dance, radio, television, and the Internet. Despite the varieties of censorship, running from self-censorship to government bans, a common story is told. Censorship, whether undertaken to ward off government regulation, to help preserve the social order, or to protect the weak and vulnerable, proceeds on the assumption that the censor knows best and that limiting the choices of media consumers is justified. Covering the history of censorship of sexual ideas and images is one way of telling the story of modern America."--Jacket.