They'd be shocked if they saw the Internet
January 27, 2014 10:52 PM   Subscribe

"Through this material, today's youth can be stimulated to sexual activity for which he has no legitimate outlet. He is even enticed to enter the world of homosexuals, lesbians, sadists, masochists and other sex deviants." In 1965 Citizens for Decent Literature, a group founded by financier and lawyer Charles Keating, asked outstanding newspaper man George Putnam to present Perversion For Profit, a documentary about the horrors of pornography.
posted by Mezentian (19 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Double. -- jessamyn



 
In true me fashion I completely ignored the link form the Journal of the History of Sexuality on this from '06.
posted by Mezentian at 10:54 PM on January 27, 2014


"This moral decay weakens our resistance to the onslaught of the communist masters of deceit."

Wait. What?
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 11:09 PM on January 27, 2014


The reds were under the bed, filthy perverts.
Like Icarus we needed to strap on some wings and rise above that red peril.
Earn our stripes in the war against muck, lest they sneak in the backdoor and enslave the next generation.
posted by Mezentian at 11:18 PM on January 27, 2014


The reds were under the bed, filthy perverts.

That's the way your hard-core Commie works.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 11:20 PM on January 27, 2014 [1 favorite]


Yeah, yeah, wait, what? I thought they were talking about comic books!
posted by happyroach at 12:02 AM on January 28, 2014


Bif! Bang! Pow! Comics are for kids. You just know they are perverting their minds in subtle ways.

(Some of all of those links may be NSFW.
posted by Mezentian at 12:06 AM on January 28, 2014


Not Shocking for Wobblies?
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:50 AM on January 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


You back off from my wobbly bits.
posted by Wolof at 1:55 AM on January 28, 2014


It's also available on the Prelinger Archives, in the public domain and free for remixing purposes (I know I'm not the only one who's done it).
posted by fungible at 3:44 AM on January 28, 2014


~"This moral decay weakens our resistance to the onslaught of the communist masters of deceit."

~Wait. What?


Have you ever seen a Commie drink a glass of water, Mandrake?
posted by Thorzdad at 4:34 AM on January 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


Also in the 1950s “horrors of pornography” genre: The Sinister Urge, directed by the incomparable Ed Wood.
posted by letourneau at 5:27 AM on January 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


These vanguards of morality would be the first ones caught wanking their cranks on the web.
posted by Renoroc at 5:38 AM on January 28, 2014


a group founded by financier and lawyer Charles Keating

Well this explains it!

It must have been his anti-pornography activities that brought him into contact with the Keating Five because no one was ever able to make the connection between financier Charles Keating and five US Senators who protected him from investigation for his role in the 1980s Savings and Loan crisis.

I guess those Senators really were completely innocent.
posted by three blind mice at 5:39 AM on January 28, 2014 [2 favorites]


Come Join the Fun! is probably my favorite remix of this, recasting it as a clarion call for more porn and perversion. "What are we alive for, if not to grab all the kicks we can? Come join the fun!"
posted by orthicon halo at 6:13 AM on January 28, 2014


Charles Keating was opposed to making money fucking but all about making fucking money.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 7:13 AM on January 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


The main reason for Keating's condemnations of sexual obscenity was that he felt his own brand of financial obscenity didn't need competition.
posted by delfin at 7:28 AM on January 28, 2014


This stuff sounds lulzy now, but it was a major force in the culture wars. On one side you have scientists like Kinsey and Masters & Johnson publishing research saying sexuality was normal, healthy, and diverse. On the other side you have all these good Christians wringing their hands publicly about moral decay and communist infiltration. And then happily in the middle, a bunch of people getting their freak on, and then The Pill changed everything.
posted by Nelson at 7:31 AM on January 28, 2014


"This moral decay weakens our resistance to the onslaught of the communist masters of deceit."

Wait. What?


Yeah, guys like Beck and Limbaugh didn't invent anything new, they are just the latest to pick up on the use of the "other" as some sort of catch-all boogeyman and substiute the "other" in place where you feel the need to assign blame for things you find to be society's "ills". Now they use "Liberal" or "Progressive". It used to be "Communist". Before that it was "Huns" or "Jews" or "Freemasons" or "Catholics"... or "Carthaginians" or "Hittites" or...
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 7:48 AM on January 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


Double.
Triple.
Quadruple.
posted by Sys Rq at 8:04 AM on January 28, 2014


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