For Anthony Comstock, lust was the enemy. The enemy of Family, the enemy of Youth, the enemy of Purity. The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice had one aim – to stamp out this pervasive and debilitating evil once and for all, and to prevent the dissemination of pornography, dangerous ideas about 'Free Love', and birth control information.
George Bernard Shaw labelled these efforts 'comstockery', and said they gave America a bad name. In return, Comstock called Shaw an 'Irish smut peddler'. Victoria Woodhull, the first woman candidate for US President, flouted him, and was persecuted as a result1. Margaret Sanger fought the Comstock laws for the right of ordinary people to sex education, and was forced to leave the country.
