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Article: Feminist censors endanger speech and women's rights.
- Article from:
- St. Louis Journalism Review
- Article date:
- November 1, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 SJR St. Louis Journalism Review. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Comstockery.
Bowdlerizing.
And now, MacDworkinism.
Something about sex in print seems to bring out the censor in the strangest people ... and, indirectly, to enrich the language with new words for crusades of extremist paranoia.
The activities of Dr. Thomas Bowdler, the English editor who around 1820 rewrote Shakespeare and the Bible to delete their objectionable passages, gave our language its word for arbitrary expurgation, bowdlerize. The crusades of Anthony Comstock, the man whose raised eyebrows had the power to prevent booksellers from handling many books and magazines in nineteenth century America, gave us Comstockery, a ...