Comstock

Anti-vice crusader name

Comstock refers to Anthony Comstock, a 19th-century American moral crusader who campaigned against obscenity, contraception, and anything he deemed indecent.

The Comstock laws, passed in 1873, criminalized sending "obscene" materials through the mail—including information about birth control.

As an adjective or verb, comstock describes aggressive moral censorship or the impulse to suppress sexual content: The book was comstocked before it could reach readers.

censorship

prudish

Excessively concerned with propriety

vice squad · banned books · indecency · censorship · puritanical · repressive · contraband · seizure · prosecution

mining

lode

Mineral-rich rock seam

Nevada · vein · shaft · tunnel · prospecting · claim · assay · smelting · excavation · drilling

Categories
Opposites
moral censorship stance

Comstockpermissive

Tolerant, lacking strictness

libertine · free expression · anti-censorship · permissiveness · sexual liberation

cultural/ideological figures

ComstockHugh Hefner

Margaret Sanger · Emma Goldman · Wilhelm Reich · Lenny Bruce · Henry Miller

SEXUAL REPRESSION vs. LIBERATION

ComstockEmma Goldman

Margaret Sanger · Planned Parenthood · Wilhelm Reich · sex-positive · libertine

Phrases
Familiarity
Top 1,000,000
Profile
Mostly American · Timeless · Concrete · Rated G