All this talk about the fear of Communism during the Cold War period has made me very curious about how t
his fear really influenced society. While browsing around archive.org I came across a video from 1964 called “Perversion for Profit.” The video, in total, is about a half an hour long, and addresses pornography in American culture as something that is weakening society in the fight against Communism. I won’t delve into debating the grandiose claims made in the short film about how various publications were transforming America’s youth into “homosexuals, lesbians, sadists, masochists, and other sex deviants” because I fear that may just turn into a long-winded rant. I would, however, like to examine the true intention behind this film, and also how paranoia and propaganda can influence an entire culture’s perspective. It seems to me certain periods of heightened social stress can give radical groups a perfect window of opportunity.
I think it can be argued that groups who are against certain ideals, ways of life, and “types” of people take advantage of social distress. If a society is constantly bombarded with messages warning them that the life they know could be gone in an instant, they are far more susceptible to believe almost anything they hear. During this time period in particular, I think people were less critical and therefore less likely to consider the real intention behind the images and ideas that were being fed to them. During the Cold War period the media was able to propagandize most of what Americans were seeing, and, in turn, mold the public exactly how they wanted. I thought it was really interesting that this video used images so heavily, and even quoted a passage from one of the risqué “pocket books.” Displaying these censored images, in my opinion, seems like it would only pique the interest of viewers unfamiliar with the world of pornography.
Much of this video is connected to the societal taboo that sex holds. Sex outside of marriage is frowned upon, and anyone who even looks at any of these materials, according to this film, will become forever perverse and unnatural. This sends a very clear message that sex is not to be enjoyed or experimented with, but rather is serves the purpose of procreation as it is spelled out in the proper “Judeo-Christian tradition” mentioned in the clip. We have discussed how sex has always created fear and anxiety within society, and it is interesting to see that people can be so uncomfortable with and afraid of sexuality that they will go to such lengths as to create a half an hour of film filled with statistics and questionably credible claims about its dangers.
I think I found it most interesting that the alleged purpose of this film is to discuss how “moral decay” is weakening the American public to the threat of Communism, but this concept is only mentioned a few times. Overall, the film seems to be targeting homosexuals and openly sexual people. Near the end of the film the narrator urges the public to keep their standards high and reform the corruption in society. It also sort of advertises the interest group, and suggests that viewers should start groups in their neighborhoods. At this point, it becomes far more evident that the film is not so much about the threat of Communism as it is a tool to spread the ideals of the group producing it.
I thought this post was pretty interesting, especially the part where you mention that the government and specific groups use periods of heightened stress and fear to push their political agendas. I completely agree with this statement and it kind of goes along with the post im currently working on. This can not only be seen during the Cold War but various times throughout history. The most recent example I could think of would be 9/11. The government played on Americas fear of terrorism and successfuly got us to back wars both in Afghanistan and Iraq. Iraq which didnt even have a direct connection to the attack. When given the opportunity the goverment has shown that they will take complete advantage of societies fears.
I happen to be a huge fan of comic books– I spend more time than I should downloading DC Comics ranging from Superman’s debut issue to the issue of Green Lantern that came out last week; I love seeing how characters like Batman and Superman evolved over their 60+ year history. This entire post actually reminds me of something that happened to the comic book industry in the 1950s– although Communism was never alluded to over the course of this event.
In the mid-1950s, a book called “Seduction of the Innocent” prompted a Congressional investigation into the comic book industry. The book took panels from certain comics– ranging from monster comics, comics depicting mobster crime, and even Batman comics– and argued that these innocent little books were expressing hidden sexual themes (the oft-mentioned Wonder Woman/Bondage association and the Batman & Robin/gay couple association comes out of this) along with depictions of crime and violence that influenced the children reading these comics to change their behavior in favor of these depictions.
The effect of the author’s testimony at the inquiry made a huge wave in comic books. The comic book industry created a committee called the Comics Code Authority, which self-censored the industry’s comic books (this is extremely similar to the Hays Code in films of the 1920s to the 1940s). Certain motifs like zombies, decapitations, allusions to sex and such were banned outright– the comics that didn’t carry the CCA stamp on its cover usually weren’t chosen for distribution by newsstands. DC’s major titles were cut down just three due to the ensuing drop in sales: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Marvel was forced to eliminate a lot of its horror/monster titles which paved the way for the introduction of heroes like the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man.
It’s hard to really see any measurable effect of this video on the pornography industry– I know Playboy at the least ran strong until the mid-1970s. With the comic book industry counterpart to the porn industry’s “Perversion for Profit,” one can actually see a noticeable change in the content– and sales, since Marvel and DC often reported their weekly circulations– of comic books. Recognizable heroes like the Flash, Green Lantern, the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man can actually owe their existence to “Seduction of the Innocent.” I guess I’m going off into a bit of a tangent here, ha.
People just didn’t have enough information to make an informed decision in the 50s and 60s. It took a 1969 Supreme Court case into the possession of obscene materials for a Presidential Commission on Obscenity and Pornography– an appointed group whose aim was to explore the nature of pornography and its effects on people– to be formed. This video was made in 1965-ish? Maybe the individuals who made this just didn’t know enough about porn?