FOUR REASONS WHY YOU ARE LUCKY TO BE A MILLENNIAL…AND A LATE BABY BOOMER

#1 That headline is a joke…for now.

#2 YOU CAN BUY COMIC BOOKS. In the 1950’s, however, you couldn’t read any comic books because… COMIC BOOKS WERE BANNED. There was actually a COMICS CODE AUTHORITY, established to prevent the “corrupting force on the minds of young people” of comic books.

would you want this today?
would you want this today?

The Senate Subcommittee on Juvenal Delinquency (are you shuddering yet?) grilled Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Dell, and EC Comics under the klieg lights.

Corrupting influence on young minds
Corrupting influence on young minds

#3: YOU CAN STREAM RIHANNA. In the 1950s the new technology of RADIO brought rhythm and blues to the attention of censors who swarmed all over it, calling R&B a ‘socially corrupting influence.’ They torched some of the most classic music ever performed.

ABC banned the forever fabulous Billy Holiday’s song “Love for Sale” for ‘promoting prostitution.’

Bye, bye Jay Z. 

 #4 YOU CAN STREAM MASTERS OF SEX. Until 1968, producers, directors and writers had to defer to the directives of censors. Movie versions of James M. Cain’s steamy novel ”The Postman Always Rings Twice” and Robert Anderson’s ”Tea and Sympathy,” with its theme of homosexuality, were delayed for years. Characters might sin as long as they were punished before the fade-out.

The now totally iconic “African Queen” drew ire for depicting ‘immoral relationships between characters.’ Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart:

One of Katherine’s most classic lines: If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun

#5 You can self-publish on Amazon and use the word ‘fuck’.

Why at this moment you can read comic books, watch Chris Rock host the Oscars, and buy a copy of “Fifty Shades of Gray’: 

The man who brought down government censorship, publisher of Grove Press
The man who brought down government censorship, publisher of Grove Press

The Paris Review interviews Barney Rosset, censorship-buster and founder of the hippest publishing house of the 20th century: Grove Press: http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1187/the-art-of-publishing-no-2-barney-rosset


CONGRESS BANS GAME OF THRONES FOR SEX AND VIOLENCE

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *