Presentation Title
United States v. Dennett: United States v. Dennett: The Battle for Sex Education in the Early 1900s
Panel Name
Identity Politics in the Workplace and in the Courts of the Land and Public Opinion
Location
Lecture Centre Concourse
Start Date
3-5-2019 3:00 PM
End Date
3-5-2019 5:00 PM
Presentation Type
Poster Session
Academic Major
History
Abstract
The 1873 Comstock Act outlawed the production and distribution of any materials that were deemed to be obscene or capable of arousing adolescents. Mary Ware Dennett, a women's rights activist and pioneer in birth control and sex education, was one of the many who fell victim to this law. Dennett was arrested in 1929 for distributing her sex education pamphlet, The Sex Side of Life, written for her teenage sons after finding the sex education materials produced by the government to be insufficient. This paper argues that Dennett's pamphlet was scrutinized in United States v. Dennett because it emphasized not only the procreative and health aspects of sex, but also the emotional and physical pleasures of sex, which were topics that were avoided within the government's work. This paper compares The Sex Side of Life to the government's sex education materials from the early 1900s to provide insight into the inadequacies she found within them and to show the specific ways in which the content of her pamphlet differed from the work produced by the government.
Select Where This Work Originated From
Departmental Honors Thesis
First Faculty Advisor
Kendra Smith-Howard
First Advisor Email
ksmih-howard@albany.edu
First Advisor Department
History
Second Faculty Advisor
Mitch Aso
Second Faculty Advisor Email
maso@albany.edu
Second Advisor Department
History
The work you will be presenting can best be described as
Finished or mostly finished by conference date
United States v. Dennett: United States v. Dennett: The Battle for Sex Education in the Early 1900s
Lecture Centre Concourse
The 1873 Comstock Act outlawed the production and distribution of any materials that were deemed to be obscene or capable of arousing adolescents. Mary Ware Dennett, a women's rights activist and pioneer in birth control and sex education, was one of the many who fell victim to this law. Dennett was arrested in 1929 for distributing her sex education pamphlet, The Sex Side of Life, written for her teenage sons after finding the sex education materials produced by the government to be insufficient. This paper argues that Dennett's pamphlet was scrutinized in United States v. Dennett because it emphasized not only the procreative and health aspects of sex, but also the emotional and physical pleasures of sex, which were topics that were avoided within the government's work. This paper compares The Sex Side of Life to the government's sex education materials from the early 1900s to provide insight into the inadequacies she found within them and to show the specific ways in which the content of her pamphlet differed from the work produced by the government.