In an age not all that long ago, prudery and ignorance ruled, much like it does today. Jesse Helms, although an ass of a human, seems tame in comparison to some of the Victorian acts passed and what was seen as decent in those times. When Oscar Wilde's play "Salome" was published in 1894, it contained several illustrations by artist Aubrey Beardsley, including one entitled "The Belly Dance" .The book's publisher was so fearful that the word "belly" would offend readers, he made Wilde change the caption to "The Stomach Dance".
When Queen Victoria ascended to the throne in 1837, she issued a "Proclamation for the Encouragement of Piety and Virtue, and for the Prevention and Punishing of Vice, Profaneness, and Immorality." Oh pishaw! So thanks to Queen Prude, among other things the outlawing of card games, dice (no games at all on Sunday) were the rule, commands that all go to church service, and outlawed alcoholic beverages on the Sabbath. So, maybe that is where the term "Black Sabbath" really came from. I doubt it, but either way the Victorian age was born.
An ignorance, only paralleled by The Dark Ages, had an entire society entrapped by strict moral codes and silly supposed medical "facts". As in 1867, a medical journal printed an article entitled, "The Influence of the Sewing Machine on Female Health" and basically claimed that seamstresses were apt to become sexually excited by the steady rhythm of a sewing machine. It went on to say that inadvertent orgasms often resulted from the up-and-down motion of women's legs while turning the foot pedal. It was believed that to prevent this the labor companies should put bromide, a chemical thought to inhibit sexual desire, into the woman's drinking water. It was also stated that supervisors should circulate among the seamstresses to see who was sewing too fast. It was not nearly the first time science would make such an uneasy claim. Then again, who needs science when you can make up history the way you feel like it! As in, 1858, when British prime minister William Gladstone asserted that nudity had NEVER been tolerated by ancient Greeks and Romans or by any other civilized society. He found the notion "...incredible and unacceptable to any cultivated society, and as it is not credible, so neither, I think, is it true." Sure guy, whatever you say. Later, in 1897, some anonymous fool printed a pamphlet on marital sex practices in which it was warned that fellatio caused tongue cancer. It didn't stop there. Science-shmience, literature suffered the most. Believing that the works of William Shakespeare and other noted authors were not fit for family reading, one Dr. Thomas Bowdler, a retired physician and a member of "The Society for Suppression of Vice", published a ten volume edition of Shakespeare in which ALL the indelicate words, unsavory characters and unwholesome acts were removed! Human-beings, being the sheep that they are, loved it so much that the good doctor went on to slash apart Gibbon's'. The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire", from which he removed anything irreligious or immoral. Bowdler asserted that, "If any word excites on first impression, that word ought not to be spoken, nor printed or written, and if so printed should be erased." The word "bowdlerize", meaning to alter or emasculate, was derived from his name.
One Victorian Era manual, "Lady Gough's Book of Etiquette" cautioned that one should not place books by male and female authors side by side, but rather on segregated bookshelves. The only time books of male/female opposition should touch is when the authors had been known to be married.
As I mentioned before, humans being so naive and following anything that is told to them, went right along with it all. Going so far as to use these absurd rules of decorum. The word "cock" was completely removed from the English language at the time. "Cockroaches" became simply "roaches". A "cock and bull story" became an "ox and rooster story". Your basic "coxswain" was now a "roosterswain". And our proud male chickens... yes, those big, delicious COCKS; became big, delicious GENTLEMEN BIRDS. Hey, that doesn't sound funny anymore. The words "leg" and "breast" were considered impolite to say a front of company. For years, doctors had to put up with female patients unwilling to explain where their ailments were. This loathing extended to the dinner table once again. When having a slice of "gentlemen bird" when you wanted a leg, you would ask for a "second wing" and "bosom" if you wanted a breast. I'll have a heaping helping of bosoms and gentlemen bird please... oh, yes, more gentlemen bird baby! No, I just can't seem to make a joke of it.
When it all comes down to it though, you really have to wonder about the Queen herself. When Victoria signed in the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885, an act originally provided the suppression of brothels, which wound up including penalties for homosexual and lesbian conduct. Either way, she crossed out all references to lesbianism, stating, "Female homosexuality does not exist." Sounds to me like all this hubbub was a front to hide something, eh queenie?
So, when you complain that we have this terrible censorship, just remember, we used to have it a hell of a lot worse. Buchanan, Helms, Gingrich... pussycats, man. Wait, or are they just putting up a front to hide something too?

From Issue 7.