His name was Anthony Comstock
Let's just get everything about this villain out of the way- here and now.
Originally, I was going to write about three fascinating women from the past, but the news concerning American women’s right to privacy being what it is, I am afraid I’ll have to dedicate some space to the blackguard whose name is in the headline of this piece.
Here are the brief details that you need to know. Anthony Comstock was probably America’s most mendacious, original incel. Just after the Civil War, Comstock went to New York City and lived at the YMCA. While staying there, he was so appalled by men practicing their sensuality, that he vowed to reform all of society, at once, without delay. He knew how to lobby the wealthy and the influential, so within months, by 1872, the Comstock laws were established. Originally, Comstock hailed from Connecticut, and to that end, ensured Connecticut’s anticontraception laws were so draconian, that a married couple could be sentenced to prison for a year should they be discovered as having used birth control even in the sanctity of their own home.
The Comstock Laws are estimated to have driven more than 15 women to commit suicide following their arrests and imprisonment, and Comstock was known to brag about and cite which women died from his persecution of them.
What is this dreadful fellow doing in my space dedicated to angry dead women? Well, until last June when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Anthony Comstock single handedly did more to set back and sabotage any forward movement of women’s rights than perhaps any other character in American History. But now, thanks to the current political climate, the Comstock Laws are coming back. If you’re not careful, America, they’ll be coming back to the state where you live.
Here are a pair of books about that weasel.
The Man who hated Women by Amy Sohn
Lust on Trial by Amy Werbel