Macalester College DigitalCommons@Macalester College Political Science Honors Projects Political Science Department Spring 5-1-2012 Deciphering a Duality: Understanding Conflicting Standards in Sex & Violence Censorship in U.S. Obscenity Law Rushabh P. Bhakta Macalester College,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/poli_honors Part of the American Politics Commons, Constitutional Law Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Jurisprudence Commons, Law and Gender Commons, Law and Politics Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Sexuality and the Law Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons, and the Sociology of Culture Commons Recommended Citation Bhakta, Rushabh P., "Deciphering a Duality: Understanding Conflicting Standards in Sex & Violence Censorship in U.S. Obscenity Law" (2012). Political Science Honors Projects. Paper 36. http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/poli_honors/36 This Honors Project is brought to you for free and open access by the Political Science Department at DigitalCommons@Macalester College. It has been accepted for inclusion in Political Science Honors Projects by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Macalester College. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Deciphering a Duality: Understanding Conflicting Standards in Sex & Violence Censorship in U.S. Obscenity Law Submitted May 1, 2012 Rushabh Prakash Bhakta Advised by Professor Patrick Schmidt Department of Political Science Macalester College '12 1 Deciphering a Duality: Understanding Conflicting Standards in Sex & Violence Censorship in U.S. Obscenity Law Honors Colloquium 2011-2012 Abstract This research examines the division in US obscenity law that enables strict sex censorship while overlooking violence. By investigating the social and legal development of obscenity in US culture, I argue that the contemporary duality in obscenity censorship standards arose from a family of forces consisting of faith, economy, and identity in early American history.