CITIZENS FOR DECENCY: Antipornography Crusades as Status Defense

A study of the antipornography movements in two medium-sized cities, conducted in 1969 by a team of Parsonian sociologists. They discovered that in ""Midville"" the leader of the antipornography effort--""Conporn,"" as the authors call it--is a religious crusader and her ""South-town"" counterpart is an insurance salesman active in the local Knights of Columbus. Conporns are satisfied with American society, believe they have justly attained their status in it, and fear pornography will undercut moral values and corrupt youth; they are politically conservative and family-oriented. Proporns (only incidental to the analysis) are less averse to change and tend to be American Civil Liberties Union members, while the pornography purveyors prefer to keep a low profile. The book tabulates, cross-references, and statistically analyzes a large mass of material, including attendance at porno films (down to a description of every person in the movie house one Wednesday afternoon), as well as newspaper articles, trials, rallies, city council speeches, the furnishings of pornography shops, and the categories they sell. But the antipornography leaders' character and motivations do not emerge (they generally lose in the end), and the book's conclusions offer nothing unexpected or sociologically challenging.