Hey everybody,

I’m back with information from the 70’s. Now, I am really excited to do this era because I found information that I feel is just so perfect for this topic. This post will cover an underground comic magazine and one cover from a magazine called Photoplay. From 1970 – 1991, there was an underground comic magazine called Wimmen’s Comix that involved an all women’s staff that wrote on sex, political awareness, violence, and women’s liberation in a comical way from a women’s perspective. Here are a couple of covers and comic strips.

[Images from: http://lambiek.net/magazines/wimmenscomix.htm]. The magazine cover I really want to take a deeper look at is the issue with the princess and the frog. The frog is saying kiss me and the princess says: can’t see turning a perfectly good frog into a prince. Here, the women’s staff is bringing down the ultimate fairy tale of finding a frog and turning him into a prince by saying that the frog is probably better for the princess than the man. This comic obviously stayed underground for the reason that it brings down the ideal of a nuclear family that people tried to model themselves after and this probably wouldn’t have been on good terms with the public. At the same time, however, this magazine would probably have been censored from the general public because it was around the time era that women were fighting for liberation. This magazine probably stayed underground for remarks made in the comic strips that would have been considered obscene by men. For example, one of the comic strips posted is named “Breaking out” and has a woman that says to a man on her date: how long must I be this mindless or another little girl that is rejected by a boy and responds by using profanity. This comic strip is obviously about women breaking out of their “womanly” shell and breaking the norms and standards of how women should act. This again probably would not have gone well with the general public because it would break the ideals of women on how to act like a lady and could have been perceived as a bad influence on young ladies. The comic strips most likely would have been censored for sure when it comes to the profanity used. There is a list of 7 words that are not to be used, which I will not mention, but one, tits. In one comic strip, the man says tits and he is being arrested for public display of affection and using obscenity around a lady. This comic strip pinpoints how men should speak around a lady and makes fun it, but obviously would have been censored because of the language. Not only does the language make it a candidate for censorship, but the actions the characters do in the comic strip as well. The comic strip that has the blonde and pirate, shows action of oral sex being performed, which of course would have been considered lewd in the media. Therefore, this magazine displays perfect examples of why it stayed underground and why it would have been censored, it brings down the ideals of the American family and how women should act and react towards men and sexual activities. The ideals promoted in the media of the 70’s were to highly promote marriage and children, here is a magazine cover from Photoplay, January 1970 that displays it.

[Image from: http://www.whosdatedwho.com/topic/7965/mia-farrow-photoplay-magazine-january-1970.htm]. The magazine cover contrasts two completely different women, Mia Farrow and Janet Lennon. Janet Lennon’s quote on the cover is explaining why you should be married first then have children to be a “decent woman” and to have “God’s approval”, while Mia Farrow’s quote refers to the father of her baby, as her lover, and why she wanted to be unwed and have a child. The media obviously picked that specific quote from Janet Lennon’s interview to exhibit the ideals for being a “decent woman.” In conclusion, the way the Wimmen’s Comix uncensored their own magazine was with no hesitation because it was underground and not everyone would see it and be influenced by it. In contrast to the issue from Photoplay, they made sure if they were going to show a situation that nobody else should model after, that they would should an ideal situation for other women to model after. Therefore, censorship in this post was practiced by the media itself when it came to promoting ideals of how men and women should behave and live their life to be “decent.” That’s it for the 70’s, when I come back; the 60’s will be present.
~Krystale