After the Supreme Court's rejection of legal movie censorship in the 1950s and the demise of the Hays Production Code in the 1960s, various public groups have emerged as media watch dogs, replacing nearly all other sources of control. Responding to explicit violence against women, negative stereotypes of gay and lesbian images, u0022racistu0022 representations, and u0022blasphemousu0022 interpretations of the Bible, groups from bot Left and Right have staged protests in front of theaters and boycotted movie studios. The New Censors shows how groups on the Left empowered by social movements in the 1960s, and groups on the Right propelled by the successes of the New Christian Right and u0022The Moral Majority,u0022 have used similar strategies in attempting to control movie content. The New Censors, the first study of the complex ways movies have been shaped in the years since the demise of the Code, covers a wide range of movies, protests, and government actions.
From feminists against u0022Dressed to Kill,u0022 to religious campaigns against u0022The Last Temptation of Christ,u0022 to homosexuals ire over u0022Basic Instinct,u0022 Lyons links a study of public outrage against movies to the broader culture wars over u0022family values,u0022 pornography, and various lifestyle issues. This book provides a contemporary history of controversial movies and a timely discussion of how cultural politics continues to affect the movie industry.