Listen to our latest episode! Emma uses her lawyer powers to teach Chels and Beth about the history of obscenity law in the United States. The impetus for this episode came about because sometimes well-meaning people misstate these laws in contexts that aren’t relevant or link obscenity standards to current book bans, when those are coming from other sources, despite borrowing rhetoric from the 19th century reactionaries who established obscenity laws. Emma shows us how "but what about the children" has been there from the very beginning. How people in the past have talked about sex in books is Very Familiar unfortunately. (Even in current bookish spaces!) And, most importantly, how often suppressing sex in books is really hiding political motivations.