On This Day in History: April 19

Mae West "corrupts the morals of youth"

AUDIO VERSION HERE

Your mom had sex, and so did Mae West. Mae was even in a play about sex. It was called Sex. And she went to jail for it. Because 1927. And Puritans.

--On This Day in History Shit Went Down: April 19, 1927--

Most people like fucking. Even Puritans liked sex, but only in ways their god said was okay. They got their multiple layers of panties in a bunch if anyone hosted a bedroom rodeo in a way the sky fairy didn’t approve of.

Puritanism began in the 1530s in England when King Henry VIII (who definitely liked fucking) told the Catholic Church to suck dicks (let’s not go there) and started the Church of England. The Puritans thought this new church was not “fully reformed,” and they said fuck it, figuratively, and did their own thing.

The name “Puritan” was actually an insult that emerged in the 1560s because they slavishly followed the Bible as a guide to daily life. Then a bunch of them fucked off to America and, along with folks from several other religions based in the teachings of that uptight motherfucker John Calvin, spent the next several centuries expending a lot of energy trying to dictate what other people could do with those fun things between their legs.

Enter Mae West, figuratively speaking.

Her first Broadway role was in the aforementioned Sex, which she not only starred in, but also wrote, produced, and directed. One of the things Puritans and other Calvinist-based religions were fond of was lobbying the government to enforce moral standards. The play was popular, which certain religious groups could not abide, because women were supposed to be humble and obedient and not enjoy making their own decisions, especially if that decision involved fucking someone other than their husband.

These religious groups complained to city officials, who had police raid the theatre and arrest the entire cast. On April 19 West was sentenced to 10 days in jail for “corrupting the morals of youth.” She could have paid a fine but took the jail term like a champ to make a statement about the levels of bullshit it all was. Go Mae.

The jail term stirred up great publicity, and she was crowned the darling “bad girl” of the era. Not one to back down, her next play was about homosexuality.

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