Sexual Capitalism, Organized Crime, and Explicit, Sex-Themed Visual Imagery

As we saw in Chapter 11, sexual capitalism had succeeded in relaxing cultural taboos against pornography and in transforming it into a mainstream entertainment product consumed by American audiences. An important client for Playboy magazine is the Library of Congress. In effect, since 1973, the Library of Congress has reproduced books and magazines in braille and recorded editions for blind and visually impaired individuals (American Council of the Blind v. Boorstin, 1986). The Library of Congress essentially reproduced and distributed free copies of the textual portions of Playboy magazine in braille, under license from Playboy magazine. Pictures and cartoons were not reproduced in braille due to technical limitations. Playboy turned out to be one of the most popular magazines in the program. In 1981, a congressman requested that the Librarian of Congress, Daniel J. Boorstin, stop reproducing and distributing free braille copies of Playboy and introduced an amendment to the House appropriations bill to defund the reproduction of Playboy in braille. The congressman stated that the federal government had no business supporting a sex-themed magazine like Playboy. The House of Representatives passed the bill to defund the Playboy-in-braille program, and Boorstin discontinued it.