Women Against Pornography March on Times Square -- October 23, 1979

To visit New York City in the 21st century, particularly its central Times Square district, is to be overwhelmed by dazzling modern commerce and family-friendly corporate entertainment at its most visually spectacular.

Such was not always the case. Just consider what motivated an organization called Women Against Pornography (WAP, for short) to march on Times Square on this date in 1979.

A combination of loosening societal mores, local government corruption, the prevalence of organized crime, and the blockbuster success of Deep Throat formulated a perfect jizz storm in the 1970s New York City, and the eye of that hairy-bushed hurricane oozed nonstop, smack in the hard heart of Manhattan.

Aside from hundreds of hardcore porn theaters, Times Square exploded with live, nude girls in peep shows, massage parlors, strip joints, swing clubs, and flat-out brothels, some of which were Third World primitive, others expensively conjuring themed erotic experiences.

At the center of this Grottiest Show on Earth was the grindhouse strip on fabled 42nd Street, which showcased not only pornography, but wild combinations of sex and violence on the order of Last House on the Left, I Spit on Your Grave, Bloodsucking Freaks, and Snuff. Theater-owners welcomed Wap, as "pickets sell tickets."

Prior to its complete conquest of human culture in the 1990s, pornography figured as one of the central concerns of feminism. As many iconic feminists resided in New York City during its dangerous, funky heyday, they formed Women Against Pornography, and in October 1979, they stormed the streets that they came to see as the frontlines in a war against women.

Among those making sure their bodies would not be exploited were Andrea Dworkin and Bella Abzug.

Over the next half-decade, Times Square’s red-light amusements would fall prey to AIDS, crack and, most apocalyptically, home video.

Still, for a bright, festering moment, Women Against Pornography and the People For Pornography came to a mo(i)st entertaining head in a carnal culture war which each side now seems to have won.

For the best coverage of this pop-off-culture phenomenon, read (or re-read) the enduring classic Tales of Times Square by Josh Alan Friedman.