National Organization for Women and Censorship
The National Organization for Women (NOW) is a prominent American feminist organization founded in the 1960s by a group of politically active women, including notable figures like Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem. Its mission focuses on advocating for women's rights across various spheres, including workplace equality, reproductive rights, and improved media representation of women. NOW has historically opposed censorship, emphasizing the importance of access to information and free expression, particularly concerning women's issues and reproductive health.
The organization utilizes strategies such as public demonstrations, media outreach, and occasional boycotts to challenge discriminatory practices and promote women's rights. For instance, NOW has actively opposed the abortion gag rule, which limited access to information about abortion services. Additionally, the organization has addressed concerns about representations of women in the media, launching campaigns aimed at improving the portrayal of women and advocating for their inclusion in media production teams. While NOW's commitment to fighting misogyny in media has led to resolutions against degrading material, it has maintained a careful balance, emphasizing the need for free speech while supporting victims of violence against women. Overall, NOW remains a key player in the ongoing struggle for women's rights and gender equality in the United States.
National Organization for Women and Censorship
Founded: 1966
Type of organization: Women’s advocacy
Significance: The National Organization for Women (NOW) has campaigned against censorship of birth control information and has urged boycotts
NOW was created by a group of educated, politically active American women to protest discrimination against women. Its organization has been largely federally oriented, with a national center in Washington, D.C., but much effective decision making reserved to local and state chapters. Over the years, NOW has focused on many issues, including equality in hiring and in the workplace, improving the media portrayal of women, increasing women’s political presence, passing the Equal Rights Amendment, guarding women’s reproductive rights, and antirape programs.
Because of the leadership’s personal backgrounds (education and activism) and a historical tendency for government and private institutions (especially the church) to exclude and censor women, NOW has opposed formal legal censorship. In opposing government and private practices, NOW has resorted—often effectively—to dissemination of information, typically through the media and public forums, but also through public demonstrations. NOW has infrequently employed boycotts and more usually the threat thereof.
NOW actively opposed the abortion gag rule, whereby federally funded family clinics were prevented from presenting information about abortion as an alternative to unwanted pregnancies. NOW has consistently supported abortion as a woman’s right of free choice and has strenuously opposed attempts to limit access to information about abortion or to limit legal abortion.
The area where NOW has come closest to restricting free speech involves violence against women and degrading sexual material. National conventions have passed several resolutions encouraging the study of the relationship between pornography and crime, supporting the rights of those victimized by sexual crimes, and compensation for these victims. The strongest resolution (1991) decried the publication of patently offensive material, partly a response to Bret Ellis’ violently misogynist novel, American Psycho (1991), but the resolution never developed into a boycott.
Public protests at the local level have effected some change. For example, in November, 1992, the Los Angeles NOW chapter threatened a boycott against E! Entertainment Television for hiring Howard Stern. E! then agreed to consult with NOW regarding programming ideas dealing with women’s issues. Nationally, NOW participated successfully in a boycott against Rush Limbaugh’s reappointment to the Florida Citrus Commission.
The concern with the power of mass media was incorporated into NOW’s original statement of purpose: the “endeavor to change the false image of women now prevalent in the mass media.” One of the earliest task forces, formed in 1967 and called Image of Women in the Mass Media, recommended speaking out publicly and writing letters. In addition, NOW pushed for inclusion of women as part of the team that prepared material in the mass media—for reasons of content as well as equality in the work place. In a number of cities, NOW led campaigns to negotiate with local media, with some measure of success.