House Select Committee on Current Pornographic Materials

Representative Ezekiel C. Gathings, Democrat from Arkansas, was its chairman, appointed by Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn.

[1][2][3][4] Gaithings launched a Congressional investigation into the paperback book industry, becoming so zealous that he earned the mockery of some journalists.

[citation needed] In addition to Women's Barracks, other books investigated by the committee were The Tormented, Spring Fire, Unmoral, Forbidden, Artist's Model, and The Wayward Bus.

The report alleged that 100 million obscene comic books were sold in the United States each month, that one in ten American men read girlie magazines, and that these were problems calling for censorship on the Federal level.

[citation needed] Torres' book was not banned nationwide in the US because the publisher, Fawcett Gold Medal, agreed to add a narrator who commented disapprovingly on the characters' behavior so as to "teach moral lessons" about the "problem" of lesbianism.