Women Against Pornography (WAP) was a radical feminist activist group based out of New York City that was influential in the anti-pornography movement of the late 1970s and the 1980s.
After previous failed attempts to start a broad feminist anti-pornography group in New York City, WAP was finally established in 1978.
Through their march as well as other means of activism, WAP was able to bring in unexpected financial support from the Mayor's office, theater owners, and other parties with an interest in the gentrification of Times Square.
Founding members of the New York group included Adrienne Rich, Grace Paley, Gloria Steinem, Shere Hite, Lois Gould,[1] Barbara Deming, Karla Jay, Andrea Dworkin,[2] Letty Cottin Pogrebin,[3] and Robin Morgan.
These initial efforts stalled after a year of meeting and resolutions over a position paper, which they hoped to place as a paid advertisement in The New York Times, expressing feminist objections to pornography, and distinguishing them from conservative complaints against "obscenity".
She arrived in New York in April 1979, with Brownmiller, Adrienne Rich, and Frances Whyatt contributing money to help her cover her living expenses while the organizing work progressed.
Amina Abdur Rahman, education director for the New York Urban League, had been with Malcolm X in the Audubon Ballroom on the night he was murdered.
Dianne Levitt was the student organizer of an anti-Playboy protest at Barnard, Dorchen Leidholdt had founded New York WAVAW, Frances Patai was a former actress and model, Marilyn Kaskel was a TV production assistant, Angela Bonavoglia did freelance magazine writing, Jessica James was starring off Broadway, Janet Lawson was a jazz singer, Alexandra Matusinka's family ran a nearby plumbing supply store, Sheila Roher was a playwright, Ann Jones was writing Women Who Kill, Anne Bowen had played guitar with The Deadly Nightshade, and Myra Terry was an interior decorator and a NOW chapter president in New Jersey.
When Bob Guccione tried to buy the storefront space (in order to open an establishment to be named the Meat Rack), WAP alerted neighborhood residents, who protested and defeated the proposed deal.
[9][10] However, the wider involvement sometimes created conflicts with supporters who did not realize that the group's goals extended beyond Times Square: The League of New York Theater Owners wrote us a check for ten thousand dollars, although Gerry Schoenfeld of the Shubert Organization, the czar behind the generous gift, threw a fit when he saw that our mission was somewhat broader than "clean up Times Square."
The march drew between five and seven thousand demonstrators, who marched behind a huge stitched banner reading "Women Against Pornography / Stop Violence Against Women," including Brownmiller, Alexander, Campbell, Mehrhof, Bella Abzug, Gloria Steinem, Robin Morgan, Andrea Dworkin, Charlotte Bunch, Judy Sullivan, and Amina Abdur-Rahman.
As a result of this conference, Leidholdt felt it would be more productive to focus on combatting the international sex industry, and founded the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) for that purpose.
Their activism took on many forms, including expose slide-shows, tours of sex industry outlets in Times Square, conferences, and public demonstrations.
The group's earliest educational efforts were a series of slide shows of hardcore and softcore pornography, which were shown with critical commentary by a WAP presenter.
The format of a slide show with critical commentary had been used earlier by Julia London of the Los Angeles group Women Against Violence Against Women to illustrate soft-core pornographic themes in rock album covers;[14] WAP adapted the format to discuss pornography in general, including hardcore pornography.
Slide shows were generally organized by local feminist groups, and held in women's homes as part of consciousness-raising meetings.
Opponents of anti-pornography feminism have criticized the slide shows of WAP and similar groups, claiming that they disproportionately emphasized violent and sadomasochistic materials and presented these themes as being typical of all pornography.
Susan Brownmiller planned an itinerary for the tour and wrote a script for the guides (with the help of information supplied by Carl Weisbrod, a police officer tasked with finding and closing down underground brothels in Midtown, and Maggie Smith, the owner of a neighborhood bar).
The tours often involved unplanned encounters—being physically thrown out by enraged store managers, watching businessmen try to hide from the tourists, or talking briefly with nude performers while they took their breaks.
[21] The late former magazine editor and porn actress Gloria Leonard was an outspoken advocate for the adult industry and for several years in the 1980s debated representatives from WAP at numerous college campuses.
Thus, when Judith Bat-Ada argues that to fight pornography 'a coalition of all women needs to be established, regardless of ... political persuasion,' she abandons feminism for female moral outrage.
[34] Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media (WAVPM) was a San Francisco group that played a very important role in the founding of WAP.
"[36] WAVPM pioneered many of WAP's tactics (such as slide shows, porn shop tours, and mass demonstrations in red light districts).
They are best known for their 1984 attempt to force the resignation of New Zealand Chief Censor Arthur Everard after he allowed the horror film I Spit on Your Grave to be shown in that country.
[44] In this national context, the Society for Promotion of Community Standards had tried to prevent the criminalisation of spousal rape in 1982, so there were tensions between the Christian Right and feminist anti-pornography activists, as well as a strengthened movement for LGBT rights in New Zealand that also benefited from prevalent social liberalism, pointing out that gay pornography did not operate according to the same psychological and sociological parameters as its heterosexual equivalent.
When it dissolved in 1995, Women Against Pornography had not adopted a strategy that converged with the New Zealand Christian Right, unlike many of its national counterparts abroad.