The Code is generally recognized as a means of curbing depictions of violence and suggestions of sex, but almost all of its prohibitions were related to bolstering white, straight, American patriarchy increasingly under threat. For the first few years of its existence, the code was largely for show, but as fears of boycotts grew in the early 1930s, the code’s “Don’ts and Be Carefuls” list, enforced by William Hays and his deputy, Joseph Breen, effectively became the moral guidelines of the moving image.
