He waged a war on lust in general, but above all Comstock made Americans quail when faced with the specter of the masturbating boy.55 Comstock was obsessed with obscenity because he felt it threatened what he and supporters regarded as normal sexuality necessary for the reproduction of families and the home. “Lust,” he proclaimed, “defiles the body, debauches the imagination, corrupts the mind, deadens the will, destroys the memory, sears the conscience, hardens the heart, and damns the soul,” but most of all it threatened the family.
