ms to have moved in reverse, growing perversely from multiplicity to oneness" (2).
Without the term to stigmatize them, however, literature and art which depict sexual activity in a way meant to arouse the reader or viewer have existed throughout recorded history. In Kendrick's words, "All cultures known to us, even the most ancient, distinguish classes of acts and objects according to some opposition of public against private, proper against improper, or clean against dirty" (33). The excavation of the Roman city of Pompeii, buried under volcanic ash and therefore exquisitely preserved into modern times, also unearthed frescoes and statues distinctly embarrassing to the authorities in charge of the site. Items deemed too outrageous to be shared with the general public were locked away in a chamber, the "secret museum" of Kendrick's title, where well-to-do gentlemen could buy access. Kendrick notes, "Women, children, and the poor of both sexes and all ages were excluded" (6), presumably to protect their tender sensibilities from the depravity which excavators were certain had brought down the Roman Empire; Kendrick notes, "Pompeii was buried three centuries before Rome 'fell,' at a time when the Empire had in fact been at the peak of its vigor" (6).
Nevertheless, modern authorities censored what they judged to be inappropriate for all audiences. As the dig continued, the contents of the secret museum multiplied dramatically until it became apparent that "for the most part, such images had a mystical function, free from incitement to lust" (Kendrick 10). To more modern eyes, however, they were dirty pictures and needed to be locked away.
Kendrick observes that the establishment of a word to identify such "dirty pictures" was the first step toward genuine free speech. Just as authorities were stocking the secret museum, their coinage of a word to describe its contents was the initial move toward unlocking its doors. K...