Subterfuge: Exchange and Mart magazine (1930)

A deep dive into the wonderful world of classified advertisements. You could buy nearly anything through Exchange and Mart: dogs, chickens, clothing. But if you look very closely, you can see why the censors decided it was ‘habitually and frequently indecent’.

• Without the post, E&M would never have existed – it was a business built on stamps and letters
• To avoid being prosecuted for obscenity, advertisers developed a whole language of euphemism to sell contraceptives
• What I love about classified ads is the mix of boring and ambiguous within them
• Selling birth control devices in Britain: https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/blog/2020/09/08/something-for-the-weekend-sir-buying-and-selling-condoms-in-britain/
• Fetishes in the small ads: https://www.cuirmale.nl/history/meeting.htm

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