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From the
February 2002 issue of
World Press Review
(VOL. 49, No. 2)
Morals
Campaigner
Mary Whitehouse
Sarah
Coleman
Contributing Editor
Say the name “Mary
Whitehouse” to a Briton, and you’re likely to hear
either a snigger or a groan.
Once called “The Most Dangerous Woman in Britain,”
Whitehouse, who died at age 91 on Nov. 23, was a tireless campaigner
against sex and violence on television. Though she was ridiculed
mercilessly during her lifetime, she stuck to her principles
and eventually gained respect from the British establishment.
Whitehouse began her campaigning career at the age of 53 when,
as an art teacher, she noticed that some of her students were
confused about a television program featuring premarital sex.
Motivated by her strong Christian beliefs, Whitehouse launched
the Clean Up TV Campaign in 1964, which became the National
Viewers and Listeners Association in 1965.
Whitehouse’s choices of cultural targets ranged from the
predictable to the bizarre. When she protested against the cult
sci-fi show “Dr. Who” (claiming that it provoked nightmares)
and the song “My Ding-a-ling,” she became an easy
figure of fun. But she was also the first person to raise awareness
of pedophile pornography in Britain, and she introduced the
idea of public accountability in broadcasting. “Partly
thanks to her, television is no longer run from on high by cloistered
executives answerable, basically, to themselves,” wrote
London’s Guardian.
But despite being pelted with eggs repeatedly and receiving
numerous death threats, she stayed her course. Even a BBC spokesman,
quoted in the Birmingham Post, acknowledged that Whitehouse
“kept broadcasters on their toes....She will be long remembered.” 
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