Although women criticized Deep Throat widely, the release of the gory 1975 horror film, Snuff, precipitated national feminist action. Snuff purported to show the actual on-screen rape, murder, and dismemberment of an actress, a claim that motivated women to take a hard look at images of violence against women in mass media. The Snuff debacle was followed by a series of national protests against The Rolling Stones and the brutal imagery used to advertise their 1976 album, Black and Blue. Grassroots feminist groups dedicated to fighting the proliferation of images linking sex and violence began to form. Rather than focusing on pornography per se, these early groups cast their nets wide and called public attention to the use of violence against women in advertising, fashion, the music industry, and mainstream motion pictures.

This chapter chronicles the formation of Women Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW) on the heels of the Snuff and Black and Blue controversies in 1975 and 1976.