ABSTRACT
I began The Bawdy Politic by asking a historical question: 'How did the pornographic body come to be so politicized?' Most readers will have recognized that the question suggested a relationship between past practices of constructing that body and current uses of pornographic representation. Although The Bawdy Politicks validity to our understanding of the late Stuart period does not hinge upon making those connections, I want to address the implications of suggesting such a relationship and the ways in which changing the questions we ask of history might help alleviate the 'ideological double bind between antiquarianism and modernizing "relevance" or projection.'1
