Sex and power: Stormy Daniels and the female pioneers of the porn industry

Meet May Irwin, the Stormy Daniels of the Victorian era.

And her pornographer, Thomas Edison.

That’s right, that guy.

Edison’s 1896 creation capturing Irwin and actor John C. Rice doing something naughty caused a nationwide uproar as newspaper editorials declared the end of American morality and called for police action in theaters that dared to show the 18-second flick.

“Magnified to gargantuan proportions and repeated three times over it is absolutely disgusting. All delicacy or remnant of charm seems gone from Miss Irwin, and the performance comes very near being indecent in its emphasized vulgarity,” one critic wrote.

Oh my. What did they do? Nuzzled, chatted, then kissed. A quick peck on the lips.

“The Kiss” is now part of the Library of Congress’s catalogue.