Happy Valentine's Day

Over at Inside Higher Ed, Scott McLemee celebrates everybody's favorite annoying holiday with a look at two scholars of sex: the late Gershon Legman who coined "Make love, not war" back in 1963; and Blaise Cronin, who currently studies the more respectable sort of pornography at Indiana. Personally, I half think the real purpose may have been to give him the chance to write the sentence about Legman:

Any scholar publishing a book called Oragentialism: Oral Techniques in Genital Excitation may be said to have contributed something to the sum total of human happiness.

but there is a larger point, about the complicated place of sexual imagery in society. It's got some silly aspects, but also some thought-provoking bits. Just the thing for a snowy Februrary, unless you happen to have access to a copy of Legman's magnum opus...

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Department of Schadenfreude:

It's satisfying to catch Inside Higher Ed in a simple typo:

It's not "Oragentialism" (though that does make an equally good pun with Said's Orientalism - which I suspect was part of McLemee's delight in the title) - no, the correct spelling is actually Oragenitalism.

By Bob Oldendorf (not verified) on 15 Feb 2007 #permalink