Sexuality and American Culture

A powerful tool that humans have at their fingertips is that of language.  When we do not understand something, we can first name it in order to make it more accessible.  Part of the discursive explosion around sexuality, therefore, is the proliferation of terms with which to discuss and analyze the topic.  This includes words like “petting,” “necking,” “homosexual” and heterosexual,” the last two being more significant.  These terms allow us to categorize certain behaviors and actions and to fit them into the normal/abnormal fra

Humbert Humbert, the suave and sophisticated narrator/protagonist of Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita, manipulates language to charm the reader in much the same way that he uses his intellect and good looks to charm the other characters in the novel, namely Lolita herself. Though the man is clearly a mentally ill rapist, he uses his clever way with words, mastery of the French language, learned literary allusions, and dry sense of humor to almost convince the reader that he is a level-headed, sane individual. H.H.

 And, in case you missed this article in the Sunday NY Times, another contemporary version of ongoing debates:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/fashion/15commune.html?ref=fashion

This was a particularly rich set of responses, with a number of interlacing themes, so I thought I would try to make the links even more explicit with a group response rather than individual ones (although I will also respond to specific points on the individual posts). 

 Take a look at this Salon.com article to see one contemporary version of some of the issues we were talking about last Thursday:

Fox: www.youtube.com/watch (I have to laugh at this because if I don't I'll only throw things at the screen and break my computer. But there are so many things in it that we could discuss.)

MSNBC: www.youtube.com/watch