Sexy Origins and Intimate Things: The Rites and Rituals of Straights, Gays, Bis, Drags, Trans, Virgins, and Others - Softcover

Panati, Charles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140271449 ISBN 13: 9780140271447

Publisher: Penguin Books, 1998

Synopsis

A compendium of facts about sex reveals the origins of words, practices, and taboos, and discusses topics ranging from history's first love poem to the earliest known sex-change operation

About this title

Review:

Conservatives complain that the contemporary world is obsessed with sex. It is true that during the past 100 years Western societies have broadened the permissible limits of openness in discussing sexuality. Yet with all of this freedom, the origins of much sexual language, folklore, and rituals are unknown. Not any more. Charles Panati's Sexy Origins and Intimate Things is a grab bag of cultural, sexual trivia that makes for compulsive reading and retelling. What are the origins of the words queer, fairy, faggot, and dyke? Who invented the bra and the corset? How did the common rituals surrounding marriage, sexual activity, circumcision, and birth come about? Which males throughout history had large penises? Well, not all of them, but Panati does manages to come up with a few surprising names. Hardly science and not really sociology, Sexy Origins and Intimate Things will fully equip you to chat your way through your next 50 dinner parties.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0140271449
• ISBN 13: 9780140271447
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432