Naming All the Parts

Today I’ll be covering Kate Bornstein’s “Naming All the Parts” chapter of Gender Outlaw with my Gender Studies 100 class. It’s always an interesting thing to bring up hankie codes with undergraduates.

It’s the chapter in which she passes on this limerick:

A gay man who lived in Khartoum
Took a lesbian up to his room
They argued all night
Over who had the right
To do what, and with what, to whom.

What is maybe more surprising is that it’s very rare to see them even blink; these are students who were about 5 years old when we were having a national conversation about whether a blowjob was sex or not.

2 Replies to “Naming All the Parts”

  1. Hey, Handsome Helen,

    I’m both glad and sad to hear this material is still relevant and useful.

    And by the way, aren’t there a whole lot more names for parts these days, since that book came out 15 years or so ago? I’d be interested to hear what your students have to say, and eager to answer any questions that come up. Just let me know if you wanna do that.

    kiss kiss, Kate

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