May 17, 2004
Petticoats
While snooping around for Swan Lake links, I seem to have discovered a fetish that is new to me, petticoats . Doesn't it make perfect sense?
John Money , who researches sex and gender issues at Johns Hopkins, talks about the development of "love maps", in which early eroticized experiences become the basis for later sexual attractions and interests.
I once knew a man whose mother played, "This is the Way the Ladies Ride" with him. He mounted her foot and she rocked it gently for ladies, more vigorously for gentlemen, and wildly for Indians. Needless to say, this was before political correctness reached our awareness. He was erotically stimulated. As these were the olden days, his mother also wore nylon stockings while she played. As a consequence, he was fixated on stockings as part of his adult erotic experience.
You can absolutely see how petticoats became eroticized for children of the 50's. All those toddlers spending time under the dining room table, watching their fashionable mommies rustle crinolines.
Crinoline castle
Petticoat Pond .
Photo note: The resemblence should be obvious. Isn't it amazing that I had one of these in the archive? Also a legitimate excuse to use yet another phlower photo.
Posted by Dakota at May 17, 2004 12:31 PMUnfortunately, John Money was the villain in the David Reimer case.
It's a little too complex to sum up here; just enter DAVID REIMER SUICIDE in a search engine, and the whole sad story will come up.
John Colapinto wrote David's story in a remarkable book called AS NATURE MADE HIM: THE BOY WHO WAS RAISED AS A GIRL.
David shot himself May 4, after a traumatic 38 years of struggle. Many blame John Money and his theories; Colapinto's book thrust David and his family into the limelight, including Oprah. This didn't help. They were a simple, blue-collar family trying to deal with something overwhelming.
As for Swan Lake, I was taken to see it at the O'Keefe Centre in Toronto when I was ten years old, and was completely enchanted. I recently rediscovered a recording of Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops doing highlights from the ballet; it has been a fave recording of mine for 40 years.
Margaret
Posted by: margaret gunning at May 19, 2004 09:43 AMThank you Margaret -- I did know that Money's gender determinations with hermaphroditic children were being questioned, but I never read John Colapinto's book, though I remember reading about it. I hadn't heard about David's suicide. What a tragedy. I am certain that the gender problem contributed enormously to his misery, but it also sounds he had had an inordinate number of losses over the last couple of years, his wife, his job, and his twin brother (from an overdose of drugs he took to treat his schizophrenia). Heartbreaking.
I think the true villian in the story is the physician who "botched" his circumcision.
I was just writing a whiney entry, when you commented. Perfect timing as slways.
Dakota
Posted by: Dakota at May 19, 2004 10:18 PM