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A.D. Peterkin is a Canadian psychiatrist who also writes arch books
like A Cultural History of Facial Hair. In Outbursts! Peterkin has
collected old, new and appropriated erotic slang terms from across the
English speaking queer world, from Abdomen to Voyeur. Many are very clever
and funny: “tuning in Tokyo” means nipple twisting; “see Tarzan, hear
Jane” is a butch man with a girly voice. And apparently my incorrigible
habit of staring at Bar Italia waiters’ crotches makes me both a spag fag
and a basketeer. Although isn’t someone who likes Indian men a curry
queen, rather than a curry queer?
When Peterkin offers explanations of some terms, it sometimes sounds
like Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz: “Jill off: the female equivalent of
jack off, as in Jack and Jill went up the hill.” Gee thanks. In any case,
Peterkin is bang up to date with santorum, a
word invented last year by US advice columnist Dan Savage mostly to
irritate anti-gay politician Rick Santorum. Google it.
The early 20th century porn photos that pepper the text deserve a book
of their own and show that whatever we call it, we have certainly been
doing it for ages.
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Outbursts! A
Queer Erotic Thesaurus A.D. Peterkin
