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Outbursts! A Queer Erotic Thesaurus   A.D. Peterkin

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.

Buy Outbursts at amazon.com

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