Pederasty in VERBATIM

[Erin McKean]

Thanks, Ron, for pointing this out. I hope to publish the letter you
kindly sent me in the Autumn issue (Summer has already gone to the
printer).

We certainly don't want to be perpetrating that tired old saw that
homosexuality and child molestation are in any way equivalent! I should
have picked up on this earlier.

Again, thanks for taking the time to tell me about this.

Sincerely,

Erin McKean
Editor, Verbatim, The Language Quarterly
editor at verbatimmag.com
http://www.verbatimmag.com

On Sun, 6 Jun 1999, Ron Butters wrote:

> Am I the only person who is troubled by the following passage in "Assing
> Around" (by Jessy Randall and Wendy Woloson; VERBATIM, vol 22, no. 2, Spring
> 1999): ". . . a male pederast . . . is . . . in search of _a piece of ass_.
> (In prison slang, a _butt pussy_ is an anus" (p8).
>      It seems to me that this confuses anal intercourse, homosexual acts, and
> child molestation! In fact, the use of the term _a piece of ass_ in the sense
> 'anal sexual penetration' is neither necessarily nor sufficiently related to
> pederasty (the sexual molestation of children). Pederasty may involve any one
> of several sexual acts that do not necessarily implicate the anus at all.
> Likewise, anal sexual penetration is practiced by many couples, not just
> "male pederasts." The phrases _taking it up the ass_ and _taking it in the
> ass_ (both of which the authors inexplicably overlook) are frequently
> employed to describe this widespread sexual practice.
>