Further Antedating of "Sex Appeal"

[Fred Shapiro]

On Tue, 5 Jun 2007, Fred Shapiro wrote:

> The best friends of the theater, Shaw maintains, cannot deny that a
> considerable proportion of our theatrical entertainments stimulate the
> sexual instinct of the spectators.  The play which contains no sex appeal
> is described by professional critics as being "undramatic" or "not a play
> at all."

I guess this is arguably not the usual sense, if the usual sense is
that "sex appeal" is something that arouses sexual desire for the person
who has sex appeal.  One doesn't feel sexual desire for a play.

Fred Shapiro


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