Heard on Springer: "Sex?" "No."

[Jonathan Lighter]

"A" norm. Not "the" norm.

In other words, a subnorm.

Had it been the norm, Clinton would have had less of a problem.

JL

On Wed, May 25, 2011 at 2:49 PM, David A. Daniel <dad at pokerwiz.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "David A. Daniel" <dad at POKERWIZ.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Heard on Springer: "Sex?" "No."
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> This concept goes back to the sixties at least, whereby hand sex and oral
> sex are not sex. Any high school kid in those days (of which I was one)
> knew
> that you had not had sex until penis had entered vagina - and not just
> knocked at the door, either, had to be the real thing. (Frankly I don't
> remember the status of anal sex - I'm not sure that anybody outside
>  British
> boarding schools did that in those days... ;) Anyway, I was firmly one of
> those who believed that Clinton had sidestepped the issue but had not
> actually lied. I remember clearly having an argument with a conservative
> friend, a few years older than I, about this topic and he insisted that
> Clinton had lied. I said, "Now, Bill, think back to when you were a kid.
> You
> know very well that you haven't done it until you've done it. We were
> getting hand jobs and blow jobs at the drop of a hat, but you had not had
> sex until it was 'all the way'. He nodded his head and said he had to agree
> about that, but still didn't want that detail to be valid for Clinton
> (natch). So, to the point: This is not a new concept at all, or a 'growing
> norm' - it's just a norm. It is certainly not just post-Clinton.
> DAD
>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 2:37 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Heard on Springer: "Sex?" "No."
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---
>
> He did not have sex with that woman.
>
> I think we've discussed this before.  There seems to be a growing norm in
> America that "oral sex" is not "sex."  There was an article about it in
> Harper's or the Atlantic at least five years ago.
>
> Even during the impeachment I knew people who believed that while Clinton
> hadn't told the whole truth, he hadn't outright lied either. In fact, I
> wasn't sure whether I was one of those people or not. And I was born long
> before ca1985.
>
> Different strokes for different folks.
>
> JL
>
>
> On Wed, May 25, 2011 at 1:24 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >
> >
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  ---
> >
> > Mid-twenty-ish black, male speaker:
> >
> > "She comes over to me, Jerry. She unbottons my shirt and starts
> > rubbing my chest. Then, Jerry, she unzips my pants!"
> >
> > Jerry:
> >
> > "And then you had sex."
> >
> > Guest:
> >
> > "No, Jerry. I got a blowjob."
> > -----------------------------------------
> > Extra, added attraction
> >
> > Jerry:
> >
> > "Do you have any feelings for him?"
> >
> > Twenty-ish, white, female speaker:
> >
> > "No."
> >
> > Jerry:
> >
> > "So, it was just a one-time thing."
> >
> > Guest:
> >
> > "No. It was a few-times thing."
> >
> >
> > Nothing to see, here, folks. I just thought it was cute. :-)
> >
> > --
> > -Wilson
> > -----
> > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> > to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> > -Mark Twain
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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