The History of Sex

Interesting tidbit: The first known artistic representation of cunnilingus appears as marginalia in a medieval prayer book (reminding us that pornographic graffiti predates public restrooms). More interesting tidbit: In that same picture, the kneeling male busily engaged in pleasuring his partner, appears to--and I'm not sure how to phrase this delicately--have a giant bird poking its beak up his butt. The significance of this image (sexual? religious? a bird of paradise trying to fly up the wrong orifice?) is, unfortunately, shrouded in historical mystery, but it is one of the more fascinating infonuggets in an otherwise scattershot, often superficial, and--amazingly, considering the topic--downright tedious survey of the history of sex. Narrated by Peter Coyote, The History of Sex spans five episodes--Ancient Civilizations, The Eastern World, The Middle Ages, From Don Juan to Queen Victoria and The 20th Century. Somewhat surprised to discover that people even had sex during the middle ages, let alone with enough frequency or variety to justify 50 minutes, I popped in the relevant volume, which traced, in particular, the medieval Catholic church's confused and shifting position regarding sex: from Thomas Aquinas's grudging admission of the necessity of prostitution to the categorization of the woman-on-top sexual position as a sin. Less effectively, the program also tackled the concept of "courtly love" (no relation to Courtney Love), that is, the reputed English and European amatory dalliances between knights and court ladies (without mentioning, I should add, that some scholars consider the phenomenon to be more literary conceit than historical fact), and--talk about your transitions--swung on over to Mesoamerica for a quick sexual compare and contrast exercise regarding Aztec and Mayan cultures. To be fair, I also cued up the final tape, The 20th Century, which featured notable historians (?!?) Hugh Hefner and Helen Gurley Brown offering obvious comments about the repressive '50s and liberating '60s, as well as a look at censors (Anthony Comstock, Will Hays, Joseph Breen), intrepid explorers' Masters & Johnson's rediscovery of the clitoris, the impact of AIDS, and--ending on an up note--1998's wonder drug Viagra. Alas, almost without exception, these subjects are given the paperback-desk-encyclopedia-entry level treatment. More graphic than I would have expected, the two episodes I watched contained pictorial, photographic and even film nudity--occasionally full frontal--as well as numerous artistic representations of common (and not so common; see earlier comment about sodomizing bird) sexual practices. Although this history of human sexuality is rather disappointing--especially for academic purposes--it's also sure to be quite popular, making this a strong optional purchase. Aud: C, P. (R. Pitman)