24 Hour Vigil and Meditation in Honor of Deborah Jeane Palfrey

The beautiful, informed and incredibly insightful (she was the first to introduce me to the idea of sex worker as sexual orientation, an idea that resonates deeply with me) Surgeon Scofflaw wrote a moving piece about the death of the DC Madam and what its says about us; as a society as well as a community.

Starting at 4pm pacific time, there will be an International vigil and meditation of remembrance:

"So today, beginning at midnight GMT (6pm Central, 4pm Pacific) for 24 hours we’re holding a conscious meditation, vigil, or remembrance of Ms. Deborah Jeane. Light a candle, say some words, or sit in silent meditation with us. We’ll be sitting for 1 hour at midnight pacific time (8am GMT) and consciously holding her, and what her death means for all of us, in our thoughts all day."

From the mouths of babes, or in this case, a dude...

Sexual Linguistics is a little like the Great Barrier Reef. While so much has been covered, from the overly scientific sounding (tribadism?) to the commonplace (wanker) to the improbable and much mythologized (dirty sanchez as Great White attack? most people don't want to be on the business end of either...), there is still a lot of room for research and "discovery".

Last week, Beltane day, I was sitting in a classroom in a local high school as part of a 'sexual identity panel' for health class, peopled by about 10 students, age 14-18. The class started with a presentation on sexual identities from a girl who did great research and made an abridged queer history of the US though she endearingly mispronounced 'Sappho' and 'Kinsey'. Her timeline was so informative, I took notes. As part of her report she asked her classmates to identify a list of words describing sexual identities, they had been given a hand-out with such a list the previous week.

During this exercise one boy hesitatingly raised his hand and asked: "What about people, like narcissists, are there people who only like having sex like that?" Immediately several panel members chimed in with 'Narcissexual', meaning a person attracted to or engaging sexually with people who behave or look just like them. This young boy was credited with coining a new term, which once spoken had immediate resonance with the sex-savvy panel.

I'm sure most of us know one.
A couple who are practically indistinguishable?
Someone who prefers the company of other themselves?
Shit, this new nomenclature may wander a little too close to home...

Anyway, a few days later I'm sharing malts with the venerables Dr. Carol Queen and Robert Lawrence and knowing their fascination with all things sexual, especially new developments; I recount the story of the origin of narcissexual. Without missing a beat (not to mention a sip of malt) Robert replies:
"Hmm...Narcissexual....so if they were into group sex would it be a Dopplegang-bang?"

Badump-ching.
What can I say?
It takes a young naive mind to find the new word and an old-ish* pervert to find the bad pun.

And I love that pervert for it.





*He calls himself "old", I added the "ish" because I'm not so sure...