Did You Hear About The Girl Who . . . ? Contemporary Legends, Folklore, and Human Sexuality

224 Pages·2000·0.796 MB·English

by  Mariamne H. Whatley and Elissa R. Henken

DID Y OU HEAR ABOUT
THE GIRL WHO . . . ?

DID Y OU HEAR ABOUT
THE GIRL WHO . . . ?
CONTEMPORARY LEGENDS, FOLKLORE,
AND HUMAN SEXU ALITY
Mariamne H. Whatley
Elissa R. Henken
a
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
© 2000 by New York University
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Whatley, Mariamne H.
Did you hear about the girl who . . . ? : contemporary legends, folklore,
and human sexuality / Mariamne H. Whatley and Elissa R. Henken.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN0-8147-9322-3 (cloth : alk. paper) —
ISBN 0-8147-9323-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Sex—Folklore. 2. Urban folklore—United States.
I. Henken, Elissa R. II. Title.
GR462 .W53 2000
398.2'097307—dc21 00-011704
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To
Jonathan T.Henken
pipe major,
cabinetmaker,
antique motorcycle restorer,
and most excellent big brother.

CONTENTS
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
1. Yes, We Are Folk and We Do Have Folklore 1
2. Contraceptive Jelly on Toast and Other Unintended
Consequences of Sexuality Education 17
3. You Can’t Get Pregnant Your Very First Time:
Understandings of Fertility and Birth Control
in Folk Beliefs 24
4. Lesbians Don’t Have Periods and Other Menstrual Folklore 43
5. The Tiny Gift-Wrapped Coffin: Addressing Fears of AIDS 67
6. Of Gerbils and Stomach Pumps: Homophobia in Legends 91
7. The Peanut Butter Surprise: Fear and Loathing of
Women’s Sexuality 114
8. The Frat Boy’s Sister and the Chat Room Date: Incest,
Accidental and Otherwise 143
9. The Stolen Kidney, Leaping Crabs, and Other Dangers
of Sexuality 159
10. I Don’t Believe This but My Friends Do: Using Folklore
in Sexuality Education 182
References 199
Index 205
About the Authors 211

vii

PREFACE
When we have discussed this project with friends and colleagues, there
has seemed to be almost as much interest in how two sisters survive co-
authorship as in the project itself. Intrafamilial writing raises more
questions than does multidisciplinary scholarship. This book, a discus-
sion/collaboration between disciplines, began as a conversation between
two sisters—one a biologist and health educator, the other a folklorist.
During weekly phone conversations, we often discussed our work, shar-
ing anecdotes and information each thought would be of interest to the
other. When students would ask the folklorist about the biological/
medical possibility of a belief or legend, she would turn to the biologist
for help. When the biologist got more attuned to recognizing legends,
she would check them out with the folklorist. And so, while we had al-
ways known our own fields to be interdisciplinary, we began to realize
more precisely and practically how in their overlapping they could con-
tribute to each other. We first presented our work in an article and re-
ceived enough encouraging feedback to work on a book. Tim Bartlett,
then an editor at NYU Press, was very enthusiastic at the earliest stage.
We have written this book for anyone who cares about sexuality ed-
ucation in its broadest meanings—for health and sexuality educators in
the schools and public health settings, for health care providers, for par-
ents, for concerned people—but we have written it with a sense of pro-
fessional responsibility to both folklore and health education. Our aim
is certainly not to turn health educators into folklorists but to make
them aware of how pervasive and influential folklore is in people’s lives
and how being alert to folklore may help them communicate better
with their students/clients. Folklore, neither quaint nor cute and cer-
tainly not the trivial fluff so often assumed, but rather a basic expression

ix