Profs & Pints Philadelphia: America's Erotic Past

Profs and Pints Philadelphia presents: “America’s Erotic Past,” a journey back through surprisingly queer and kinky centuries, with Rebecca Davis, professor of history and of women and gender studies at the University of Delaware and author of the acclaimed book Fierce Desires: A New History of Sex and Sexuality. When Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring the existence of two biological sexes, he not only was putting his stamp on scientific errors, he also was contravening four centuries of American history. We might assume that we live with a “puritan” legacy of repression. But America’s sexual history is full of gender-bending rebels, passionate queer lovers, and convention-defying radicals. Join Dr. Rebecca Davis, the award-winning author of a definitive new history of sexuality in America, for a look at our nation’s complex sexual past and realities that get in the way of the Trump administration’s calls to delete any mention of “gender,” “queer,” and “transgender” from federal websites and historical markers. She’ll bring to light the fascinating people, surprising intimacies, and iconic moments that illuminate this country’s erotic past, showing that the history that the administration wants to erase is too unpredictable—and its legacy too durable—to be undone by any executive order. Among the things you’ll learn: What happened when a gender nonconforming servant shared a bed with an unmarried woman in the Virginia colony in the 1620s. How nineteenth-century Americans responded to same-sex intimacies. And what, exactly, was going on in Betty Dodson’s living room during her all-nude “Bodysex” workshops in the 1970s. Prepare to be surprised by what happened behind the bedroom doors of yesteryear. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Doors open at 3:30 pm. Talk starts at 4:30.) Image by Canva.