Subscribe:
RSS feed
Dedicated to the history, evolution and cultural significance of human sexuality
Browsing Archives of Author »Tony Perrottet«
THE FIVE ARTIEST BORDELLOS IN FRANCE
I just posted a fun blog on the Huffington Post from my recent trip to Paris, about the five brothels most revered for their artistic decor. I revisited a marvelous gallery of historical erotica I discovered while researching The Sinner’s Grand Tour. You can read about it here… Some of the photos were a bit […]
The Pope’s Pornographic Bathroom
December 14, 2011
My Slate series on the Vatican climaxed, as it were, with a piece about my adventures getting in to the so-called Stufetta del Bibbiena, the bathroom decorated with erotic art by Raphael in 1516 – causing a good deal of outrage amongst some of the more reverent Catholic readers, even though the Vatican itself has […]
THE VATICAN AND (HISTORICAL) SEX
December 7, 2011
I’ve just done a series on “penetrating the Vatican” for Slate, which is running this week (one episode a day) — about the secrets of the Vatican Library (Day One), the private tours of the Sistine Chapel (Day Two) and oddities like the Vatican supermarket (Day Three)… Coming up are the Secret Archives and the pope’s […]
WHAT IS IT ABOUT NUNS AND SEX?
November 27, 2011
I went to Venice to research both Napoleon’s Privates and The Sinner’s Grant Tour, and found that he subject of randy nuns came up constantly. It seems that the fantasy of the sex-filled Venetian convent, which crops up in novels, dialogues, Casanova’s memoir and modern porn films, dates back for centuries… and, even better, has […]
WHAT WAS J. EDGAR HOOVER’S FAVORITE PARTY DRESS?
November 17, 2011
The new Clint Eastwood/Leonardo DiCaprio biopic, J. Edgar, includes a nod towards the rumors that the FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover was a secret cross-dresser, when the young, distraught J. Edgar puts on a dress after his mother’s death. The historical accuracy of the colorful — and enduring — story is something I looked into […]
THE HOLY GUIDE TO COITAL POSITIONS
October 24, 2011
While I was researching Napoleon’s Privates: 2500 Years of History Unzipped and The Sinner’s Grand Tour: A Journey Through the Historical Underbelly of Europe, the lore of medieval sex kept cropping up… and often in surprising ways. Somehow the human race survived the Middle Ages, no mean feat when you consider how much literature was […]
GOOD, OLD-FASHIONED PORN
September 26, 2011
When the ancient Roman town of Pompeii in southern Italy was first excavated in the 18th century, scholars were shocked by the sheer volume of erotic imagery they uncovered – putting the site squarely on the tourist trail for generations of connoisseurs of pornography to come (as I discuss in The Sinner’s Grand Tour). Today, […]
JUST SAY “ITHYPHALLIC”: A Weiner election meditation
September 13, 2011
As the post-Weinergate special election looms in New York today, a visitor to the city could be struggling in vain to grasp what ex-congressman Anthony Weiner actually did this summer to warrant his abject and tear-filled resignation, since the mainstream press remains quaintly coy regarding sexual terminology. One can learn from the New York Times […]
THE FIRST SEX TOURS
August 27, 2011
Thailand, Rio de Janeiro and Budapest may have reputations for wild sex play these days, but they are rank newcomers compared to some ancient destinations in Europe. For over 2000 years, the beautiful Italian island of Capri in the Bay of Naples was renowned for debauchery on a Titanic scale. As I […]
SEX AT DUSK (New York chapter)
August 19, 2011
Steaming away in NYC this summer? My good friend Chris Ryan, author of Sex at Dawn: the Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality has just swung in from Barcelona and is doing an impromptu reading in downtown Manhattan on Monday night at 7 pm — I’ll be there, and if you’re in town, you should be […]
Mosex : blog 
January 5, 2012
0