Did You Hear About The Girl Who . . . ?

"An excellent example of applied folklore." --Western Folklore "A book with a wonderful interdisciplinary idea-using sexual urban legends as part of high school and college sex education" --The Women's Review of Books, Oct. 2001 "Provocatively bridges the interdisciplinary gap between folklore and sexuality education." --Journal of Folklore Research"One might assume that a book on urban legends would be too pop-culturish to be of value to serious sexuality educators and students, but one would be wrong...Whatley and Henken hae written a book that is as intelligent as it is interesting and funny." --The Journal of Sex Research Ever hear the one about the man who wakes up after a chance sexual encounter to discover he's been involuntarily relieved of one of his kidneys? Or the tiny gift-wrapped box from a recently departed lover that reveals a horrible secret? Everyone knows contemporary legends, those barely believable, often lurid, cautionary tales, always told as though they happened to the friend of a friend. Sometimes we pass them on to others unsure of their truthfulness, usually we dismiss them as mere myth. But these far-fetched legends tell us quite a bit about our deepest fears and fantasies. In fact, a large part of what we know about our bodies we have learned informally, from kids on the playground or colleagues at work, from piecing together the information contained in folk beliefs, jokes and legends. Sexual folklore goes beyond classroom lessons of mechanics to answer many questions about what people actually do and how they do it. Mariamne H. Whatley and Elissa R. Henken have collected hundreds of sexually-themed stories and jokes from college students in order to tell us what they reveal about our sexual attitudes and show us how they have changed over time. They confront myths and stereotypes about sexual behavior and use folklore as a tool to educate students about sexual health and gender relations. Whether analyzing popular rumors about celebrity emergency room visits or the latest schoolyard jokes,Did You Hear About The Girl Who . . . ?presents these tales in a way that is intriguing and educational.