I was working on my literature review at Starbucks, going through old articles and books, summing up past arguments and such. I'm specializing in sexuality and gender so my thesis is about sexual behavior across races. Nobody knows what I'm doing there, sipping my wonderful crack in a cup latte. I'm a student that is doing his homework...and getting the third weird look from a mom since I sat down.
Then it hits me. I'm not doing homework, apparently I'm a 20 something year old guy reading bad romance smut he got off of a check out aisle shelf at the Sack-and-Save. And in the middle of Starbucks? The nerve. Let's look at some of the books I'm using. Forbidden Fruit: Teenage Sexuality and Religion, Black Sexual Politics, and (the best title) Sex at Dawn. The covers of all three books are innocent on their own but paired with the titles and in a pile with other books and articles along the same lines...you get the idea.
Classic case of not judging a book by its cover. I can see it. I'm chasing some poor mom out of the shop as she panics to ushers her small children into the family minivan, rear window plastered with soccer team and school spirit stickers. Arms stretched out in front of me, holding the pages open in desperation, "No, no. This isn't a bad erotic romance novel. It's full of charts and graphs. Look! An extremely boring nonlinear regression model! (Well that's a bad example, that equation is kind of sexy.) But the charts are boring!" I press the pages against her window as she fumbles for her keys. The children, in their car seats, crying behind her. They have nightmares about sampling bias and non significant findings for years to come. (sounds a lot like graduate school actually)
After the third look of judgment I received I decided to put a few books away. In hind sight it really is a shame people have such reactions to my area of study. The research is actually rather interesting and informative. Forbidden Fruit might be of particular interest to those concerned parents. You'd be surprised what kind of affect all those Bible classes and Sunday church brunches are having on your child's sexual biography.
Sent from my iPhone
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