[Newspoetry] U.S. poet laureate invokes troubling metaphor

[John Wason]

On Wed, 12 Sep 2001 newspoetry-request at lists.groogroo.com wrote:

> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 06:25:24 -0500
> Subject: Re: [Newspoetry] U.S. poet laureate invokes troubling metaphor
> From: John <gavroche at gavroche.org>
> To: NewsPoetry <newspoetry at lists.groogroo.com>
> 
> I think I will focus on a miniscule side-issue to take my mind off the
> larger issues momentarily...
> 
> A good analogy in my opinion must:
> 1) Refer to something necessarily violent
> 2) Refer to something that can (god forbid) happen again
> 3) Refer to something that can in no way be desirable
> 
> "circumcized" can be argued to fit #1, but many will disagree, and it
> doesn't fit #2 or #3.  (unless, see last paragraph)
> 
> "losing virginity" really means "having sex for the first time" so it fits
> #2 but not #3, and not #1   (unless it is done wrongly, but it doesn't have
> to be)

One can lose one's virginity more than once?


> I suggest one's first black eye.  It meets all three.  It's not sexual, but
> who needs sex?  (rhetorical question, please, no hand-raising.)
> 
> And for the record: neither losing one's virginity or circumcision is
> gender-specific.  Female circumcision even meets requirements #1 and #3,
> with no arguments from this quarter.