I am now definitely ready to announce that Sex, as a theatrical property, is as tiresome as the Old Mortgage, and that I don't want to hear it mentioned ever again. I am sick of little Southern girls who want "to live." I am sick of hearting fathers and mothers talk to little girls, Southern or otherwise, about "what lies before them." I am sick of rebellious Youth and I am sick of Victorian parents, and I don't care if all the little girls in all sections of the United States get ruined or want to get ruined or keep from getting ruined. All I ask is: don't write plays about it and ask me to sit through them.
I assume that Benchley was soon to get his wish.
Interesting quote. Two of his contemporaries at The New Yorker, E. B. White and James Thurber, teamed to write "Is Sex Necessary" - a spoof of the psychological treatment on the subject.
ReplyDeleteWas this quote a reaction to that 1929 book?