The Daily Word for August 20, 2021

 

nympholepsy - noun - passion or rapture aroused in men by beautiful young girls (Lexico.com). 

Nympholepsy is not woke, meaning men could get in big trouble for revealing their passions for nubile females in plain sight. Although nympholepsy still exists and will never go away due to the male libido, its expression, particularly in public is considered politically incorrect. On the other hand, if its revelation is laced with humor, people seem to be all for it. Which seems a bit ironic to me. If something is deemed wrong and doesn't taste good, why–all of a sudden–would coating it with comedy make it digestible? 

Case in point, last night, my daughter, Jack (P.A. member in good standing) and I attended a comedy show at a local pub. My close friend's husband, a man who was recently diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, just decided to realize a long-time dream and become a stand-up comedian, something I had encouraged him to do years ago. (Cancer has a funny way of motivating people. I know because I am a survivor.) At the start of his shtick, the club's host comedian, a married man, singled out a Lolita sitting close to the stage and proceeded to flirt with her openly, something the majority of the room found laughable. Playing on the response of the room, he enlarged his scope to include a small number of other young women seated in the vicinity. Again, the audience responded favorably. A guest comic, who succeeded the host, launched into a routine that included his fascination with the female anatomy, namely breasts, which threw the house into hysterics. Had either comic changed his tone and approached a female audience member using a similar script in the parking lot, most likely the incident would have been reported as sexual harassment, and the club might have lost customers and/or eventually have been shut down. 

Obviously, there is a very fine line between what is deemed politically palatable and what is not. Such is the human condition. Can mere tone of voice make the difference between what people take seriously and what they don't? Apparently so. Life gets more and more ironic each day.

Happy Friday! Enjoy it. 

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