Taboo?

Taboo was a really popular drink in the 80s but you never see it around now, do you? Orangey-red, in a frosted bottle, tasted of alco-Tizer. I think it had a 'sister' beverage as well, but I forget the name - Mirage, maybe?

Anyway, that's not really what I want to post about today.

When I was in Paris, I went to the Musee d'Orsay (how do I get an acute accent on this thing?) and I saw this:


L'Origine du Monde by Gustave Courbet, hanging in a public gallery for anyone and everyone to see, just as long as they've paid their Euros to get into the museum. I think there may have been a little notice with a warning on at the entrance to the side room, or I might be getting it mixed up with the Pompidou Centre.

So, if you want to go and look at it, you can. If you don't like graphic depictions of genitalia, you can pass it by. Presumably you, as an adult, are capable of making this decision for yourself.

Unless...the genitalia are male. And you are a lady. Then, of course, you no longer have that facility. You need your little eyes covered.

So it would seem, at least, given the palaver there has been over Filament Magazine's attempt to find a printer who will deal with them. Are they publishing inflammatory material of a nature likely to incite hatred or fear? No. It's just a cock.

It's like one of those obscure medieval laws you sometimes read about that are technically still in force - having the right to paint your cow yellow on the sixth Sunday after Septuagesima or whatnot. It's hard to believe that it's still taboo, and even harder to work out why.

But Filament, thanks to some good old fashioned nu-media campaigning by the ever-vigilant Erotica Cover Watch, has sold enough copies of its excellent opening issue to hire a less tentative press. There will be tumescence!

I am fascinated to see what happens about distribution now, and I wish them the very best of luck.