Sex in the South: Unbuckling the Bible Belt, by Suzi Parker.
A self-described Arkansas belle, Suzi Parker has traveled the American South in search of sexual creativity.
She visited Tupperware-style sex toy parties and the Miss Gay America pageant in her home state and met Big Beautiful Belles in South Carolina. In Mississippi, she wrote about black men who appear to be in traditional marriages but have sex with other black men. She interviewed married couples in North Carolina who exchange partners. She went to strip clubs and strip classes. In Tampa, she talked to Iron Belles, female body builders "who indulge in bringing fun, fantasy and semicompetitive activities to those who enjoy toned physiques."
At the start of her exploration, Parker was no naif. In fact, her book was inspired by the stinging public criticism that resulted after publication of a story she wrote about an especially passionate, and satisfying, involvement with her boyfriend.
"That's the South," she writes, "where what you see is never what you get. The South is the nation's premier sexual hothouse, be it on unpaved back roads or in covert country club powder rooms. The deal in Dixie is that everybody does it but no one talks about it."
Inevitably, she mentions Elvis and Bill Clinton, the very personifications of such contradictory behavior.
In nearly 400 pages that describe her journey, she offers a full array of euphemisms that describe private parts and intimate acts. She's sometimes clever and funny but not as often as she tries to be.
Thirty years ago, in Southern Ladies and Gentlemen, Florence King made people laugh out loud as she described another regional phenomenon, the self-rejuvenating virgin. Parker's "born-again" version is far from original.
Sex in the South is a wink and a nudge about hypocrisy, and I'm pretty sure it isn't unique to the South. I'll wager that Parker can find it in Kansas, say, or Maine.
Don't misunderstand me: Criminal behavior doesn't merit silence. But Parker's beef seems to be with the full realm of churchgoers and otherwise solid citizens who have intimate relations and refrain from blabbing about their experiences to anyone who will listen. I'm willing to call that "mystery," and having endured repeated news loops that focus on misbehaving actors, athletes and politicians, I'm grateful for it.
Besides, how does Parker think all the Baptists, Presbyterians and Methodists at whom she likes to poke fun got here in the first place?
- Mary Jane Park, a lifelong Southerner, is a Times staff writer.
"Sex in the South: Unbuckling the Bible Belt," by Suzi Parker; Justin, Charles & Co.; $23.95; 384 pages
