Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Paperback 177: The Sex Education Racket / Phoebe Courtney (Free Men Speak, Inc, unnumbered)

Paperback 177: Free Men Speak, Inc, n.n. (PBO, 1969)

Title: The Sex Education Racket - An Exposé
Author: Phoebe Courtney
Cover artist: a purveyor of nightmares

Yours for: SOLD (Feb. 09)


Best things about this cover:

  • Oh, god, who are these kids and what are they doing on this cover? Are they all hopped up on sex ed?
  • "After receiving sex education in school, Peter looked at his stepsisters Marcia and Cindy in a whole new light..."
  • These kids are so much more horrifying than Anything you'll find inside this book (which is mostly specious anti-communist and anti-"Negro" nutjobbery - don't ask me what either has to do with sex education, because I just can't tell you)
  • "Phoebe Courtney" went on to inspire the sitcom "Friends."
  • This book is in amazing condition. Appears never to have been read. Shocking.
  • I love the idea that sex ed is a "racket." All those sex ed fat cats, rolling in all that sex ed money. Say no to Big Sex Ed! (Hey, I knew a guy named "Big Sex Ed" once ... so that's what his name meant)

Best things about this back cover:

[late addendum - this woman is famousish in the history of radical right politics in America: see here. Why oh Why is there no mention of her husband on this book cover!? Thanks for the reference, Steve]
  • Oh ... my. Hello, Misssssss Courtney. Don't you look ... happy.
  • What is her hair doing!? Maybe Miss Courtney is a perfectly reasonable human being whose mind is being controlled by some kind of parasitic mock-hair creature.
  • I love that she wrote a "series of pamphlets" (who is she, Thomas Paine?) called "TAX FAX," many years before "FAX" was a household term.
  • Like any good, husbandless, sexually repressed woman with hair pulled so tight on her head that her face is contorted into a permanent smile, she likes to keep a "massive German Shepherd dog" around the house.
  • How much would you like to bet that Phoebe Courtney was into some seriously kinky shit.
  • There is a section of blank pages at the back of the book marked "Your Notes"

Page 123~

If you oppose sex education in the schools, then you will want to do something about it.


There's a "handling the media" guide and everything. This book is awesome in that it represents early evidence of the albatross that now hangs around the neck of the Republican party: it's anti-science, anti-black, anti-public education, anti-union, anti-masturbation (seriously). It's also very much pro-ugly/scary book covers. Further, it's apparently responsible for ushering in the 70s' lamentable obsession with earth tones.

~RP

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Although I haven't read or heard of Ms. Courtney and I hardly agree with her, I bet she warned of many scary things that will follow from the sex ed racket:

Teen pregnancy rates will rise, divorce rates will rise, unmarried couple will co-habitate at higher rates, homosexuality will come out of the closet, negroes will be come ascendant, and more!

By god she may have been a nutjob but she could predict the future!

Rex Parker said...

You left out the fact that the communists ultimately prevailed. All hail Comrade Obama!

Yes, she was quite the prophetess.

rp

Orange said...

The back cover calls her Mrs. over and over. Presumably she killed her husband, or got a divorce.

Now, if the dogs' names are in quotes, why isn't she "Phoebe Courtney" too?

As for Big Sex Ed, federal funding for abstinence education reached $176 million in 2007, and total (cumulative) federal spending on abstinence programs during the Bush administration has been about $1 billion. There is, of course, no federal funding of comprehensive sex education. Mr. Courtney would have been pleased.

Keri said...

God I have some awful Train Wreck Syndrome right now I tell you what. I really want to read that book, even though I know I'll just be infuriated by it and possibly break a window with the force of my attempt at defenestration.


I would also have to get it a new cover, because I just know that I wouldn't be able to read the thing without being blinded by that neon glow, straight through the pages.

JamiSings said...

For the record, not all of us republicans are like that psycho bitch.

In fact, she'd hate me, because I'm all for sex ed. I think it should be required starting in kindergarden since there's been studies that show the earlier a child knows about sex the less likely they are to be 1: The victim of a pedophile and 2: Have sex as teenagers. Also more likely to report it if they are raped and more likely to use protection when they do have sex.

Of course I also think gun safety should be a required course in all schools, for basically the same reason. Cause it'll make the kids less likely to treat a gun like a toy.

Seriously, we're not all evil close minded people.

And those Stepford children on the cover scare me. Could someone hold me and make the bad andriod children disappear? Pretty please?

Rex Parker said...

My dad's a Republican (though he voted Dem for the first time since LBJ this year). I loves me some Republicans. But the party's got problems that aren't going away any time soon, and it's all that Culture Wars shit that's responsible. Can I get a sensible freedom-loving fiscal conservative up in here!? Holla!?

The whole Rep. party is ANTI- stuff now. It's a drag. I say to Republicans: Whites are the minority and gays will marry. It's a done deal. Let it go. Get back to what you do best - turning $$ into $$$$, and keeping the gov from spending $$ on inefficient, dumbass shit. Just don't bankrupt the country in the process. Thank you.

rp

Miss Maggie said...

I want me this book. I'll put it right next to my Texe Marrs collection. Oh reactionary whackjobs, you so amuse me!

xenobiologista said...

To Rex: My boyfriend is a Republican and he said more or less the same thing as your second paragraph.

And as Jami pointed out, sex ed protects children from paedophiles. In my home country there is no such thing in schools and it's scary how many newspaper stories on molest cases report that the child only complained of "a pain in his/her genitals/anus" but wasn't capable of explaining that he or she was raped.

Anonymous said...

I'm the anti-Courtney: a radical liberal leaning towards social democrat. I'm all in favor of sex ed (and progressive taxation, for that matter). Solid sex ed leads to fewer STDs and unwanted pregnancies. However, I'm not really sure how sex ed alone can effectively protect children from pedophiles.

I volunteer for my local rape crisis center, and I've seen many infants and children come in as sexual abuse victims. All of these victims whom I have dealt with have been abused by a family member or a close family friend. Yes, there are pedophiles out there who will abuse strangers, but it's uncommon. The majority of child sexual abuse is at the hands of family or friends.

Sex education for children can definitely help them identify what's going on, but you still have that stigma of "it's Uncle So-and-so, I shouldn't tell on him" to overcome. So while I definitely think sex ed is important (yes, even for young children), I think more has to be done alongside it to help educate children on the realities of sexual abuse.

Anonymous said...

Please take note ... 1955 was when this information was formed! Her hairstyle was quite appropriate for that era!~ If you are old enough to have lived at that time then you can make an educated comment regarding this book! The times in which these were written were a very different time. The morals and ethics by which Americans in the South and throughout America at that time were much more different than they are today. Children actually respected their parents and the government did not step in to assist in raising them. Neighbors were neighbors and you knew them. Private intimate issues were not so blatant as they are now and there wasn't as much of a problem with education as there is now that we "don't leave them behind!" She was my aunt and I knew this woman personally. At this time she was a very strongly opinionated and educated woman and was able to express herself via her publications. I knew her love of animals and her love of the American "Freedom of Speech" ability of which you are able to express all of your thoughts! She was married at the time of this writing to a gentleman by the name of Kent Harbinson Courtney.