My school's kids aren't as cool as the art school kids.

The other day we were discussing a book-length 1861 of a former (female) slave, and the prof gave the kids backgrounds on the genre of "slave narrative" and its conventions (story of captivity and escape, orientation towards abolitionism, etc.).

I then popped in and was like, "This was *definitely* a recognizable genre, in the late 19th c. or the very early 20th c., I forget what, they published a fairly famous piece of erotica 'The Memoirs of Dolly Morton' that played off of the conventions, it was all about escaped slaves detailing the different ways their masters would hit their buttocks."

At that, I got a room full of blank stares.

"Seriously," I was like.  "This is history.  I'm going to teach these books together when I finally put together my class on sex in American history."

Then, this (nerdy) (a bit know-it-all) (white) (female) freshperson was like, "And why did they do that?".

"Because it's erotica," I was like.  "Some people found it hot, if you knew slave narratives."

"Non-consensuality is never cool," she was like, knowingly.

Later that class, the prof passed out a handout - the rape scene from Samuel Richardson's "Pamela"!