This document discusses how sex is often disguised or encoded in media due to censorship. It notes that rather than being direct, sex is often represented indirectly through symbolic phallic or yonic objects and activities. This allows it to be communicated at multiple levels and can sometimes make the messages more intense. It provides examples of how authors like Dickens encoded sexual themes in their works so they could be enjoyed by some but go unnoticed by others like children or wives, in order to both entertain and protect different audiences.

1. CHAPTER 16
It’s All About Sex

2. Key Points
Sex doesn’t have to look like sex
Other objects and activities are symbolic
 Phallic
 yonic
Sex has to be disguised because of censorship
Sex is indirect rather than direct works at multiple
levels and can be more intense.

3. Quote for Analysis
“There’s an ugly rumor circulating that English
professors have dirty minds. . .”

4. Quote for Analysis
“A knight, usually a very young one whose
“manhood” is barely established sallies forth bearing
his lance, which will certainly do until a phallic
symbol comes along . . .”

5. Dickens and Disney
“Dickens, who could be very suggestive, was aware
that his novels were often read around the family
breakfeast table, and he wanted to protect children
from anything luridly sexual, as well as to provide
wives with plausible deniability. With a scene of
encoded sex, Mother could pretend not to notice
while father was enjoying his private smirk.”

6. Dickens and Disney
“Dickens, who could be very suggestive, was aware
that his novels were often read around the family
breakfeast table, and he wanted to protect children
from anything luridly sexual, as well as to provide
wives with plausible deniability. With a scene of
encoded sex, Mother could pretend not to notice
while father was enjoying his private smirk.”