Society of Biblical Literature: No Sausage-Fest Allowed?

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An amusing story from Ronald Boer – apparently his paper (“Too Many Dicks on the Threshing Floor, or, How to Organise a Prophetic Sausage-Fest.”) for SBL contained an inappropriate phrase:

Dear Prof. Boer:

Even though so near to the meeting, I am writing you about the title of your paper in the Prophetic Texts and Their Ancient Contexts session S20-330.  It is the first Annual Meeting presentation to use the word “sausage,” to my knowledge, and indeed a little controversially.  I appreciate the gendered paronomasia in the first portion of the sentence, but it has come to my attention that the second part of the sentence is offensive to some.  To be clear, it is only the last phrase “sausage-fest” that has been taken as gratuitous.  Would you consider revising the title to something like “Too Many Prophetic Dicks at the Writing Desk” or “Too Many Dicks at the Prophetic Writing Desk”?

Thanks for your cordial response, Prof. Boer.  I am not interested in adjudicating legitimate and illegitimate titles, only in cultivating an atmosphere of collegiality and respect at the meeting.

Respectfully,

Charlie

Seriously? “Babylonian whore” is just find but “sausage-fest” is offensive to some? I hate it when folks do this bullshit move – “You know, sire, I’m so open-minded and cool meself, but it could be offensive to some, y’know?”

Biblical studies gone all un-cool, sadness…

I think the masses should rise in protest!

9 thoughts on “Society of Biblical Literature: No Sausage-Fest Allowed?”

  1. You know, sire, I’m so open-minded and cool meself, but it could be offensive to some, y’know?

    Seems like a “Big Other” is just around the corner 🙂

    What I like about the “Big Other” is the idea of imaginary social contexts which are, by definition, not neutral but do affect you. The “Big Other” stabilizes behaviour and acts as a force of normalization. In the quote above there are actually two of them: the one for whom I’m open-minded and cool and the other one for whom I’m cautious and polite. They don’t really like each other but we have to serve both – that’s the misery of the contemporary bourgeois.

    Reply ↓

    • It’s especially funny because, as Boer points out, male biblical scholars love to talk about all the euphemisms for female organs – this one hit too close to home!

      Who would have thought SBL would be so close-minded? I mean they are reading THE BIBLE!

      Reply ↓

  3. I couldn’t find anything about the Kosher angle except one ping thing at the end about Hebrew prophets. Do Jews eat non-pork sausages? I suppose so, since they eat Kosher wieners. In homosexual argot, not all dicks are sausages, I didn’t even see the ‘dick’ part at first; Although some Jewish dick is sausage, even if trimmed (usually).

    All these things have a shelf life. I really didn’t know ‘bitch’ was a female dog till long after I knew it was just a fucking bitch.

    So it doesn’t have anything to do with pork, or did everybody else just know that automatically?

    Reply ↓

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