One of the things that I’ve noticed (as have many others) is our short memory for sexuality. I’m not talking about the “did I sleep with him/her/them?” or “what was his/her name?” moments that some people have, but rather, the way we forget our sexual past.

Sometimes, this is because we deliberately destroy our sexual history (which is why the library at the Center for Sex & Culture is so important). At other times, we simply forget our past which means we’re doomed to repeat it. As an example of the latter, apparently, a chain of stores in England was selling a bed for girls called the “Lolita,” which (for those of you who have also forgotten the past), was the name of Vladimir Nabokov’s book, in which the naarator becomes sexually obsessed with his 12-year-old stepdaughter.

As any student of sexual-cultural history can tell you, Nabokov couldn’t find an American publisher and ended up getting it published in France. The book sold out, and when it was eventually published in the US, it became considered one of the finest 20th century novels and was named the fourth greatest English language novel of the 20th century by the Modern Library.

Despite the literary merits of the book, “Lolita” became a code word for sexually-explicit media (i.e. porn or magazines) involving girls, although it has also been used as a genre of porn made with adult women who dress and act in ways to suggest youth. All of which makes it especially ironic that someone decided to use it to marker furniture for girls. If they’d been paying attention to the history of sexuality or modern culture, they would never have gone near it.

According to an article on Rueters, they’ve pulled the product and “…will be talking to the supplier with regard to how the branding came about.” Doesn’t that sounds like a fun conversation to have? And none of this would have happened if anyone along the way had remembered, or perhaps even heard about a classic novel with a controversial past.

I suppose the lesson here is to pay attention to these sorts of things, especially if you’re involved with marketing or branding.

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