Snowflakes: just stick to the gender-neutral bunk beds
Afew months ago, there was an article about how millennials were having less sexual intercourse than any generation in 60 years. There were all sorts of theories as to why this was (mine being that, as the most selfish people on the planet, sex was probably a uniquely unfulfilling experience) and how we could get them to buckle down to the horizontal two-step, you know, for civilisation’s sake.
I was reminded of this when I read about Fanny Hill being dropped from the latest course on 18th-century literature at Royal Holloway, University of London, “following a consultation with students”. John Cleland’s erotic novel – which looks back on the “stark naked truth” of an ageing courtesan’s life – has been making bishops blush since 1748, but the mere idea of it seems to have laid sensitive millennials out cold.
Prof Judith Hawley, who teaches the course, explained to BBC Radio 4 that students had complained about a number of other texts, including Room by Emma Donoghue (not nice to hold a young boy captive, even if it is with his mum) and Shakespeare’s King Lear (all that eye-gouging and violence against women), which left me wondering how on earth the snowflake generation can be taught any form of history at all. But, of course, they’re not. And maybe it’s best that millennials stay off the saucy stuff and in their gender-neutral bunk beds. Do we really want this lot reproducing?