Today I taught a lesson about Shakespeare's sonnets and love songs. First we discuss a couple of Shakespeare's sonnets, how the reading audience witnesses the love-interaction between lover and beloved. Then we listen to various love songs (some well-known, others less so) and discuss how the situations are strikingly similar to that of the sonnets. In each form, a (typically male) lover sings to his beloved about the effect she has on him. Then we discuss how other cultural forms work similarly. Usually students volunteer media like television or movies. Often the word voyeur gets thrown out, and we talk about how the word literally means "looker" or "watcher," and how that aptly describes the situation.

Then, usually, one student wonders whether pornography works the same way. (I say "usually" because both times I've taught this lesson, someone's mentioned it.) I press the issue, despite the class's discomfort, and we come to the conclusion that love songs, Shakespearean sonnets, and pornography actually work similarly: they all feature an audience witnessing a private interaction between exposed (in a literal and material sense) others. There's a lot more to the lesson--we end up discussing where 'privacy' is located--but that's the basic idea.

I don't really wonder whether this is an appropriate topic for discussion. It is (and it's not like I actually show pornography). But I do wonder why this has been the best-received class session I've taught in the last year.