I can't remember the first time I came across the image of a nun outside of a strictly religious context. Maybe it was the cover of The Monks "Bad Habits" maybe it was the musical Nunsense, maybe it was Audrey Hepburn (and if Audrey wasn't the first, she was certainly the best).

Regardless, I've been aware for a while that pop culture borrows heavily from nuns in creating iconoclastic sexual imagery. So it was hardly a surprise when the folks at my local video store told me about the book AntiCristo, a 300 page tome that catalogs references to the "nasty nun" in popular culture. What was a surprise was how extensive the books' research is and how far back references to the "nasty nun" go. Also surprising was the correlation between the religiosity of a region and it's output of "nasty nun" imagery. Italy (known worldwide for it's Catholics) has consistently been the largest producer of "nasty nun" material.

What is it about nuns? I know for myself, growing up very secular and very non-Catholic (so non-Catholic in fact that I'm Jewish) that nuns hold a certain mystery, there is an element of fetishizing the Other that, while it may be problematic if it were to leave the realm of fantasy, presents few problems when it's just in one's head. Most of my Catholic friends think I'm crazy. There memory of nuns are all about dourness and severity. And therein lies one of the big differences between reality and fantasy. That which we have not yet discovered often holds more erotic potential (at least initially) than that which we know all too well.

Cory Silverberg
Head Researcher, SEXTV