The archetype is instantly recognizable: curling, confident smile, tight pants, shirt unbuttoned with studied casualness, a flashing medallion nestled in the virile hair of a bronzed chest. He is the heir to centuries of tradition and folklore, the ultimate seducer, the possessor of alchemical secrets of the amorous arts: he is the mythical Italian lover. The myth took a body blow, so to speak, with the recent publication of excerpts from a 400-page study titled Report on the Sexual Behavior of Italians, or, as it was quickly dubbed, "The Italian Kinsey Report." The...
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