Exactly 25 years ago, the blockbuster teen comedy “American Pie” launched the term “MILF” into the stratosphere — that is, Mom I’d Like to F*ck. Jennifer Coolidge, who played Stifler’s Mom, is perhaps still the most famous MILF in America. But… where did that term really come from? Jess and Susie uncover the MILF’s true origin story and how it was shaped by the most raunchy teen sex comedy of our time.

FOR MORE: 
Review: The Road to Manhood, Paved in Raunchy Jokes and Pie (NYT, 1999)
American Pie at 20: The Notorious Pie Scene from Every Angle (NYT, 2019) 
Don’t Use This Acronym: MILF in the OED (blog post by Laurel Sutton)
At the Super Bowl of Linguistics, May the Best Word Win (by Jessica, NYT, reporting from the annual linguistics convention in 2015)

Exactly 25 years ago, the blockbuster teen comedy “American Pie” launched the term “MILF” into the stratosphere — that is, Mom I’d Like to F*ck. Jennifer Coolidge, who played Stifler’s Mom, is perhaps still the most famous MILF in America. But… where did that term really come from? Jess and Susie uncover the MILF’s true origin story and how it was shaped by the most raunchy teen sex comedy of our time.
FOR MORE: 
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/09/movies/film-review-the-road-to-manhood-paved-in-raunchy-jokes-and-pie.html">Review: The Road to Manhood, Paved in Raunchy Jokes and Pie</a> (NYT, 1999)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/09/movies/american-pie.html">American Pie at 20: The Notorious Pie Scene from Every Angle</a> (NYT, 2019) </li>
<li><a href="https://catchwordbranding.com/catchthis/dont-use-this-acronym-cws-laurel-sutton-has-a-place-in-the-oed/">Don’t Use This Acronym: MILF in the OED</a> (blog post by Laurel Sutton)</li>
<li><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/18/style/at-the-super-bowl-of-linguistics-may-the-best-word-win.html">At the Super Bowl of Linguistics, May the Best Word Win</a> (by Jessica, NYT, reporting from the annual linguistics convention in 2015)</li>
</ul>

Is there a cultural moment from your past that looks different in retrospect? Maybe it’s a scandalous tabloid story seared into your teenage brain or a political punchline that just feels wrong now. It might be a very specific red swimsuit that inspired a decade of plastic surgery (see: “Baywatch”) or the inescapable smell of an entire generation of prepubescent boys (Axe body spray, anyone?). Each week on IN RETROSPECT, Emmy-winning journalist Susie Banikarim and New York Times editor Jessica Bennett revisit a pop culture moment from the 80s and 90s that shaped them — to try to understand what it taught us about the world, and a woman’s place in it.

Talk to us at @inretropod, @susiebnyc and @jessicabennett on Instagram. New episodes each Friday.

Is there a cultural moment from your past that looks different in retrospect? Maybe it’s a scandalous tabloid story seared into your teenage brain or a political punchline that just feels wrong now. It might be a very specific red swimsuit that inspired a decade of plastic surgery (see: “Baywatch”) or the inescapable smell of an entire generation of prepubescent boys (Axe body spray, anyone?). Each week on IN RETROSPECT, Emmy-winning journalist Susie Banikarim and New York Times editor Jessica Bennett revisit a pop culture moment from the 80s and 90s that shaped them — to try to understand what it taught us about the world, and a woman’s place in it.
Talk to us at @inretropod, @susiebnyc and @jessicabennett on Instagram. New episodes each Friday.

In Retrospect with Susie Banikarim and Jessica Bennett

The Hidden History of the MILF

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/48fd4d8b-04e0-4a6f-a7d9-b12b012906b9/transcript

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