The Spit And Speculum

Here is a helpful guide to the themes behind this curious pairing: The "Public House" Tradition

That phrase—“the spit and the speculum”—is striking and evocative, even without immediate context. It juxtaposes two very different kinds of bodily intrusion or examination: one organic, everyday, and oral (spit), the other clinical, gendered, and invasive (speculum). the spit and speculum