The real taboo
Thursday, September 25th, 2008 | Filed under General
I had scrolled half way down this rather long page (which I suppose is NSFW?) and e-mailed the link to a friend of mine with whom I share a private joke about armpits before I realized I had sent him to a page with bare breasts all over it. I just didn’t see the boobs. My experience illuminates nicely the arbitrary, relative, and transitory nature of taboos.
Gunmonkey, do not click on that link. You can’t handle it.
September 26th, 2008 at 7:19 am
Too late.
God, the ’70s sucked.
September 26th, 2008 at 9:13 am
That picture of Jennifer Garner looks photoshopped.
September 26th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Wow, Qui, you noticed the faces? Like I said, I didn’t even notice the boobs.
September 26th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Gunmonkey,
The 70’s was actually kind of a good time for feminism. I guess a side effect of that at the time was that women rebelled by refusing to alter their bodies to fit the neotenous beauty dictates of Western cultures.
You know, I’ve known plenty of men who like armpit hair. The weird thing is that their tastes are generally seen as a kink in this day and age. I’m sure for some, the transgression is the allure. But for others, it’s probably just something they dig. Armpit hair is a visual sign of sexual maturity, so in a sense, the surprising thing, and the real testament to the equivocal power of culture, is that armpit hair is generally accepted to be unsexy and unnatural.
September 27th, 2008 at 5:13 am
It skeeves me out. I will not apologize for my skeeviosity.
September 27th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
First of all, being raised in the heartland immediately puts you at a disadvantage in terms of appraising gender taboos. Secondly, even in places like New York City, there are the Jerry Seinfelds. Don’t worry–most women have pretty much resigned themselves to the fact that a lot of men are incapable of coping with women’s bodies unless we’re pruning, waxing, and dieting ourselves into society’s expectations and pretending we don’t menstruate or excrete bodily waste of any kind. You shouldn’t lack for dates because of your squeamishness.
But I can still tease you about it.
September 28th, 2008 at 2:14 am
[...] I give The Secret credit for not trying to evade the logical, if uncomfortable, questions that the premise brings up. It barrels right at the incest angle—poor Han-mantha has to contend with teenaged hormones, but her husband won’t touch her—even the most innocuous physical contact she initiates with Ben repulses him. Of course in the context of Duchovny’s recent admissions, we have to wonder if he’d really show that restraint, but that line of thought leads us down a road even ookier than the Tenfeet’s recent celebration of female armpit hair. [...]
September 28th, 2008 at 3:15 am
Right. Because the Midwest is where fashion and beauty standards are made.
September 28th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
American women who remove body hair might have been following “fashion” in 192o. Today, however, such hair removal transcends fashion and is a cultural mandate. And such cultural mandates are much less likely to be questioned, or even perceived, in the Midwest of your childhood–than in more culturally diverse and cosmopolitan places.
September 28th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Ah. Well, I’m relieved that it’s not my fault I’m small-minded–I was just in a backward place.
September 29th, 2008 at 12:04 am
Actually, at this point, I’d put you more in the Jerry Seinfeld camp.
Although maybe having as an excuse that you were raised in a small-minded place is better than just being the kind of guy who finds women’s bodies disgusting in their natural states.
September 29th, 2008 at 1:04 am
Not just women’s bodies. I fine everyone disgusting in their natural state. I mean, why did we develop an opposable thumb if not to wield an electric-shaver (or comb, brush, etc.)?
September 29th, 2008 at 2:05 am
Yeah, well when you have to rip out or shave the hair off of 80% of your body, including your pits and groin, in order to be considered not gross, then I’ll grant that your squeamishness is equal-opportunity. That day may be coming within the next decade or so. Until then, you can’t think of anything more sophisticated and diplomatic than “eww” or “ookie” to say about things that normal, young, healthy women’s bodies do?
September 29th, 2008 at 3:05 am
Probably if I put my mind to it. But it’s more fun to needle you. As Qui pointed out: “you are luminously beautiful when you are angry.”
September 29th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Oh, I’m not needled. Just bemused by your reaction to it. It’s been a while since I’ve been friends with a straight man who actually talks about body hair on women as “skeevy”. I usually think of guys who are like that as younger than 25, rubes, or as the kind of weird “Masters of the Universe” types who write in their dating profiles that they like their women in skirts.