Ah, yes. We all know this term. It needs no definition, although the cameltoe article on Wikipedia.com (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameltoe) does a splendid job at delineating the term's definition and offering various physical causes that may play a part in the creation of a cameltoe.
Recently, I came across a YouTube video of an old song I often heard when I was younger, but
I've never seen the music video. The song, of course, is FannyPack's single “Cameltoe.”
I've never seen the music video. The song, of course, is FannyPack's single “Cameltoe.”
It was interesting to watch the video and listen to the lyrics with a much more critical eye and ear. Female genitalia is not only being made fun of, but it is also categorized as disgusting and revolting. In the music video, people look disgusted and shocked at seeing a cameltoe, one man even throws up.
Personally, I don't think that the human body should ever be an object of shame or disgust. But, let's assume for a moment that this wish of mine is too much of an ideology. Then, are men also the subject of ridicule and humiliation when it comes to their reproductive organs? Let's ponder this for a moment.
What is the male equivalent of a cameltoe? Some sites argue that it is the term “bulge.” An obviously neutral term which carries with it no negative connotations. Other sites argue that it is the term “moose knuckle” and other slight variations of it. I'm sure that's going to catch on...
Ok, so let's take the term, bulge. If it was as negative as cameltoe I doubt baseball players or professional dancers would wear such enhancing protective gear in that area. I'm going to stray from the topic of cameltoes and moose knuckles a moment... Why is it that women have no equivalent protective wear for breasts or the genitalia in sports? I've gotten hit in the breast by a spiked volleyball and I almost passed out from the pain. It is probably dangerous too (I am no doctor, scientist, nor have I done studies...but do these studies even exist? Is anyone looking out for the welfare of female athletes?). Anyways...back on track now... showing off and having a prominent outline of the male genital area is definitely not a negative thing in our society. Men’s jeans even enhance that, giving the illusion of having a larger package than exists in reality by creating a nice little poofy pouch in the front area.
Now, I’m not someone who is wishing for men to be ashamed of their bodies—quite the contrary—I just wish the same standards existed for women.
I remember an incident that happened during my freshmen/sophomore year of high school (can’t remember when exactly)... we wore uniforms but some days we were allowed dress up days. On one of these dress up days I came to school with jeans and a white t-shirt with a smiley face on it. It was a baby-tee (was that what they were called?), which is generally a cotton t-shirt that is fitted to your body with small sleeves. Well, I’ve always had large breasts and there’s nothing I can do about them. I can’t stuff them into a tiny bra and hope they’ll shrink. They’re there. They are prominent. Get over it.
Well, I got called out for them. The president of the student council (a girl) and a teacher (a woman) both came up to me and said I was dressed inappropriately!!! I remember my face turning red. I felt ashamed and instantly put on the spot and insecure. I knew it was my white shirt. You could probably see the outline of my bra underneath and the t-shirt wasn’t loose so you could see my breasts pretty clearly. But, I was also not ready for a wet t-shirt contest or something. My conservative, Hispanic grandmother would never have let me walk out of the house if she thought I looked too hoochie or “inappropriate” for a catholic school.
This event embarrassed me, made me feel insecure and ashamed. I had to ask my grandmother, who worked at the bookstore to lend me a jacket so I could cover myself. Never mind this is Florida and it was hot. The student council president and the faculty member pointed out something that I wasn’t aware of that morning as I was getting dressed—the overt sexuality of female breasts and the shame society associates with sexuality.
If this incident would have happened to me today I would have been able to respond “appropriately” and asked them exactly what they wanted me to do with my breasts? Should I tape them down? Wear huge bulky sweaters (as many women ashamed of their bodies tend to do...as I often did in high school as a result of that incident)? Should I get a breast reduction? Should I be ashamed? Of course not. Damn them for ever making me feel that way.
What a backwards world we live in. Women with big breasts getting breast reductions...women with small breasts getting breast enlargements. Penis reductions—yeah right—not in this society.
Let’s return to the genital area once more and think back to our early childhood for a moment. If you are male do you remember an older relative pointing to your penis and remarking on the “cuteness” of it? Probably. If you are female, do you have any similar memories? Probably not. My memories are of family members always making sure I was covered up. Or if I was jumping around and sat down with my legs spread open, I would be told to close my legs. I’d obey automatically, without thinking of the “why” of the action. Pretty soon I was imitating women who crossed their legs.
It’s “ladylike” to cross your legs if you are a woman, but for me it’s always been damn uncomfortable. I get a red spot (I am very pale) on my calf when it has rested on my knee for a while. My leg falls asleep and sometimes my hip feel funky after a long sitting time with my legs crossed. This is social convention working here, this is probably not biological.
Another reason to cross our legs is the same reason we tend to do it as young girls—there are different standards and social mores surrounding genitalia that affect our behavior well into adulthood. As a result, we often transmit these ideologies to our own children without even knowing.
Men tend to sit with their legs spread far apart and women try to constrict their legs, crossing them or keeping their knees together, which requires some effort. The result—women take up less physical space than men. This must carry with it some psychological reinforcement about who is superior more important. In fact, at least my own personal experience supports this.
At a Cirque de Soliel show here in Miami, in a tent, with itty-bitty little seats squished together to fit the maximum number of people into the show area, I found myself between my huge boyfriend and a huge man who I did not know. I didn’t mind having my leg rub against my boyfriend’s, but I did mind having my leg rub against some stranger. I brought my legs closer together, I moved closer to my boyfriend—to no avail. I was forced to sit through the show feeling some other man’s leg against my own.
The problem with this is that I was the one moving, I was the one trying to take up less space. The man next to me, never batted an eyelash over the situation, nor did he try to bring his legs closer together. Yes, I am aware of the male genital area but I have never seen men walking down the street as if they were straddled on a horse or prepared to allow a semi-truck drive through their legs. Why do they insist on sitting like that then?
This blogger discusses the Hispanic male as the culprit behind this action, but really all males do it. It’s something they learn unconsciously. Women close their legs, men open theirs. Women are ashamed of their genital area, men are not. This is pure social convention and social mystification of sexuality.
Of course there are many reasons for this, but the constant hiding of female genitalia probably contributes to an overwhelming sense of shame about it. While little boys can run naked with people comment positively on their sexual parts of course they will grow up with a quite different understanding and relationship with their private parts than women do.
Even masturbation and self touching is something often associated with men rather than women. Men use their hands, women use dildos. The companies that produce dildos to help satisfy women sexually wouldn't make their hefty profits if more women just used their hands. Vaginal climax (the “mature” type of climax, according to Freud) is difficult—and some argue impossible—to reach without clitoral stimulation (Freud believed that climax is “immature” reinforcing the need of the male penis, or some phallic object to do the trick).
Think about gynecological examinations which women learn are something they need to do every year. We go see a virtual stranger, spread our legs, and allow that person (most often a man) look at, open up, and stick something into our vaginas. How many of those women who visit gynecologists ever look at themselves? Touch themselves? Have ever even tried? If this is offending you, disgusting you, don't worry—you are sharing the sentiments of most people in our culture.
I also think that the way men would sit with their legs spread apart and women usually with legs crossed, typically shown in the image you posted, must have it's psychological effects. It must give men an amount of power and in reverse it causes a loss of power for women, that we aren't or hardly aware of most of the times. The fact that it may feel to us annoying-like in the example you gave when you made more space for the huge guy, but he didn't do anything to give you more space in return-is a sign that they are tapping from our energy (our power). They take literally more space in than us and this I'm sure happens also on an energetic level, as we humans exist out of energy and exchange energy. People can suck energy from each other, through physical or emotional oppression to subtle psychological manipulations like in this example.
ReplyDeleteI also agree on the fact that boys receive more easily positive comments on their genitals and learn to be proud of it and see it as healthy, whereas girls are taught to be ashamed and from an early age on learn to associate it primarly with disease and malfunctioning (nowadays even young girls who start their periods are brought to the gynecologist by their mothers, out of fear something might be wrong with them--talk about some distorted rite of passage to enter womanhood).
Apart from the social control being exercized on women and young girls to keep their legs closed, there is also a natural tendency I think for women to not go sit somewhere in public like men do with their legs that much apart, because women spread their legs naturally when they are horny, hence also the unconscious disgust that parents show when their daughters have their legs spread. I think because most of us don't want sex with anyone in public, we don't want to get ourselves horny for that matter in public. Of course, the unconscious habit of always *crossing* the legs by many women is obviously more due to the subtle social pressure they are brought up with (well illustrated in the picture of your article), but I also think that spreading the legs, even in a non-sexual context gives sexual signals to our brains to make us feel sexually aroused. Men don't have this as far as I know, yet I find they are sending sexual signals out, shamelessly when I see them sitting in a chair with their legs that far apart. It's also very rude I find and as women we shouldn't give them more space than they need. It's about equality on every level, also when it comes to taking your space at the waiting room from the dentist, for example.
On the other hand, women are taught that it's perfectly okay to have their legs spread as far as possible for an often male stranger, the gynecologist, who even inserts his or her own fingers and a foreign object inside us, and this scenario would magically erase all sexual connotations, just because the stranger is wearing a white coat. Nobody needs to tell me that this has absolutely no effects on a woman's psyche and sexuality. It is the case in a patriachal world that a woman is either forced to hide her sexuality or forced to have it exploited-in the name of health, goodness, religion, art, science, humour, etc. It's all about control and often through controlling her sexually and her sexuality. In the way she wants to experience her sexuality she is controlled and also literally her sexual organs (gynecology) and through controlling her sexually (by forcing sex on her, like in rape and pelvic exams).
Men generally are enthusiastic about camel-toes. The male analogy is moose-knuckles. I think most of the criticism comes from women themselves, because camel-toes are sexually suggestive and possibly unhygienic.
ReplyDeleteMen open their legs wide to accommodate their balls. Women are encouraged not to open their legs because it can reveal knickers and because it has connotations of inviting or intimating sex. However, the same is true of men in kilts or sarongs.