Navel gazing: Let's explore belly buttons!
May 3, 2020 6:09 AM Subscribe
According to The Atlantic, The filmmakers of 1942's Arabian Nights were forced to remove depictions of dancers wearing belly-baring costumes. Some later movies sought to exploit censorship rules by adorning an exposed navel with a piece of jewelry, such as in Follow That Camel, featuring Anita Harris. Marilyn Monroe's final film, Something's Gotta Give, delayed from its original 1962 release, would also have been the first picture to show the actress's belly button. "I guess the censors are willing to recognize that everybody has a navel," she said before her death. When the TV show I Dream of Jeannie first aired in 1965, Barbara Eden was told to cover up her navel with high-waisted pants.
If you prefer to eat belly buttons rather than read about them, consider this recipe made with pretzels, Hersey's Kisses, and M&Ms.
A listicle from The Healthy claims, among other things, that belly button plastic surgery is a big deal. In other news, squirrels, tigers, and whales–most mammals, in fact–have belly buttons but they are not as noticeable as those on people, according to Jennifer Ireland, who was the curator of mammals at the North Carolina Zoo in 2016. Some sharks also have belly buttons, but only temporarily.
Belly button piercings used to be a thing, but not so much these days. "Cassi Lopez-March, the owner of So Gold Studios in Brooklyn, revealed that she’s seen a major decrease in belly button piercings over her 17 years in the industry." If you are sick of yours, Coveteur says you can get your piercing repaired temporarily, permanently, or, perhaps, rejuvenate it in some way.
A badly written piece in Psychology Today analysed Wikipedia references to belly buttons to understand why people (in the article, primarily seemingly straight men) find belly buttons (on women, presumably) so sexy. One highlight: In contemporary literature, the distinguished Chilean-American novelist Isabel Allende, in a chapter on eggs, wrote: “I like a raw egg served on my lover’s navel, with chopped onions, salt, pepper, lemon and a drop of Tabasco.” And as weird as this “fictional dish” might seem, many a writer has noted the erotic, gastronomic delight of a lover’s placing various sweets on the navel and proceeding to lick and suck them off.
The article above does not reference the Xander's Ligament, an example of one particular belly-button adventure involving Wikipedia. From Buzzfeed, This YouTuber Made Up A Name For A Body Part. It Ended Up In A Peer-Reviewed Medical Journal.
If you'd like a little music to go with the various sweet, still sweet, and/or savoury belly button dishes, including Venus' Belly Buttons (!), consider The Belly Button Song from Vir McCoy. (Warning: Type of song some toddlers will demand to hear 118 times in a row.)
Previously on the blue:
Beer made from belly button fluff
Scientists make cheese from human toe, armpit, belly button and mouth bacteria
A wonderland of bacteria found in belly buttons
If you prefer to eat belly buttons rather than read about them, consider this recipe made with pretzels, Hersey's Kisses, and M&Ms.
A listicle from The Healthy claims, among other things, that belly button plastic surgery is a big deal. In other news, squirrels, tigers, and whales–most mammals, in fact–have belly buttons but they are not as noticeable as those on people, according to Jennifer Ireland, who was the curator of mammals at the North Carolina Zoo in 2016. Some sharks also have belly buttons, but only temporarily.
Belly button piercings used to be a thing, but not so much these days. "Cassi Lopez-March, the owner of So Gold Studios in Brooklyn, revealed that she’s seen a major decrease in belly button piercings over her 17 years in the industry." If you are sick of yours, Coveteur says you can get your piercing repaired temporarily, permanently, or, perhaps, rejuvenate it in some way.
A badly written piece in Psychology Today analysed Wikipedia references to belly buttons to understand why people (in the article, primarily seemingly straight men) find belly buttons (on women, presumably) so sexy. One highlight: In contemporary literature, the distinguished Chilean-American novelist Isabel Allende, in a chapter on eggs, wrote: “I like a raw egg served on my lover’s navel, with chopped onions, salt, pepper, lemon and a drop of Tabasco.” And as weird as this “fictional dish” might seem, many a writer has noted the erotic, gastronomic delight of a lover’s placing various sweets on the navel and proceeding to lick and suck them off.
The article above does not reference the Xander's Ligament, an example of one particular belly-button adventure involving Wikipedia. From Buzzfeed, This YouTuber Made Up A Name For A Body Part. It Ended Up In A Peer-Reviewed Medical Journal.
If you'd like a little music to go with the various sweet, still sweet, and/or savoury belly button dishes, including Venus' Belly Buttons (!), consider The Belly Button Song from Vir McCoy. (Warning: Type of song some toddlers will demand to hear 118 times in a row.)
Previously on the blue:
Beer made from belly button fluff
Scientists make cheese from human toe, armpit, belly button and mouth bacteria
A wonderland of bacteria found in belly buttons
they'll never ever show an outie
Psychologists are quick to point out that the female navel, which also cannot be revealed according to most high school dress codes, is sexualized because it is a visual analogue to to the vagina. (But not outies.)
posted by kozad at 7:33 AM on May 3, 2020
Psychologists are quick to point out that the female navel, which also cannot be revealed according to most high school dress codes, is sexualized because it is a visual analogue to to the vagina. (But not outies.)
posted by kozad at 7:33 AM on May 3, 2020
I have a belly button story (warning for grossness). No one ever told me I needed to clean my belly button. Like, not ever. Nor did anyone ever tell me that my belly button was smelly. Not my mother, not my college housemates, not my husband, not my friends, not my other family members, not eventual lovers. Was it smelly? I have no idea. Anyway, at some point in my 50s I poked my finger in my belly button and felt something odd at the bottom. It reminded me of a scab, which freaked me out because of my health anxiety. I did not want to claw a hole into my belly button, you know?
Eventually I figured out that I had a navel stone, which is something one can develop if your parents never told you to wash out your belly button and, especially, if you have a deep belly button. I got the stone out on my own, which is just as well. I discovered navel stones originally in a patient-shaming article written by a couple of physicians essentially making fun of patients who had come in worried about cancer when they had navel stones. I am so so tired of folks who shame people for simple ignorance. That is not okay. Today, my belly button is clean as a whistle but I would not let someone eat out of it. Unless they were Isabel Allende, anyway.
posted by Bella Donna at 8:22 AM on May 3, 2020 [14 favorites]
Eventually I figured out that I had a navel stone, which is something one can develop if your parents never told you to wash out your belly button and, especially, if you have a deep belly button. I got the stone out on my own, which is just as well. I discovered navel stones originally in a patient-shaming article written by a couple of physicians essentially making fun of patients who had come in worried about cancer when they had navel stones. I am so so tired of folks who shame people for simple ignorance. That is not okay. Today, my belly button is clean as a whistle but I would not let someone eat out of it. Unless they were Isabel Allende, anyway.
posted by Bella Donna at 8:22 AM on May 3, 2020 [14 favorites]
The best things belly buttons ever brought me was the word omphaloskepsis, which is one of my favorite words. I can't remember how I learned it, but I love it.
posted by tzikeh at 8:38 AM on May 3, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by tzikeh at 8:38 AM on May 3, 2020 [4 favorites]
tzikeh, I literally came in here to mention that great word. I personally learned it from an online game I used to play.
posted by Night_owl at 8:45 AM on May 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Night_owl at 8:45 AM on May 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
Great word, tzikeh and Night_owl. Based on the link, omphaloskepsis does not appear to be an especially ergonomic activity. Like, I can definitely see many physical therapy appointments in the future of any serious practitioners.
posted by Bella Donna at 9:16 AM on May 3, 2020
posted by Bella Donna at 9:16 AM on May 3, 2020
This is very timely! My 8 day old son's cord dropped off a few days ago, revealing the belly button beneath. It's been kind of incredible to watch the journey from pulsating umbilical cord to regular belly button.
Also kind of gross. Umbilical cords start smelling after a few days. It's given me a renewed interest in my own belly button, which mainly serves as a fluff capturing device.
posted by leo_r at 10:04 AM on May 3, 2020 [5 favorites]
Also kind of gross. Umbilical cords start smelling after a few days. It's given me a renewed interest in my own belly button, which mainly serves as a fluff capturing device.
posted by leo_r at 10:04 AM on May 3, 2020 [5 favorites]
My wife came up a new (French) word for the balls of lint you can find in belly buttons: kismolo. (kiz-mo-lo, n.)
posted by sneebler at 10:11 AM on May 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by sneebler at 10:11 AM on May 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
I ... don't have a belly button (and have not had one since a very young age) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . It was eliminated due to surgery. I just have a faint horizontal scar and a very faint depression where it once was. It is not something I think about too often, but it did mean that my mother had to tell me a fairly detailed version of the facts of life at the age of 6, when I was being teased by schoolmates for not having a belly button.
posted by gudrun at 10:54 AM on May 3, 2020 [6 favorites]
posted by gudrun at 10:54 AM on May 3, 2020 [6 favorites]
Yes!, I assume Karolina Kurkova's story is similar to mine. (Probably too much information for some: mine started as an emergency umbilical hernia repair when the hernia strangulated*, but there was granulation tissue so they had to operate again a year later to clean that up, and that is when the belly button went away. *Bad doctor misdiagnosed it as a stomach ache initially, but fortunately my mother knew something was really wrong and made them check me further.)
posted by gudrun at 7:21 PM on May 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by gudrun at 7:21 PM on May 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
What I don't get is that obviously culture warriors have seen these fights. They've always lost. Yet they still do the whole stompypants hissyfit thinking they're being all JL Picardover the relaxation of pointless societal taboos and dig in.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 8:09 PM on May 3, 2020
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 8:09 PM on May 3, 2020
My innie was mostly filled in by hernia surgery in 2010 or so. It's still there, but a mere divot, no longer a pothole.
posted by lhauser at 9:11 PM on May 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by lhauser at 9:11 PM on May 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
From Bill Bryson's latest book -- "The Body: A Guide For Occupants" -- comes this perhaps important piece of information:
A study of 60 people’s belly buttons found 2,368 species of bacteria, 1,458 of them “unknown to science”.
posted by dancestoblue at 1:32 AM on May 4, 2020 [2 favorites]
A study of 60 people’s belly buttons found 2,368 species of bacteria, 1,458 of them “unknown to science”.
posted by dancestoblue at 1:32 AM on May 4, 2020 [2 favorites]
My daughter was born premature and had a gastrostomy tube for three years, which provided all hydration and nutrition. We called the hole the tube went in by its proper name, stoma - until the day we removed the tube permanently and she said, look, I have two belly buttons!
That's exactly what it is, and exactly what it looks like, and I am delighted that she turned this bug into a feature. She's one of the few people we know with two belly buttons!
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 8:29 PM on May 4, 2020 [2 favorites]
That's exactly what it is, and exactly what it looks like, and I am delighted that she turned this bug into a feature. She's one of the few people we know with two belly buttons!
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 8:29 PM on May 4, 2020 [2 favorites]
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