Terms Which Have Disappeared

[LizzieMaine]

We always just said "tit" when the occasion to refer to that anatomical part came up -- I never heard my mother or grandmother ever use any other term. One of the popular catch-phrases of my childhood was "Titty up! I'm a tongue-tied towboy!" ("Giddy-up, I'm a tongue tied cowboy!")

"Breast" was where the white meat came from on a chicken, and "chest" was what a man had. The main exception was to refer to "breast cancer" by that name, but in whispered tones -- it was considered such a thing of horror that it wasn't spoken of out loud.

 

[Fading Fast]

We always just said "tit" when the occasion to refer to that anatomical part came up -- I never heard my mother or grandmother ever use any other term.

"Breast" was where the white meat came from on a chicken. The main exception was to refer to "breast cancer" by that name, but in whispered tones -- it was considered such a thing of horror that it wasn't spoken of out loud.

Okay, so the word with or without an "s" just didn't exist as a vulgarity up there. Odd and very interesting.

To this day - and my girlfriend thinks it odd - I always lower my voice when I say "cancer" because that's what everyone did when I grew up (not only in my house, but also my neighborhood, school, etc.). It's so ingrained that I do it without thinking.

 

[scottyrocks]

In recent years I've heard the "s" word used to connote something akin to "exceptionally favorable," as in "now there's the s***!"

Along with modern variations variations such as 'shizz,' and 'shiznit,' etc. You know how today's kids abhor cussing.

 

[tonyb]

In your circles was the word considered vulgar if used in another context? For example, where I grew up (working class NJ), if you were politely referring to a woman's breasts, you would say "breast" or "chest" or (if you were 500 years old) "bosom," but not "tits."

So a woman might say, I had to have a chest X-ray or my breasts X-rayed, but never my "tits" X-rayed. Would a man in your circles say his wife went this morning to get her "tits" examined? Would that be considered normal or polite?

I'm asking because the word was clearly rude where I grew up and I'm just wondering if there could have been that great a difference in connotation 300 or so miles away.

In the working-class Upper Midwest of my early years the word fell into the inappropriate-in-polite-company-if-not-quite-vulgar category. If it was just us men folk (boys included) with dirt under our fingernails and a couple-three weeks overdue for a haircut the word could be used without fear of a dirty look or the back of a hand. But I knew without having to be told that it wasn't to be uttered where it might be overheard by more sensitive sorts.

 

[tonyb]

We always just said "tit" when the occasion to refer to that anatomical part came up -- I never heard my mother or grandmother ever use any other term. One of the popular catch-phrases of my childhood was "Titty up! I'm a tongue-tied towboy!" ("Giddy-up, I'm a tongue tied cowboy!")

"Breast" was where the white meat came from on a chicken, and "chest" was what a man had. The main exception was to refer to "breast cancer" by that name, but in whispered tones -- it was considered such a thing of horror that it wasn't spoken of out loud.

I've heard many a woman refer to her breasts as "the girls." But I don't recall hearing that usage until the past decade or so.

 

[Zombie_61]

In the working-class Upper Midwest of my early years the word fell into the inappropriate-in-polite-company-if-not-quite-vulgar category. If it was just us men folk (boys included) with dirt under our fingernails and a couple-three weeks overdue for a haircut the word could be used without fear of a dirty look or the back of a hand. But I knew without having to be told that it wasn't to be uttered where it might be overheard by more sensitive sorts.

This has been my experience throughout my life here in southern California. In a group of boys or men the word was used without a thought, but more often than not if even one girl or woman was present the more "family friendly" term "boob" or "boobs" was used. In fact, it's been a long time since I've heard a woman use either "tit" or "tits" even in company in which it would be acceptable to do so. For that reason alone, it seems to make the word a bit more lewd or vulgar.

 

[3fingers]

I've heard many a woman refer to her breasts as "the girls." But I don't recall hearing that usage until the past decade or so.

"The twins" also seems to have gained popularity in some circles.

 

[BlueTrain]

Chances are, if you never heard the word "girls" as used to mean a woman's breasts, it was because women refrained from referring to them in your presence. My wife, however, says "boobs," but rarely has the occasion to do so. To me, however, that word implies larger breasts--correctly or not.

Moving along, "nipples" never seemed to be used in a vulgar way. A baby bottle (never heard it called anything else) had a nipple. A woman's breast has a nipple and so does a man's chest. Yet I don't recall any reference to a nipple in any conversation ever with one exception. I don't recall how the subject came up but my daughter informed me that she knew a guy with pierced nipples. In fact, come to think of it, I may have heard reference to pierced nipples but the emphasis was on the piercing, not the nipple. Mind you, I have seen other body parts with piercings and they all give me a funny feeling in my stomach. Seeing a pierced eyebrow makes me feel the same as if I had seen someone with a icepick stuck in their chest.

It's funny the rules that must be followed with regards to bodily display, covered or uncovered. It is probably considered very impolite and daring for a woman's nipples to be obvious, yet woe to a woman who is flat-chested.

I guess I'm used to pierced ears by now.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

I still use "shindig," not to mean a party, necessarily, but any beyond-the-everyday gathering of more than a few people.

Ah! TV memories from my early adolescence!

Shindig!
Hullabaloo

 

[3fingers]

Ah! TV memories from my early adolescence!

Shindig!
Hullabaloo

Hootenanny!
Shivaree

 

[Fading Fast]

... yet woe to a woman who is flat-chested....

Yet, in the '20s, women (at least the of-the-moment flappers) were doing everything they could to look flat chested (and hip-less). It's all cyclical / it's all vogue until it isn't.

Heck, many of the biggest actresses of the '30s - idealized by men and women - would be considered flat chested or small breasted by today's surgery enhanced standards.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There were quite a few topless acts at the 1939-40 World's Fair, and surviving home movie footage indicates that the vast majority of the young ladies thus exhibited were quite small-breasted. The modern craze for the pneumatic bosom is largely a creation of the postwar era.

 

[BlueTrain]

Sally Rand had her own exhibit at the San Francisco World's Fair, which you are maybe referring to, otherwise known as the Golden Gate Exhibition. It was called Sally Rand's Nude Ranch. Frankly, it's difficult to imagine such a thing today. It's also a lot more interesting than the fact that some of the exhibitors were at war with one another.

 

[Fading Fast]

There were quite a few topless acts at the 1939-40 World's Fair, and surviving home movie footage indicates that the vast majority of the young ladies thus exhibited were quite small-breasted. The modern craze for the pneumatic bosom is largely a creation of the postwar era.

A postwar thing enhanced (tee-tee) by surgical advancements. My guess is if we hadn't "discovered" a way to make anyone's breasts big, the usual cycles of big or small breasts being "in" would have continued. Also, there'd be more size variety - at any given time - as God or nature's natural variance would mean actresses of all sizes would be represented. Now, sadly IMHO, small-breasted actresses must feel tremendous pressure to have surgery - hence, much less variation today.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Sally was famously quoted as saying "I never made any money until I took my panties off," but that's not who I had in mind. The Amusement Zone at the New York fair had quite a few topless/nude attractions: "Living Magazine Covers," "20,000 Legs Under The Sea," "Amazons In No Man's Land," and the "Congress Of World's Beauties" were all exhibtionist exhibits where cynical Hunter College sophomores made a couple of bucks a day running around with their clothes off. Here the Male Gaze was rampant after Ma and the kiddies went off to look at Elsie the Cow.

These weren't the kind of gritty sideshows they had in the Top Hat Theatre tent at your local county fair -- all of these NYWF attractions were always "on the highest artistic plane," it says in the guidebook.

 

[Fading Fast]

Sally was famously quoted as saying "I never made any money until I took my panties off," but that's not who I had in mind. The Amusement Zone at the New York fair had quite a few topless/nude attractions: "Living Magazine Covers," "20,000 Legs Under The Sea," "Amazons In No Man's Land," and the "Congress Of World's Beauties" were all exhibtionist exhibits where cynical Hunter College sophomores made a couple of bucks a day running around with their clothes off. Here the Male Gaze was rampant after Ma and the kiddies went off to look at Elsie the Cow.

These weren't the kind of gritty sideshows they had in the Top Hat Theatre tent at your local county fair -- all of these NYWF attractions were always "on the highest artistic plane," it says in the guidebook.

Lizzie, was there a slice of the reverse occurring back then - men "on display" for women? Today there are some male strip clubs, but was there something similar going on back in the Era? There appears to always be some version of / venue for women "on display," seemingly no matter the time period.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Not really. There were "physical culture" magazines full of rotogravure photos of muscular semi-nude men in unusual poses, but the primary consumers of this material seem to have been gay men. Women were known to ogle good-looking baseball players and yell out appreciative comments from the grandstand when someone like Ted Kluszewski came to bat with his sleeves cut off, but that wasn't quite on the level of "20,000 Legs Under The Sea."

Somewhere around the mid-fifties, tennis star Gussie Moran was commissioned by Sport Magazine to write an article discussing the handsomest men in the major leagues, and she came up with Indians second baseman Bobby Avila as the prizewinner. Pff. Give me Carl Furillo any day.

 

[Zombie_61]

...It's funny the rules that must be followed with regards to bodily display, covered or uncovered...

It has always struck me as odd that the U.S. is considered to be one of the, if not the, most advanced countries on the planet, yet most Americans' opinions on nudity and the human body are still so antiquated and puritanical. I'm quite sure religion has played a large part in this since the country and Christianity have walked hand-in-hand through the years from the moment Caucasians invaded the continent, but at times it borders on the ridiculous even when presented in a clinical/non-sexual manner.

 

[3fingers]

It has always struck me as odd that the U.S. is considered to be one of the, if not the, most advanced countries on the planet, yet most Americans' opinions on nudity and the human body are still so antiquated and puritanical. I'm quite sure religion has played a large part in this since the country and Christianity have walked hand-in-hand through the years from the moment Caucasians invaded the continent, but at times it borders on the ridiculous even when presented in a clinical/non-sexual manner.

I am not a nudist by any stretch of the imagination, but I don't particularly care if somebody else is.
I think shame and learned self consciousness are powerful things. Imparted from toddlerhood, they define our outlook until the end.
We have ingrained shame into people from birth and comparing ourselves to the "ideal" whatever that means is a national obsession. I used to work for the YMCA years ago. The little people all changed for swimming together, girls and boys alike. I noticed over the years that those kids tended to be more accepting of others than those who did not have the same experience. Not scientific by any means, but I found it interesting.

 

[BlueTrain]

I have never been sure that nudity and sex are ever separated, except, perhaps, for the "little people." That's not to say that sex is sinful or evil, only that to say that it's difficult to honestly admit that the two are unrelated, even in a clinical way. On the other hand, it's said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If so, then so is everything else.

Some people have apparently not been taught about shame and consequently do shameful things.