# Did Hawaiian women ever wear coconut shells on their breasts? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 13, 2002, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hawaiian-women-ever-wear-coconut-shells-on-their-breasts/123671 "2002-08-13T12:07:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hawaiian-women-ever-wear-coconut-shells-on-their-breasts/123671/1 "2002-08-13T12:07:58Z")
In [this GD thread on ethnic Halloween costumes](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=130248), it is stated that one way to stereotype the Hawaiian (woman) is to depict her wearing a coconut shell bra. My GQ-- is there any credible proof that Hawaiian women actually did this? You’d think I’d know, having been born and spent 24[sup]9[/sup]/[sub]10[/sub] of my 25 years living in Hawaii. I don’t. I swear, I didn’t play hooky during all the field trips to the Bishop Museum, and honestly, I enjoyed the Polynesian Cultural Center (even though the bus ride there was a drag). I even remember my basic Hawaiian vocabulary from elementary school. But I have no recollection of seeing authentic Hawaiian clothing that had husked-out coconut shells for boobholders. Hawaiians made cloth out of plant fibers, which they dried and flattened out by pounding it with hollow wooden shaft mallets. The cloth was called kapa. They decorated it with dyes made from leaves, berries, and flowers. As I understood it, that’s all they used for common, everyday clothing until the missionaries came, and brought with them cotton, polyester, chenille, vinyl, and rhinestone-studded velvet. Traditional hula dress, as far as I know, differed only in that it was fancier, dyed with bright colors, and worn with adornments, like kukui nut, leaf, and flower leis. The only times I have seen coconut shells covering boobies is at tourist-oriented places or situations. I have seen (generic) Polynesian dancers wearing them, but they were at malls, airports, on cruise ships, the aforementioned PCC, hotels-- in a (coco)nutshell, touristy places. Though I mean no offense to tourists (really, spend more of your money, please! :D), I can’t help but question the authenticity of those representations. Tourism in Hawaii, after all, is all about selling the native landscape and culture, and it has to be made appealing. And there’s definitely appeal in a hot chick baring lots of skin with skimpy shells on her chest. The image of a hula girl wearing a green grass skirt and coconut shells on her chest is associated immediately with Hawaii. I wonder, however, if Hawaiian hula dancers never actually wore coconut shells, and if the quintessential hula dancer image was crafted by shrewd marketers. So… is there any credible documentation of Native Hawaiian traditional hula dancers wearing coconut shells? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hawaiian-women-ever-wear-coconut-shells-on-their-breasts/123671/2 "2002-08-13T12:38:40Z")
Well, I’ve spend zero percent of my life in Hawaii; so obviously I’m well-qualified to answer! I thought that pre-colonial Hawaiian women wore wraps or maybe went topless. I think the reason behind the coconuts is that it just wouldn’t do (as far as Westerners are concerned) to have women running around topless. Coconuts are associated with Hawaii and other Pacific islands, and they’re a convenient shape, so the stereotype was invented by the tourists. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hawaiian-women-ever-wear-coconut-shells-on-their-breasts/123671/3 "2002-08-13T12:42:06Z")
I’d say I’m certain they just left them out there in the warm air for all to see. I’ve seen many sketches of women from pre contact time and they are usually revealed to the world up on top. If you search for sketches of them you could probably find some. Generally if you see one wearing a coconut bra you can be pretty certain she’ll end up dancing something from Tahiti, not from Hawaii. Plus hula was a male thing, women didn’t do it until later. Plus coconuts hurt as bras! ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hawaiian-women-ever-wear-coconut-shells-on-their-breasts/123671/4 "2002-08-13T12:45:54Z")
Actually, most images prior to the 1950s that I can find of the “hula” girl show her either barebrested, with her flowing hair carefully placed over her brests or with a lei situated so there is no indication of the dreaded nipples. Because of this interesting time line, I have a hunch that the musical _South Pacific_ and the scene from it that features the song “Honey Bun” had something to do with the proliferation of coconut shell flopper stoppers. The musical was incredibly popular on Broadway, in touring companies and finally as a movie. TV ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hawaiian-women-ever-wear-coconut-shells-on-their-breasts/123671/5 "2002-08-13T13:05:34Z")
If you do a google image search for “Sandwich Islands” you’ll find several sketches from the early contact period. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hawaiian-women-ever-wear-coconut-shells-on-their-breasts/123671/6 "2002-08-13T13:39:19Z")
The use of coconuts for bras in Hawaii actually goes back quite a ways. Until horses were introduced to the Hawaiian islands by Europeans, Hawaiian kings and their knights had to travel on foot, with an accompanying woman to assist them by knocking together a pair of half-coconuts to produce the “clippity-clop” sound. This is also, incidentally, the origin of “knockers” as a synonym for breasts. ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hawaiian-women-ever-wear-coconut-shells-on-their-breasts/123671/7 "2002-08-13T13:43:15Z")
Just a side note: Having also visited the Polynesian Cultural Center I can attest that it is about as authentic as Disney’s _Pirates of the Carribbean_ exhibit. I was there after spending a week in Fiji; in Fiji there are no Mormons to slice the penes off the fertility statues. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hawaiian-women-ever-wear-coconut-shells-on-their-breasts/123671/8 "2002-08-13T14:25:02Z")
**cmkeller** , wonderfully explained!! ---
**Author:** ![JeffB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeffb/32/188_2.png) [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hawaiian-women-ever-wear-coconut-shells-on-their-breasts/123671/9 "2002-08-13T14:37:24Z")
The scary thing is that one day we will start to receive emails containing **cmkeller** ’s etymology of “knockers”. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hawaiian-women-ever-wear-coconut-shells-on-their-breasts/123671/10 "2002-08-13T16:42:45Z")
I thought the coconut shell bras were just boob-substitutes for guys in drag portraying “native girls”… ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![hapaXL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/94ad74/32.png) [@hapaXL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hapaXL)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hawaiian-women-ever-wear-coconut-shells-on-their-breasts/123671/11 "2002-08-13T17:06:06Z")
I’m pretty sure nothing resembling any type of bra was worn in Hawai’i before the missionaries came. Maybe wraps at times but mostly topless. From what I can remember, Hawaiian hula skirts were made from ti leafs. Grass skirts are Tahitian and were imported for the old school Kodak Waikiki Hula Showcase (whatever it was called). Traditional hula is religious, somewhat sedate, graceful and beautiful. Tourists thought: BORING! So a lot of Tahitian practices (extrememly fast drumming, shaking hips, flaming poi balls) were brought in and are now thought of as “Hawaiian.” Coconut bras. How stupid is that concept? It’s sad. Hard to think of a culture more pimped out and destroyed by tourism than that of Hawai’i. This discussion reminds me of a routine by 80s Local comic Andy Bumatai (this is highly paraphrased): Hawaiian greeting Captain Cook: Welcome to our beautiful islands! You are our guest! Drink our food, sample our women, you have arrived in paradise! Captain Cook: Thank you. The first thing we must do is to clothe these naked native women in the name of God. Hawaiian mumbling angrily: Where’s my spear…? ---
**Author:** ![gingersnap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f04885/32.png) [@gingersnap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gingersnap)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hawaiian-women-ever-wear-coconut-shells-on-their-breasts/123671/12 "2002-08-13T17:17:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Osiris \* > \*\*If you do a google image search for “Sandwich Islands” you’ll find several sketches from the early contact period. \*\* Um a google search of “Sandwich Islands” returned 249,000 hits. Mind being a little more specific? ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hawaiian-women-ever-wear-coconut-shells-on-their-breasts/123671/13 "2002-08-13T18:06:34Z")
Gingersnap, there are four tabs above the Google search window; the default mode is “Web”; click on the “Image” tab and Google will return only images, displayed as thumbnails. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hawaiian-women-ever-wear-coconut-shells-on-their-breasts/123671/14 "2002-08-13T23:15:47Z")
Where I live, there are “chinese” restaurants advertising “polynisian” cuisine. Having never been to polynisia, I have no idea what this is. However, people teel me that real Hawaiian food is pretty gross stuff-steamed pork and mashed taro root (poi). Is it true that poi can be used as a substitute for library paste? Like all things touched by the exoticism of time and distance, the reality is that polynisia and hawaii just ain’t all that exotic-the grass skirt stuff was probably invented by some writer, just like Victor Bergeron in vented the whole Hawaiian restaurant thing (back in the 1930’s). ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2002, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hawaiian-women-ever-wear-coconut-shells-on-their-breasts/123671/15 "2002-08-14T00:54:38Z")
Not to sound unappreciative ;), but does anyone have any cites for anything? Following **TV time** ’s _South Pacific_ hunch-- Hawaii’s not in the south Pacific, so is it that the idea of south Pacific female islanders wearing shell bras got generalized across _all_ female islanders in the Pacific? I’ve never seen the musical, but I think it’s set in Tahiti, not Hawaii, so it only makes sense if people decided that Tahitian is similar enough to Hawaiian to assume that what goes for one goes for the other. If wearing shell bras was made up by the author(s) of _South Pacific_, was there any basis for it, or did they just think it was cool if women wore shells? As others have posted, coconut shell bras are uncomfortable, and Native Hawaiians (pre-Missionary) didn’t seem to give a pig’s patootie if women went around barechested, so I can’t see Hawaiians as having been the ones that decided that women ought to pack themselves into hard, small shells. ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2002, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hawaiian-women-ever-wear-coconut-shells-on-their-breasts/123671/16 "2002-08-14T01:01:21Z")
Victor who? Invented Hawaiian restaurants? I’m sorry, but what are you talking about? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2002, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hawaiian-women-ever-wear-coconut-shells-on-their-breasts/123671/17 "2002-08-14T01:19:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AudreyK \* > \*\*Victor who? Invented Hawaiian restaurants? I’m sorry, but what are you talking about? 😕 \*\* **Trader Vic**. Cecil gives a little of the history in [Who invented the cocktail umbrella?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/001117.html) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2002, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hawaiian-women-ever-wear-coconut-shells-on-their-breasts/123671/18 "2002-08-14T01:20:56Z")
[Trader Vic’s](http://www.tradervics.com/home.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2002, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hawaiian-women-ever-wear-coconut-shells-on-their-breasts/123671/19 "2002-08-14T01:25:18Z")
[Coconutbras.com](http://www.coconutbras.com/) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2002, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hawaiian-women-ever-wear-coconut-shells-on-their-breasts/123671/20 "2002-08-14T01:28:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AudreyK \* > \*\*…until the missionaries came, and brought with them cotton, polyester, chenille, vinyl, and rhinestone-studded velvet. > \*\* What church were those missionaries from? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hawaiian-women-ever-wear-coconut-shells-on-their-breasts/123671.md?page=2)