I may be mistaken but I believe the reason some people have “innie” and some have “outie” navels is due to the fact that the navel of an “outie” owner is not directly attached to the abdominal wall as it usually is. Basically the masss of scar tissue that IS the navel becomes detached and the abdominal wall seals over the area.
And the column being referenced is Why are some belly buttons “innies” and others “outies”?
And I just wanna say that of all of Slug’s illustrations, this one is probably the grossest. 
(Hey, I think I actually saw someone with a showerhead piercing the other day…)
At an “around the pool” party last year, one of the ladies started asking if we guys were uncircumcised or not (aardvark or helmet.) I answered (aardvark) and asked the ladies how many were “innies or outies.” Conversation stopped dead, and started on a different subject later. Imagine that. She expected us to talk freely about our Antennae of the Magic Twang, but none of them wanted to talk about their navels. Is there a double standard, here?What if I had asked about (mumble-)lips versus (mumble-)sleeve? Maybe the dames don’t want to talk about the Wonderful Place. What? What did you call me? Oh. that’s not new. I’ve been called a celery before.
Silly boy–girls asking guys about their equipment is “browsing” or “shopping”. Guys asking girls about their equipment is “sexist”.
Seriously, though, of course there’s a double standard. Compare and contrast two pool parties:
At Pool Party #1, conversation turns to the subject of men’s genitals, although none of them volunteers to “drop trou”.
At Pool Party #2, conversation turns to the subject of girls’ bellybuttons, and all the girls lift their shirts and show them.
Question: At the close of which pool party is it more likely that somebody will be dragged out behind the toolshed and raped?
I don’t blame the girls one bit for changing the subject to something non-sexual.
DDG, I have to disagree. I would think the navel would be a far less sexual topic than the genitalia. If she’s willing to bring up the penis, then why in the world would she be uncomfortable about the bellybutton? And your example is ludicrous. For starters, nobody has to show a bellybutton to talk about their bellybutton. And anyway, if someone at a party were inclined to be the type to rape a woman afterwords because he got excited, I am hard pressed to see how seeing a bellybutton would do the trick when the woman inquiring about his penis was not sufficient. Heck, if he’s going to justify “she wanted it”, the penis question is a far better justification than “she showed me her bellybutton and it’s an innie; she wants me!”
So the answer to your question, in my opinion, would be Pool Party #1. (And don’t let me meet the guy.)
Yeah, but a woman’s bellybutton is an important secondary sexual characteristic. Look at all the hooplah surrounding Britney’s navel.
As a guy, I can with authority state that everything about a woman is an important secondary sexual characteristic. An attractive woman is one big secondary sexual characteristic. If a guy says, “That’s a nice necklace,” he’s really saying, “Can I look at your cleavage?” If he comments on your earrings, he’s really saying, “I’d like to suck on your earlobes for you.”
However, I don’t think that changes my point. The fact that there’s a woman in the room talking to the guy is enough to justify whatever fantasies are going through his mind, if he needs a justification to take unsolicited and unwanted actions. Just look at the creeps in bars.
And another thing, I fail to see why talking about their bellybuttons would be verboten when many women now regularly show them in public. Come on!
Oh no, I said “bellybutton”, I’m going to be arrested. :rolleyes:
DDG, I have to agree that the rape thing seemed to come out of nowhere. Would ladies at a party really be so concerned about a possible rape that they wouldn’t discuss their navels? Maybe it’s just me, but if anything, the navel is no more than a tertiary sexual characteristic, maybe just higher than the elbow. It’s just a navel. I don’t recall hearing anything about Britney’s navel either.
By the way - what is the definition of an “outie”? When I was a kid, I knew a couple of people whose navels were completely convex, and that’s what I’ve always thought outies were. However, I haven’t seen one of these in 35 years or so. Do they stay that way?
There are some navels that are a convex piece in the middle of the hole, so that the convex peice is flush with the surrounding area. Would this be an outie? I have never thought so, but I don’t know.
Well, now we know who lives at the bottom of a mine shaft…
and who must not have a pre-teen daughter
DDG I think you missed the point of the story, the girls asked the guys about their cocks and they asked them their bellybuttons. Seems perfectly harmless to me. By separating the conversation into two different situations you are ignoring the fact that obviously the girls felt comfortable asking the guys about their cocks first. In AskNott’s example they best that the guys could feel comfortable doing was query about their navels. If you’ve got rape statistics to back up this situation up, please cite them. Otherwise please refrain from taking a story out of context and turning it into a confused hypothetical.
Wait a minute… This is a pool party? Aren’t most of the attendees at a pool party wearing swimsuits? And don’t most women’s swimsuits nowadays reveal the navel anyway?
And navels are not a secondary sex characteristic. A secondary sex characteristic is something which does not relate directly to reproduction, but can be used to distinguish the sexes. Having a penis, for instance, is a primary sex characteristic. Male beards and longer head hair in females are both secondary sex characteristics: If you see someone with a beard, you can be pretty sure that it’s a guy, but beardedness does not affect fertility. Both males and females have navels, though, and I don’t know of any easy way to tell a male navel from a female navel.
I think what DDG meant was that seeing a woman’s navel is considered sexy. Think low riding hip huggers and crop tops. That was how I took her meaning for my response.
Yeah, everybody has a navel and there’s no genderal differences between them.
<b>AskNott</b> Er, they probably thought you were asking about inverted nipples…
or prolapsed uteri. i can see a woman not wanting to talk about the state of her uterus. AskNott, did you specify that you were talking about belly buttons?
jb