I was driving down the road when somebody headed the other way picked their nose, and I hope they didn’t but it looked like they shudder ate it. shudders
Ok. When I have little innate reactions like that I have to wonder where they came from. How did our society determine what bodily fluids are gross or not?
Snorting back nose mucus is gross, but not as gross as say snorting into your hand and wiping it or something. Snorting it into your hand and licking would be very gross.
Mucus from going down on a woman, however, is delectable.
Pee is gross, except for some people who hail its healing properties/antisepticness whatever and guzzle it back. The rest of us would rather drink quinine (not the wussy .001% stuff with lime flavouring).
Drinking blood is gross I think, except for small cuts. Certainly every time I’ve done it I’ve winced at the nasty iron flavour.
Saliva - not gross, much, to swallow your own (except to do so visibly)? Saliva from another is not gross if they are hot and it is transferred mouth to mouth.
Where’d these reactions we get come from? Do they differ in other cultures?
I strongly suspect this belongs in some other forum, just can’t imagine which, so I am inflicting it on GQ.
Oh, one more. I just noticed a thread below.
Human breast milk. Gross? Only for kids?
If it was in a milk carton would it still be gross to give kids, or only if they were older then say three?
As an aspiring medical student–I would say that there is no fluid in the human body that is inherently disgusting. But I had to train myself to look at all sorts of different aspects of the body in that sort of alternate light that gave me a wider appreciation and better understanding. Like examining a well-oiled machine. I can get right into watching surgical procedures and doing dissections without getting a weak stomach.
However–I -have- seen things that I wouldn’t wish on other people. So maybe it just varies from person to person. Urine is considered gross by some–considered glorious in the eyes of the people who drink it for their health, and considered a sexual fetish by people who are into that sort of thing. There are lactophiles, urophiles, hemophiles, all sortsa types.
People’s attitudes vary. I’ve seen recipes for making soap out of human breast milk (heh!), and I know some people who would run screaming from that.
This question, BTW, is complicated by the fact that some human secretions might carry HIV. I realize that doesn’t answer the question of “where in our history to these attitudes come from” but it’s an issue now. I keep trying to type a ranting paragraph about some questionable squeamishness about breastmilk at a daycare I know of, but then I realize that if they wanted to raise the HIV issue I suppose they’d be justified (although very paranoid). So I keep backspacing.
Human breast milk is actually a good food for some sorts of cancer patients–no matter their age. Also it’s been shown to help heal severe burns. So… medically it’s not gross. I never minded tasting my own, although I wouldn’t drink it by the glass. And I’m not sure I could bring myself to taste someone else’s. The most telling thing about my attitude happened when I couldn’t produce enough. A friend offered to let me have some of hers for my son. She always had more than her son needed, and he was the same age. I had 100% confidence about her being free of milk-transmittable diseases. But I just still felt funny about it. They do have human milk banks–so this was just unattributable squeamishness on my part. Back in the days of wet nurses, obviously, no one cared.
I’m the person who was squicked by the adult men drinking breast milk as a fetish. I’ve breastfed to an advanced age with my kids with no problems.
I do find the whole adult breastfeeding fetish scene a touch on the repulsive side. I’m not particularly interested in infantilising my parter
It’s funny how different body products are repulsive in different contexts though. My kids’ nappies don’t bother me… well, much. I find the smell of other kids’ nappies far more revolting.
I wonder why bodies are so repulsive though. Why can’t we have delightful smelling pus? I guess it is to do with danger signals and stuff. I mean if greeny grey putrescent pus actually smelt nice, we might have a problem.
