Thursday, March 29, 2012

I Must Ask . . . Innie or Outie?

If you're born again, do you have two belly buttons? –Unknown

There were lots of people with vision correction last week and it seems that the method of choice is glasses. Glasses are quick and easy and they get the job done. You put them on, and bam! You can see. Glasses can be a fun accessory or even a reflection of your personality. Every time I take the Little Bugs to get their eyes checked I try on about fifty different frames looking for just the right ones for my next pair of back-up glasses. I haven't found them yet. I've had had my back-up glasses for close to six years now. When I put them on, I remind me a little bit of my grandma on my dad's side. The trouble with glasses comes when you can't find where you put them, or if they get scratched or bent or broken. Contacts are more high maintenance, but three of us brave them every day. I can see so much better with them. One person was brave enough to have lasik surgery. And to the three people who won the draw in the genetics lottery, count yourselves lucky!

Today's topic is a silly one; belly buttons. Innies seem to be the most common, so I asked Mr. Google what causes an outie, because he knows everything. Well, he knows everything except for what causes an outie belly button. There were only suppositions {umbilical hernia and extra skin in the healing process} and not really any solid answers. But I learned a whole lot about belly buttons that I didn't know before. Like there are 1,400 strains of bacteria in a human belly button. Makes you want to find the Clorox wipes, doesn't it?

Something that I'd never stopped to consider is that a belly button is actually a scar. It is a socially acceptable scar, but a scar nonetheless. It is a scar that people like to adorn and show off. But before bare midriffs, low rise jean and belly button piercings and tattoos, belly buttons were once censored. Joan Collins had to wear a jewel in her belly button in the 1950's film Land of the Pharoahs. And Barbara Eden's Jeannie costume had to cover her button completely. Cher was the first to show her belly button on TV during the 70's and she got in trouble for it. In 1989, Ariel from The Little Mermaid was the first Disney character, animated or otherwise to show a belly button.

I thought it was interesting what Ann Landers had to say on the subject, “I do not believe any female of good taste would wear an outfit where her navel shows. This does not include women in costumes or those on beaches in bikinis. The same goes for males. An adult male who wears hip-huggers so low rates zero minus 10 on the scale of taste — it's my opinion but it's one I feel strongly about.” Times and trends have changed. On most days you see at least one belly button that is not your own. Regardless, you'll never my belly button.

It's an innie, in case you were wondering.

And now, I must ask . . . is your belly button an innie or an outie?

8 comments:

Angie said...

My premie baby had an umbilical hernia and it made his stick waaay out but then it healed. Now it is neither in nor out but mostly flat. Just thought I was put that in there for good measure. ;)

Samantha said...

In my younger days I was quite fit and a gymnast with very low body fat.. my belly button was an outie back then but as I got older and had kids and now have.. well not low body fat, I now have an innie! So my answer to what causes an outie (other than the obvious herniated belly button outie) is super low body fat.

Jen said...

I'm an innie ;) but I do have a silly belly button story. One night at Burning Man we opened a Belly Button Bar. We lured people in by offering them belly button measurements, then we invited them in to take shots from people's belly buttons. We had a huge crowd of people and were having so much rowdy fun. Then a girl, who was a little hesitant at first, revealed that she has two belly buttons! A huge cheer came from the crowd and we did double shots (only a tiny capful of alcohol fits in a belly button, BTW). She was the star of our impromptu bar. Later, she admitted that she had always been self conscious of her belly buttons and always covered them. Well, she finally found a crowd who appreciated her "flaws!"

Paulette said...

Gee, I'm fascinated by the two belly button story above. How does that happen?

Another innie here. I thought outies were cool when I was younger, but I'm happy with my innie now. I think I'll get out the hydrogen peroxide and Q-tips though.

Mary said...

Yep, Extra cleaning of my "Innie" in the Shower sounds good to me... You'll never see mine either. No Bikinis for this body!

Shay said...

Ugh...Im off to find some wipes for the inside of my belly button...

But Im an innie...really innie. I think there may be things in there that I lost years ago it's so deep.

Jennifer Lovell said...

I have a sister-in-law who no longer has a belly button, because of a surgery. I saw her pregnant belly-buttonless belly one day and it really stunned me to not see the expected button there.

I'm an innie. After I had my last baby, I couldn't believe how deep that innie went! It's back to normal depths now : ).

By the way, no offense but I'll play the devil's advocate for a moment...I couldn't care less how many strains of bacteria are in my belly button. I probably will not be spending any extra time cleaning in there, but, I'm not planning on eating or drinking anything out of there, ever! Ha ha : ).

whimsyfox said...

I have an extreme innie. The kind that you're not sure the Qtip can even reach to the back. The kind that never popped out to tell me when the baby was done. I felt kinda cheated about that, cuz I was really looking forward to seeing what the back of it looked like!

My hubby & younger daughter have really cute innie-outies. They definitely go in, but inside the hole there's a little round nub filling about half the hole. My daughter's was like that since the cord fell off, so my theory is that belly buttons are a scar and everyone just scars differently. Though it is interesting that both the hubby & daughters are the same, so maybe there's a belly button gene?