Eat me! Drink me!

[ornoth]

Let’s talk biological functions, okay? Here’s the deal. See if you can spot the pattern, and the one biological function that breaks the pattern…

Picking boogers: unacceptable in public.
Popping zits: unacceptable in public.
Ejaculation: unacceptable in public.
Vomiting: unacceptable in public.
Defecation: unacceptable in public.
Urination: unacceptable in public.
Flatulation: unacceptable in public.
Vaginal flatulation: unacceptable in public.
Menstruation: unacceptable in public.
Breast-feeding: generally unacceptable in public.
Bleeding: generally unacceptable in public.
Belching: mildly unacceptable in public.
Sneezing: mildly unacceptable in public.
Blowing one’s nose: mildly unacceptable in public.
Spitting: mildly unacceptable in public.
Eating and drinking: often a public event, and socially required.

So this raises the purely rhetorical question: how is it that literally every body function known to man is stigmatized, but eating is virtually required to be a ritualized social event? What’s so special about eating? Why isn’t it as stigmatized as, say, its direct opposite: vomiting?

Yeah, yeah, I know there are arguments to be made about how it needs to be social. Communal cooking and all that rot. And yes, I know of two body functions—breathing and crying—which actually are socially acceptable.

But none of that invalidates the obvious contrast: eating is a social event, but every other bodily function is unwelcome and considered unclean. I could easily envision a society where public eating would be shunned as socially unacceptable, just like everything else. And sometimes I have felt uncomfortable eating in public, or being with someone who was eating in public.

Dunno. It’s just a thought. The contrast between how this bodily function is viewed versus all the others intrigues me, and irritates my sense of order and logic.

Comments

[angelovernh.livejournal.com]

And yet, when very overweight people eat in public they are looked down on and given dirty looks.

Looking at your list, the other bodily functions are output. Eating and drinking are input/intake. Most of the time people don't mind seeing things go in, but not come out..

[awfief.livejournal.com]

I was gonna make that same comment, about the input vs output thing.

BTW, I don't see crying as acceptable in public. It's acceptable among friends, where nose-picking may not be, but crying in the middle of a bus?

But the question "Why?" is answered by legacy. For legacy reasons, food was important (still is in many cultures that don't have as much excess). Celebrations had a lot of it. That part of society hasn't gone away. Expensive food is better, more food is better, and the more and the more expensive, the more the celebration.

Sacrificing food for deities was seen as huge because someone could eat a lamb or a goat, but instead it was given to the deities. And folks back then STARVED. So, um, that's why. Legacy.