I’ve been reading about body piercings and some of the crazy places that people wear body jewelry. This all started with an email that arrived in my inbox a couple of days ago. It got me thinking about my sparse jewelry collection; and somehow that lead to me watching some extreme body piercing videos on youtube that I so wish I’d never seen. Disturbing. But at the end of the day to each his own right? What is disturbing to one person is beautiful to another.
I have never had anything pierced other than my earlobes; and those were pierced for me when I was a little girl. I’ve never wanted a nose ring or a tongue ring or a lip ring. They just all seem uncomfortable to me; and I’ve never liked wearing earrings so getting more ear piercings was never something I ever considered. I guess I’m just not a jewelry person; but just because I’m not a jewelry person should that mean I don’t buy jewelry? That was the question on my mind that brought me to this point of thinking about how attitudes towards body jewelry vary depending on who you are and how high up or low down on the social ladder you stand. And how Kate Middleton would never have been considered suitable for Prince William if she’d been the type to say ever get a piercing down there and film it and post in on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WXwa1AbyPI
What I’d like to know is…
Why did her friend accompany her if she was going to be uncomfortable sitting there while that was taking place? But the point here is that the girl in the chair would probably not have gone on to become the Duchess of Cambridge because it would have been assumed, whether true or not, that she was not a well enough bred lady to be the wife of the future king of England.
“Obama and Duke Duchess of Cambridge” by Official White House Photo by Pete Souza – Flickr (p052411ps-0314). Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
We live in a very interesting society. One in which a nose ring, tongue ring, or lip ring, when worn outside of cultures where it is part of the social norm, can either be seen as evidence of a rebellious lifestyle or just cute body jewelry worn to enhance the wearer’s appearance. It all depends on the jewelry and who is wearing it. When worn outside of cultures where piercing parts of the body for the purpose of adorning with jewelry is the norm, certain types of body jewelry can cause people to make assumptions about the person wearing it. If Katherine Middleton had been “into” body piercing and was commonly seen wearing nose rings and tongue rings and lip rings, there is very little likelihood that she would be the Duchess of Cambridge today.
“Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge” by Duchess_of_Cambridge,_16_June_2012.JPG: Carfax2
derivative work: Surtsicna – This file was derived from:
Duchess_of_Cambridge,_16_June_2012.JPG . Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Who knows what Kate Middleton’s real personality is like? Maybe she is the type who would pierce her nipple and wear nipple jewelry if doing that was as common as piercing the ear lobe and didn’t come with any kind of stigma. But when you wear certain types of body jewelry, you are assumed to be a certain type of person. Even doing something as simple as wearing multiple earrings in your ear used to be frowned upon. It is more accepted nowadays to get multiple ear piercings and wear more than one earring in your ear at a time; but there are still people who will judge someone who wears multiple earrings if the person has a certain look and if the earrings are a certain style. Kate Middleton would probably not ever be seen sporting this look below because it likely would be considered an unsuitable look for a duchess.
But the same people who might consider it a bad move on Kate’s part to adorn her earlobe with many gunmetal hoop style earrings might be more accepting if she covered her earlobes with cute little pearl studs or cute little diamond studs or whatever else her choice of allover ear jewelry as long as she maintained her regal appearance.
So what’s it all about then?
The reasons for piercing or not piercing are varied. Some people pierce for religious or spiritual reasons, while others pierce for self-expression, for aesthetic value, for sexual pleasure, to conform to their culture or to rebel against it. Some forms of piercing remain controversial, particularly when applied to youth. The display or placement of piercings have been restricted by schools, employers and religious groups. In spite of the controversy, some people have practiced extreme forms of body piercing, with Guinness bestowing World Records on individuals with hundreds and even thousands of permanent and temporary piercings. (source)
