My teef feel sensitive today, but I only have two more nights to complete my vanity project. I was wondering about why white teeth have become so “neccessary” in the past few years. One reason is probably because we can — because the technology to do it inexpensively is now there. But why are white teeth considered better?
Then I realized that it has to do with projecting healthiness. The teeth are a good indicator of one’s overall health. White and bright and straight = a healthy young person with no vitamin deficiencies or other diseases that would show on the teeth. So what if it’s a lie and your teeth were bleached and then straightened with wires! It’s the impression of good health.
Just like how women want thick hair because thick hair = healthy. Clear skin, wide-looking eyes, full lips — all indicators of youth and good health and therefore desirability. Men of course want to look healthy too. It all comes down to making yourself look like you would be healthy enough to live a long time, and raise the offspring. Funny, no?
But I already have a futurehusband, and on a conscious level he doesn’t care and he already picked me and my yellow, crooked teeth. Perhaps it was my lush, thick head of hair then? Which I am just itching to cut. It needs about three inches taken off.
I haven’t had coffee (or any strong caffeine) since Christmas day. I’ve had a couple cups of green tea in that time, but that’s it. I still psychologically crave coffee in a big way. I think I will have a cup on Saturday morning before we clean out the garage.
Last night after work I went to the yoga class at my gym. It was pretty basic and simple, but that was okay. My body is so out of shape right now; it was just right. Lots of long stretches, forward bends, hamstring work. I did some of the poses again this morning before work, then walked twelve blocks to catch the train.
Had a good time at dinner last night with eight friends. It almost became a fiasco due to the original restaurant losing power then closing, but our backup plan was good enough — heading across the street to Chow.
Lunchtime, I need to go for a walk and rest my poor lumbar back. Ugh. It will have been in this pain every day for one year in April. A whole year! Sigh.
black teef
Did you know that geishas blackened their teeth to be more alluring?
From this site: http://www.coldsteel.co.uk/articles/dentist.html
“In a dramatic contrast with western ideas of what a beautiful smile should look like, we find the practice of dyeing the teeth, popular in Japan until not so long ago. To the eyes of last century western explorers a woman with blackened teeth appeared to be disfiguring herself, and it must have been so incomprehensible to generate the theory that the blackening was done by married women to look less attractive to other men and so to prevent jealousy in their husband! Such an explanation is far from the truth, of course, the reason for it being exactly the opposite: to look more beautiful and charming. In fact, black teeth were part of the geisha attire and diffused also among men of the aristocracy. Curiously enough, the dye was obtained with a mixture of iron filing and saki that applied repeatedly to the teeth with a feather proved to be very durable for years. Alternatively, people had black porcelain teeth tailor made. Something to think about, for us western people obsessed with the whiteness of teeth… Teeth blackening was common practice also in many areas of Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia. Again, we find that white teeth are compared with those of a dog or a pig and therefore blackened, for example among the tribes of the Nicobar Islands, a group east of the Bay of Bengal. In Papua New Guinea the blackening is performed during ritualistic celebrations by men only in order to become attractive to women. Options include alternatively dyeing one tooth and leaving the next white and so forth. The same practice is reported to be common in Central and South America, as well as in certain parts of Africa, like Nigeria and Morocco, where the colour preferred is not black, but red, obtained by chewing cocoa nuts. Several indian tribes colour their teeth as red is the colour that more than any pleases the gods; teeth reddening, done by using the deep scarlet resin produced by certain trees when punctured by a particular insect, used to be a wedding rite for both bride and groom. Keeping tamarind in the mouth for a few hours and then holding between the teeth for half a day a slice of lemon, it is said to cause a superficial decalcification of the enamel, thus making it easier for the dye to penetrate.”
Interesting, despite the lack of paragraph breaks.
Re: black teef
Well yeah. People are just weird. I reckon the white teeth interest is a subconcious desire, regardless of culture or fashion. I mean, healthy teeth do usually indicate a diseaseless person.
But people do all kinds of weird shit to their bodies, from staining teeth black to putting ink in their skin to piercing their genitals. Razy!