Earrings -- Good or Evil?


One of the blogs I read regularly is Une Femme d'un Certain Age. The blogger is my age and she often displays interesting ideas and clothes. In her last post, she raised the subject of earrings. Commenting on it, I reflected on two experiences I had years ago. I thought you might enjoy hearing the stories so I'm going to share them with you.

Earrings have existed for centuries, with changing cultural significance. The blogger told a story from her youth. Despite the blogger's pleas, her mother forbid her from wearing earrings because "only loose women" do that. Of course, her mother was associating earrings with sexual promiscuity.

I can top that story. I had a grandmother who issued a similar ban to my mother. She told my mother that “the only people who wear earrings are cannibals and Italians.” (Sorry, Italians!)

Earrings have even more cultural meaning when it comes to men. When I was a teenager back in the 1970's, very few straight men wore earrings. If they did, it mattered greatly which ear they pierced. One ear was perceived to be gay (the right one); the other not (the left one). I was hip and bohemian back then so I asked my artist-girlfriend to pierce my (non-gay) ear. She did it painfully with an ice-cube and needle. I had long hair so the earring wasn’t immediately obvious. I was living at home with my parents. One day at dinner, my mother looked at me, did a double-take, and then moaned loudly, “Oh, my God! What did you do this to me?!!”

Do you wear earrings? Are you a loose woman or cannibal?
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