The Naked Woman: A Study of the Female Body

162 Pages·2004·32.61 MB·English

by  Desmond Morris

"MORRIS'S BOOK GIVES AN ELEGANT VIEW OF
NATURE'S TIMELESS EVOLUTIONARY PROCESSES AND
ONE OF ITS MOST SOPHISTICATED CREATIONS: WOMAN.
— Helen Fisher, The New York Times Book
societies have tried to improve on nature, modifying a
1 embellishing the female body in a thousand different wa,
In this new study, bestselling author and world-famous hum
behaviorist Desmond Morris turns his skill and attention to L
female form. Highlighting the evolutionary functions of biologii
features that ail women share, Morris explores the enhancemei
and constraints that human societies have developed in the qm
for the perfect female form.
Written from a zoologist's perspective and packed full <
scientific fact, fascinating accounts, and thought-provoking cone
sions, The Naked Woman builds on Desmond Morris's unrival
experience as an observer of the human animal.
"Morris casts his discerning eye upon the feminine form in this to
to-toe tour of all things female in a continuation of the inqu
he began with the seminal The Naked Ape.... Always entertain!
Morris takes a complex subject and cogently dissects it in finedeJ
for a critically enlightening experience." —Booklist
DESMOND MORRIS has a Ph.D. in zoology from Oxford and is the author ail
international bestsellers The Naked Ape and Manwatching. He makes freqpi
appearances in television shows and films on human and animal behaviocJ
friendly and accessible approach makes him popular with adults and chMi
and he is now one of the best-known figures in the field of natural histot^
is also an accomplished artist.
C-OVER DESIGN BY STEVE SN!
ISBN 978-0-312-3355:
www.thomasdunnebooks.com
www.stmartins.com
THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS
ST. MARTIN'S GRIFFIN
175 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10010 9 "78031 2H33853411
ALSO BY DESMOND MORRIS
The Biology of Art
The Mammals: a Guide to the living Species
Men and Snakes (co-author)
Men and Apes (co-author) THE NAKED WOMAN
Men and Pandas (co-author)
Zootime
Primate Ethology (editor)
The Naked Ape
The Human Zoo
Patterns of Reproductive Behaviour
Intimate Behaviour
Manwatching: a Field-guide to Human Behaviour
Gestures: Their Origins and Distributions (co-author)
Animal Days (autobiography)
A Study of the
The Soccer Tribe
The Giant Panda (co-author)
Female Body
Inrock (fiction)
The Book of Ages
The Art of Ancient Cyprus
Bodywatching: a Field-guide to the Human Species
Catwatching
Dogwatching
The Secret Surrealist
Catlore
Desmond Morris
The Human Nestbuilders
Horsewatching
The Animal Contract
Animalwatching: a Field-guide to Animal Behaviour
Babywatching
Christmas Watching
The World of Animals
The Naked Ape Trilogy
The Human Animal: a Personal View of the Human Species
Bodytalk: A World Guide to Gestures
Catworld: a Feline Encyclopedia
The Human Sexes: A Natural History of Man and Woman
Cool Cats: the 100 Cat Breeds of the World
Body Guards: Protective Amulets and Charms
The Naked Ape and Cosmetic Behaviour (co-author) (in Japanese)
The Naked Eye (autobiography)
Dogs: a Dictionary of Dog Breeds
Peoplewatching
The Silent Language (in Italian) THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS
The Nature of Happiness (in Italian) ST. MARTIN'S GRIFFIN n NEW YORK
CONTENTS
Picture Credits vn
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction ix
1. TheEvolution 1
2. The Hair 5
3. The Brow 22
THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.
4. The Ears 35
An imprint of St. Martin's Press.
5. The Eyes 45
THE NAKED WOMAN. Copyright © 200,4 by Desmond Morris. All rights reserved. 6. The Nose 61
Printed in the United States of America. For information, address St. Martin's 7. The Cheeks 71
Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010. 8. The Lips 79
9. The Mouth 93
www.thomasdunnebooks.com
10. The Neck 102
www.stmartins.com
11. TheShoulders 110
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 12. TheArms 117
13. TheHands 126
Morris, Desmond. 14. The Breasts 142
The naked woman : a study of the female body / Desmond Morris. 15. TheWaist 160
p. cm. 16. The Hips 169
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-33853-4
17. The Belly 174
ISBN-10: 0-312-33853-8
1. Women. 2. Women—Physiology. 3. Women—Evolution. 4. Body, 18. The Back 184
Human—Social aspects. 5. Sex role. I. Title. 19. ThePubic Hair 192
20. The Genitals 203
HQ1206.M657 2005 21. The Buttocks 220
306.4—<lc22 22. The Legs 234
2005048414
23. The Feet 248
First published in Great Britain by Jonathan Cape
References 257
Index 267
10 9 8 7 6 5 4
PICTURE CREDITS
Hair: 1 above Aquarius Library; 1 below Perou/www.perouinc.com; 2 above Powerstock.com/
E Bernager; 2 below Magnum Photos/Ferdinando Scianna; 3 above Gettyimages/Hulton
Archives; 3 below Rex Features/Still Press Agency. Eyebrows: 1 above Rapho/Fransoise
Huguier; 1 below Corbis/Bettmann; 2 above left AKG Images; 2 above right Hutchison
Library/Sarah Errington; 2 below left Gettyimages/Maurizio Cigognetti; 2 below right Rex
Features. Ears: 1 above left Rex Features/Mark Campbell; 1 above right Robert Estall Photo
Library/Carol Beckwith/Angela Fisher; 1 below Royal Geographical Society/C Boulanger.
Eyes: 1 above Aquarius Library; 1 below left Rex Features/Richard Jones; 1 below right
Photolibrary.com; 2 above Colin Campbell; 2 below left Topham Picturepoint/IMAS; 2 below
right Powerstock.com/Baldomero Fernandez. Nose: 1 above Robert Estall Photo Library/
Angela Beckwith/Carol Beckwith; 1 below Eye Ubiquitous/Bennett Dean. Cheeks: 1 above
left Magnum Photos/Bruno Barbey; 1 above right Robert Estall Photo Library/Carol Beckwith;
1 below left Eye Ubiquitous/Frank Leather; 1 below right Popperfoto.com. Lips: 1 above
Kobal Collection; 1 below left Hutchison Library/Michael Macintyre; 1 below right
Gertyimages/Paul Chesley; 2 Gettyimages/Robert Daly; 3 above left Gettyimages/Jacques
Jangoux; 3 above right Corbis/Hulton Deutsch Collection; 3 below Rex Features. Mouth:
Rex Features Neck: 1 above left Corbis/Jeremy Horner; 1 above right Robert Estall Photo
Library; 1 below left Photolibrary.com; 1 below right Hutchison Library/Michael Macintyre.
Shoulders: 1 left Perou/www.perouinc.com; 1 right Corbis/Pierre Vauthey. Arms: 1 above
left Rex Features; 1 above right Hutchison Library/Michael Macintyre; 1 below Katz Pictures.
Hands: 1 above Hutchison Library/Michael Macintyre; 1 below Topham Picturepoint/Image
Works; 2 Topham Picturepoint/Image Works. Breasts: 1 above theartarchive; 1 below Kobal
Collection; 2 above left Gettyimages; 2 above right Gettyimages/Hulton Archive; 2 below
Corbis Sygma/Stephane Cardinale. Waist: 1 left Corbis/Eric Robert; 1 above right Mary Evans
Picture Library; 1 below right Corbis/Archivo Iconografico, S.A. Hips: 1 above Gettyimages/
Ron Chappie; 1 below Topham Picturepoint. Belly: 1 above Rex Features/Yael Tzur; 1 below
Robert Estall Photo Library/Carol Beckwith. Back: 1 Rapho/Laurent Monlau/Marie-Jose
Crespin's jewellery ornaments, fashion stylist from Dakar, Senegal; 2 left Magnum Photos/Eve
Arnold; 2 right Photolibrary.com. Pubic Hair: 1 above left Rex Features; 1 above right
Magnum Photos/Thomas Hoepker; 1 below Rex Features. Buttocks: 1 above left Rex Features/
Edward Hirst; 1 above right Rex Features/Juergen; 1 below Rex Features; 2 Katz Pictures/FSP.
Legs: \t Rex Features ;1 above right Topham Picturepoint/PA; 1 below right Topham
Picturepoint. Feet: 1 above AKG Images; 1 below Rex Features/SIPA Press; 2 above Rex
Features; 2 below Topham Picturepoint/PA.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTION
I would like to express my special thanks to the following: my wife This book takes the reader on a guided tour of the female body,
Ramona for her endless encouragement and constructive criticism; explaining its many unusual features. It is not a medical text, or a
my colleague Clive Bromhall, for many valuable discussions; and psychologist's laboratory analysis, but a zoologist's portrait, cele-
from Random House, Marcella Edwards, Caroline Michel, Dan brating women as they appear in the real world, in their natural
Franklin and Ellah Allfrey, for their editorial expertise, Nadine Bazar environment.
for her painstaking picture research and David Fordham for his The human female has undergone dramatic changes during the
course of her evolution - far more than the human male. She has
inset design.
left behind many of the feminine qualities of other primates and, in
the shape of modern woman, has become a unique being of an
extraordinary kind.
Every woman has a beautiful body - beautiful because it is the
brilliant end-point of millions of years of evolution. It is loaded with
amazing adjustments and subtle refinements that make it the most
remarkable organism on the planet. Despite this, at different times
and in different places, human societies have tried to improve on
nature, modifying and embellishing the female body in a thousand
different ways. Some of these cultural elaborations have been pleas-
urable, others have been painful, but all have sought to make the
human female even more beautiful than she already is.
Local concepts of beauty have varied wildly and each human society
has developed its own ideas of what is more appealing. Some cultures
like slender figures, others prefer more rounded flesh; some like small
breasts, others relish large ones; some like white teeth, others insist
on filed teeth; some like shaven heads, others dote on long, luxuriant
hair. Even within Western culture there have been striking contrasts
as the fickle world of fashion keeps on changing its priorities.
IX
THE NAKED WOMAN INTRODUCTION
As a result, each chapter - as the book travels from head to toe centre of human societies, has had a major part to play. In ancient
- not only explains the exciting biological features that all human times the great deity was always a woman, but then, as urbaniza-
females share, but also discusses the many ways in which these tion spread, She underwent a disastrous sex change and, in simple
features have been exaggerated or suppressed, enlarged or reduced, terms, the benign Mother Goddess became the authoritarian God
and in this way attempts to give a rounded picture of the most the Father. With a vengeful male God to back them up, ruthless
fascinating subject in the world - the naked woman. holy men through the ages have ensured their own affluent secu-
rity and the higher social status of men in general, at the expense
of women who sank to a low social status that was far from their
On a personal note - this book reflects a lifelong fascination with evolutionary birthright. It was this birthright that the suffragettes
the evolution and status of the human female. A few years ago this and later the feminists sought to regain. It may be imagined that
led me to make a series for American television called The Human these women were asking for a new social respect, asserting new
Sexes in which I examined in some detail the nature of the rela- rights. But in reality they were simply seeking to have their ancient,
tionship between human males and females, all around the globe. primeval role returned to them. In the West, they largely succeeded,
The more I travelled, the more disturbed and angry I became with but elsewhere the subordination of women has continued to thrive.
the way women were being treated in many countries. Despite the After completing The Human Sexes I had become more and more
advances made by feminist rebellion in the West, there are still preoccupied with this issue and, when it was agreed that a new
millions of women in other parts of the world who are considered edition of my 1985 book Bodywatching should be prepared, I
the 'property' of males and as inferior members of society. For them, decided that, instead of following the original pattern and dealing
the feminist movement simply did not happen. with both sexes, I would confine the new book solely to the female
To me, as a zoologist who has studied human evolution, this trend body. In Bodywatching I had examined the human body from head
towards male domination is simply not in keeping with the way in to toe, taking each part of it in turn. I have kept that arrangement
which Homo sapiens has developed over a period of millions of years. for the present book, taking the reader on an anatomical tour of
Our success as a species was due to a division of labour between males inspection, from head to toe, or, to be more precise, from hair to
and females, in which the males became specialized as hunters. Living feet. Some of the text from the original Bodywatching book has
in small tribes, this meant that, with the males away hunting, the been incorporated, but very little. Although it started out as a
females were left in the very centre of social life, gathering the food revision of an old book, The Naked Woman has ended up almost
and preparing it, rearing the young, and generally organizing the tribal entirely as a new work.
settlement. As men became better at focusing on their one, crucially In each chapter I have presented the biological aspect of a partic-
important task, women became better at dealing with several prob- ular part of the female body - those aspects that all women share
lems at once. (This personality difference is still with us today.) There - and I have then gone on to examine the various ways in which
was never any question of one sex being dominant over the other. different societies have modified these biological qualities. It has
They relied totally on one another for survival. There was a primeval been an absorbing voyage of discovery and I only wish that, when
balance between the human sexes - they were different but equal. I was eighteen, I had known all that I know now - as a result of
writing this book - about the complexity of the female form.
This balance was lost when human populations grew, towns and
cities were built, and tribespeople became citizens. Religion, at the
XI
i. THE EVOLUTION
To the zoologist, human beings are tailless apes with very large
brains. Their most astonishing feature is just how incredibly
successful they have been. While other apes cower in their last
retreats, awaiting the arrival of the chainsaw, the 6,000 million
humans have infested almost the entire globe, spreading so far and
so fast that, like a plague of giant locusts, they have dramatically
changed the landscape.
The secret of their success has been their ability to live in larger
and larger populations where, even at the highest densities, they are
able to adapt to the stresses of life and continue to breed under
conditions that any other ape would find intolerable. Combined
with this ability is an insatiable curiosity that keeps them ever
searching for new challenges.
This magic combination of friendliness and curiosity has been
made possible by an evolutionary process called neoteny, which has
seen humans retain juvenile characters into adult life. Other animals
are playful when they are young, but lose this quality when they
mature. Humans remain playful all their lives - they are the Peter
Pan species that never grows up. Of course, once they have become
adult, they call play by different names; they refer to it as art or
research, sport or philosophy, music or poetry, travel or entertain-
ment. Like childhood play, all these activities involve innovation,
risk-taking, exploration and creativity. And it is these activities that
have made us truly human.
Men and women have not followed this evolutionary trend
in quite the same way. Both have gone a long way down the
1
THE NAKED WOMAN THE EVOLUTION
'childlike-adult' path, but they have advanced at slightly different The typical male body is 30 per cent stronger, 10 per cent heavier,
rates with certain features. Men are slightly more childlike in their and 7 per cent taller than the typical female body. The female body,
behaviour, women in their anatomy. For instance: being so important for reproduction, had to be better protected
At the age of thirty, men are 15 times more accident-prone than against starvation. As a result, the average woman's curvaceous body
women. This is because men have retained the risk-taking element contains 25 per cent fat, while the stringy male has only 12.5 per
of child's play more strongly than women. Although this quality cent.
frequently gets men into trouble, it was a valuable asset back in This greater retention of puppy-fat in the female was a strongly
primeval times when, in order to succeed in the hunt, men were infantile characteristic, and with it went a whole host of other juve-
forced to take risks. Primeval women were too valuable to risk on nile features that served her well. Adult males had been programmed
the hunt, but the males of the tribe were expendable, so they became by evolution to be strongly protective of their children. To thrive,
the specialized risk-takers. If a few of them died in the process, it the slow-growing human offspring required the assistance of both
did not reduce the breeding abilities of the small tribes, but if a few parents. Paternal responses to the rounded, fat-covered bodies of
women died, then the breeding rate was immediately threatened. It human babies were so strong that they could be exploited by the
is important to remember that, in primeval times, there were so few adult females. The more physical baby features the females displayed,
of us alive on the planet that breeding rates were all-important. the more protective responses they could elicit in their mates.
There are more male inventors than female inventors. Risk-taking The result of this was that adult women's voices remained higher
was not only physical, it was also mental. Innovation always involves pitched than men's. Deep male voices operate at 130-145 cycles a
risk - trying out something unknown rather than relying on well- second. High female voices operate at 230-255 cycles a second. In
tried, trusted traditions. Women had to be cautious. In their primeval other words, women kept childlike voices. Women also retained
role at the very centre of tribal society, with responsibility for almost more juvenile facial features and, most conspicuously, kept their
everything except hunting, they could not afford to make costly childlike hair pattern. While adult males grew their heavier brows,
mistakes. During the course of evolution they became better at doing chins and noses, and their moustaches, beards and hairy chests,
several things at once; they became more fluent verbal communi- women kept their smooth, finer-boned, baby-faces.
cators; their senses of smell, hearing, touch and colour vision were So, to sum up - as the human sexes advanced down their evolu-
all superior to those of the males; they became better nurturers - tionary pathway, towards greater and greater neoteny, the males
more sensitive parents; and they became more resistant to disease behaved in a more and more childlike way, while showing fewer
- their health as mothers was vitally important. physical changes, while the females developed more and more child-
All of this added up to a difference in male and female brains, like physical qualities, while showing fewer childlike mental
in which men retained more 'little boy' features than women did qualities.
'little girl' qualities. Men became more imaginative and sometimes It is important to make a point here about the degree of differ-
perverse. Women became more sensible and caring. These differ- ence between men and women. I have been concentrating on listing
ences suited their roles in society. They complemented one another the various differences between the sexes, but it is crucial to
and the combination spelled success. remember that both human sexes are 100 times more neotenous in
Physically the story was rather different. Because of the new every respect than the sexes of other species. The differences between
division of labour that was evolving, men had to be physically men and women are very real and very interesting, but they remain
stronger, and more athletic, for the hunt. The average male body very slight. I have dwelt on them here only because it is important
contains 28 kg (57 Ib) of muscle, the female only 15 kg (33 Ib). to establish, at the start, the fact that the human female's body is
THE NAKED WOMAN
more advanced - that is, more neotenous - than the male's in many
ways. Understanding this will help to clarify many of the features
of the female anatomy that we meet as we travel from head to toe.
It does not explain everything, because there have, in addition, been
many highly specialized evolutionary developments in female
2,. THE HAIR
anatomy, particularly in sexual and reproductive features, that make
a woman's body such a highly evolved and wonderfully refined
organism. As we shall see . . .
There is scarcely a woman alive today who allows her hair to grow
as nature intended. If she did, she would end up with a mane that
reached down to her knees, or, if she were dark-skinned, with a
huge woolly bush that dominated her skull. Just how our remote,
primeval ancestors managed to cope with these extravagant hair
patterns, before they had invented knives, scissors, combs and other
grooming tools, is never discussed by anthropologists, perhaps
because they have no answer. Often, when prehistoric people are
described in books, the illustrations show, in their imaginative recon-
structions, women who have somehow mysteriously paid a visit to
the hairdresser before posing. Their hair is always too short. Unless
hairdressing, rather than prostitution, is the world's oldest profes-
sion, there is something wrong here, and the error conceals one of
the great mysteries of female anatomy - namely, why does the human
female grow such ridiculously long tresses? In an ancient, tribal
world, such an exaggerated, swishing cape of hair would prove to
be a serious encumbrance, reminiscent of a peacock's tail. What was
the evolutionary advantage of such an excessive development?
Even odder is the fact that, apart from the top of her head, her
armpits and her genitals, the typical human female is virtually hair-
less. It is true that, under a magnifying glass, it is possible to see
tiny, stunted hairs all over her skin, but from a distance these are
invisible and her skin is functionally naked. This makes her metre-
long head hair even more outlandish.
It is not too difficult to trace the human hair pattern back to its
origins. When a chimpanzee foetus is about twenty-six weeks old