The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #100865   Message #2029517
Posted By: Azizi
18-Apr-07 - 09:50 PM
Thread Name: BS: 'cleaning lady' as insult
Subject: RE: BS: 'cleaning lady' as insult
Fwiw, here's some info on how people throughout the ages and in different cultures have considered gap teeth:

"...Over the years I've heard different stories and tales about this trait: A gap in your teeth is the sign of Venus - the goddess of love! I've been told. Being gap-toothed was regarded as a sign of a strongly-sexed nature in the Middle Ages as told in The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale from "The Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer. In some African tribes having a gap in your front teeth was a sign of wisdom and in France they call it "les dents du bonheur" (teeth of happiness)! There was even a film made by Les Blank in 1987 called Gap-Toothed Women, which explores different connotations of gap-teeth such as a beauty mark or as a sign of an amorous nature.

I've also heard that it's a sign of wealth, now, I don't know about that one! but, perhaps if we could ask some well known and not so well known gap-toothed celebrities they would agree."

http://www.luckygap.co.uk/
{a website for folks with gaps in their front teeth}

-snip-

The good thing about not using only one standard of physical beauty is that folks don't have to agree on what constitutes beauty.