Curiosity Takes You to Odd Places

It’s warming up here in Los Angeles, and it got me thinking about how both men and women are going to be getting ready for beach season. Hitting the gym, getting tan, and getting a Brazilian? (Well, at least for women anyways.) That thought alone got me thinking – why do they call it a Brazilian? It can’t be named after the country’s geographic region. That country has no real defined shape. It looks like a childlike drawing of a seahorse. It’s just kind of all over the place – not very Brazilian. Is Brazil simply the capital of pubic technology? I don’t know. I guess it could be possible. I don’t know a lot about their country. I have no idea what kind of government they have, or their imports and exports. Maybe they just have development teams working on this kind of stuff. It’s not all that crazy! It really seems to be taking off based on the common use of the term here in the 90′s and 2000’s! Maybe it’s one of the things that Brazil prides itself on – their soccer teams, track & field athletes, and their waxes. I can’t say for sure. I’ve never been there. If it is a staple of their country, would that mean that there are classes and college degrees in it? Could one acquire a Bachelor of the Arts in Brazilian Waxing?

Since I didn’t know that much about its origin, and I’m curious like a cat, I decided to Wiki it. A Wikipedia search on Brazilian waxing proved both humorous and more graphic than I expected from Wikipedia. I did find my information about its origin though! Apparently it dates back to a letter written in 1500 AD which says (translated into English), “their private parts were so exposed… that looking upon them we felt no shame.” Probably one of those letters he didn’t expect to go public, explaining how he spent his entire voyage starring down the natives. Our very own Tiger Woods of 1500 AD – “Just another business voyage overseas honey!” Though how could this man from the letter possibly contribute to the spread of this fashion? Seems like a hard thing to sell to his wife… “Honey, you won’t believe what the women over there do with their genitals!” That’s quite a hole you’ve dug yourself there, sir. However it happened, this letter proves that it’s not a 90’s and 2000’s thing, but a 16th century thing. What it didn’t say was whether this was a consistent trend or if it left and came back like bell-bottom jeans. Not enough letters were documented to really know. Evidence based on jokes about the evolution of Playboy magazine’s photos from the 1970’s to present time would support it being a fad that’s simply making its way back around.

I realize that I may have spent a bit too much time pondering this whole thing, but you just get curious sometimes about the origin of things and just need to throw around the possibilities. Like who first agreed to let their friend pee on their jellyfish wound? Well, that’s a trip down imagination lane that I’ll have to travel another day.

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