Stuff Mom Never Told You fan Amanda France had a piercing [snorts] question for me. 'Hey
Cristen'-oh hey-'I was wondering if you could talk about piercings. I'm a teenage girl and
I don't have any piercings which sets me apart from my friends. Can you explain how ear piercings
became so normal and even expected of girls?' Well yes Amanda France I can and I'm even
wearing my earrings in preparation. My ear lobes are kind of burning and I'm realizing
I probably should have sanitized these earrings before I put them in my earholes because it's
been honestly years since I've worn them.
Condensing the entire global history of ear piercings and earrings into one brief video
is challenging because it turns out that ear piercing is one of if not the oldest forms
of body modification practiced by people all around the world for millennia. One of the
oldest known mummies nicknamed Otzi the iceman was found with stretched ear lobes which might
have come from piercing or from wearing something along the lines of those gages that you see
super cool barista types wear. I don't know why this is my cool barista voice. Ear piercing
is not only an ancient tradition but also a fascinatingly cross-cultural one carried
out for all sorts of reasons including religious persuasions, superstition, rites of passage,
celebration or purely for aesthetic reasons. In ancient Egypt gold lotus blossom shaped
earrings were especially hot among the stylish crowd. Heading farther South in Africa, the
Maasai people who are indigenous to modern day Kenya have long practiced ear piercing
as well. Moving East ear piercings and even nose piercings have long been traditions in
India. In ancient China before Buddha found religion, he commonly wore heavy ear jewelry
which is why when you see statues of Buddha is always depicted with distended stretched-out
ear lobes. Hopping over an ocean to the Americas, the Aztecs, Mayans and other indigenous groups
might pierce their ears, noses and tongues for spiritual purposes and also to make them
look even fiercer on the battlefield. Do l look fierce? If we narrow our focus to Europe
and the United States, the gender pattern of ear piercing starts off most notably among
men. Famously superstitious sailors would pierce their ears with the belief that it
would give them better long-distance sight. Those sailors were trend-setters because by
the time the Renaissance era rolled around well-heeled gentlemen were sporting earrings
as a sign of their status and sometimes their availability. Unmarried guys who wanted to
impress some maidens would wear super fancy bejeweled earrings to catch their attention,
saying, 'Hey. Hey you see the ah, see the size of this earring?' Shakespeare? Yeah he
wore an earring. Women at this time were also sporting earrings and if we move forward to
the seventeenth and eighteenth century, pearl drop earrings in particular were popular among
European and American women hence the famous Vermeer painting, not to be confused with
the movie starring Scarlett Johansson, Girl with the Pearl Earring. What largely determined
whether women were wearing earrings in any given era was the popular hair style of the
day. If it covered the ears there was really no since in wearing that ear jewelry. Then
you see in the Victorian Era earrings making a comeback as updos are on the rise. Moving
into the twentieth century clip-on earrings have a game-changing moment starting in the
1920s. No piercing required. It's actually not until the 1960s ear piercing becomes a
common part of American girlhood as we think of it today. These are my very favorite earrings
in the whole wide world because a) the were given to me by one of my best friends and
b) they match my tattoo. And the fast spread of ear piercing among young women in America
is an example of the power of teenage culture which was certainly having a heyday in the
1960s with things like rock and roll, hippies, the sexual revolution the Civil Rights movement,
etcetera. Based on all the research that I've done it seems like the answer to why ear piercing
is so common among girls and almost expected of them is because one time not too long ago
girls just decided to start piercing their ears sometimes even at home. Insert obligatory
warning about the increased risks of ear infections due to DIY piercings. Or if you want to take
an even longer view of it girls pierce their ears because well, humans have been piercing
their ears for like ever. At least since the days of old Otzi the iceman. And he knew what
was up. He had those cool gages. Hey [cough]. Very [cough] that's what you get when you
try to make puns. Kind of like when people refer to women as females [robot voice]. Okay.
The next time you talk to him you can be like, 'Hey you wanna know what you have in common
with a many thousand year old mummy? Your gages. Can I get a macchiato? One more time.
As in [ice cream truck music]--is this a joke? Is this performance art? Getting interrupted
by an ice-cream truck is not delightful because you know what that means? You can't go out
and get ice-cream!