Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Body language revisited

Luca, my four year old, was prancing across the floor the other day, her hips making like a metronome, when she stopped, literally flounced and swirled around to face me. "Do you know how walks like that?" she asked me. "Tia Neiva. When she walks her butt is always dancing." And she swirled back around and started the metronome. "I think it's pretty," she said, literally throwing me a coquettish look over her shoulder.

With the millions of physical gestures available for consumption, it is fascinating which beats these children pick up. In the lovely perpetual heat of summer, one of Luca's favorite activities is to face the mirror, naked as the day, and dance. If there is no music, she sings. If there is music, she still sometimes sings her own song. Her moves run from nice square physical kinds of motions to these new curvier things, many of them gathered around her pudenda.

I keep trying to think back - have Rocki and I ever shown a particular interest in her ass or general mound of Venus? (I'm sorry - even my feminist self has a hard time referring to Luca's pussy as a cunt. Even pussy seems sexualized. She still hasn't really started masturbating yet, so I'll keep it Venusian for awhile.) I don't think we have. But when she is dancing, all things centered between her hips get quite the work out with the back and forth and the wiggle wiggle wiggle. She doesn't watch MTV or anything beyond school where she might have learned this. She does watch assorted Carnaval videos over and over again, fascinated by the samba and working hard to get her feet to move that fast. Watching her dance, it seems like there must be something else at play.

Is it just that body physics work that way - around your core are the hinges that make up your body and if you're dancing, it's fun to move those hinges? The center stays still or else it is wiggled with intention.

Watching her body makes me pay more attention to mine - both its aging aspect and how well I wiggle my mound.

4 comments:

Vikki said...

I truly envy the comfort our children have in their bodies. I hope they can hold onto it...

Kristin said...

I, for some reason agree with Brandon. Maybe we need therapy.

Vikki said...

I agree with both Brandon and Kristin. I'm sure that's a terrible shock...

Susan said...

Wow.. if folks haven't read it, read Brandon's blog about this. Go back to my original page and click on Brandon's blog. He's got a post about this blog. I didn't expect this blog to affect anyone like that - it gives me the strange ones to say pussy or cunt in reference to Luca -but I always think the problem is with how women are sexualized and not given the benefit of just having biology. And Luca is a female who seems to plan on remaining a woman as she grows and I hope to hell she has great sex when she gets there - with her womanly parts and whatever else she chooses to use. Whhheeee. I don't know why that doesn't feel strange to talk about. Now I have to think... and you're right, Vikki, lovingly not a shock.