Elongated labia: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 01:29, 16 December 2006

Revision as of 01:33, 16 December 2006

Line 1:

[[Image:khoisan.apron.jpg|thumb||Khoisan women with pendulous labia visible.]]

'''Elongated labia''' (also known, albeit nonmedically, as '''khoikhoi apron''' or, '''hottentot apron''' or '''meat curtains''') is an apparently genetic feature of certain [[Khoisan]] groups, whose females develop relatively elongated [[labia minora]], hanging up to four inches outside their [[vulva]] when they are in an upright position. The "apron" moniker was apparently gained from the tendency of early European descriptions to misidentify the pair of labia as a single, wide organ, which they called, in French, a ''tablier'', or "apron". "[[Hottentot]]" is an acquired name for the Khoisan peoples, now seen as derogatory.

This trait was first noted as far back as the 17th century, but became extensively documented in the last part of the 18th and the 19th century.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.heretical.com/miscella/baker4.html| title=The ‘Hottentot Venus’| last=Baker |first =John R.| publisher = Oxford University Press| year=1974 |accessdate=2006-06-26}}</ref>