You are walking down your dorm room hallway when suddenly you feel it. You have to fart. So, what do you do? Most people hold it in, out of fear of being impolite or seeming gross. Why is that?
Farting is a completely natural bodily function that helps relieve pressure in the abdomen. They are caused by air bubbles produced by the bacteria breaking down food in your stomach, or can be from swallowing air while eating or drinking.
The average person flatulates 14 to 24 times a day and people even fart in their sleep (just ask your significant other).
Back in 41 AD, the Roman Emperor Claudius tried to enact a law that would allow passing gas at the dinner table.
He believed holding it in wasn’t healthy, but the law was never put into effect. This means, even before 41 AD, farting was considered impolite. Some cultures consider farting after a meal to be a compliment, like the Inuit people of Canada. A tribe in the Amazon often cups their hands around their butt to make the sound louder.
If you happen to be alone in your room, farting would be no big deal. The only thing that matters are your circumstances. A lot of shows, usually animated, make fart jokes pretty often, and it is a talent to be able to burp the alphabet.
In one of my favorite shows, Bob’s Burgers, middle child Gene carries around a keyboard with pre-recorded sounds, and at least one of those sounds is a long fart. I think it’s hilarious, but some are uncomfortable with all of the fart jokes on that show in particular.
The culture you grew up in is a big determinator for how you view and respond to flatulence. If you were conditioned as a female, there would typically be more taboo around bodily functions.
Males tend to be allowed more leeway when it comes to making “inappropriate” noises or being rude for fun. Therefore, the gender in which you were socialized has an affect on your comfort level surrounding farts. Additionally, some families as a whole put less shame on things like burping, farting, and even other bathroom-type activities.
This is another determining factor in the culture around farting. Because breaking wind has been deemed culturally inappropriate for some time, many tips and tricks have evolved for holding in gas until it disappears or comes out silently. Wandering outside alone and letting their farts blow away in the wind is what many Russian people do. Simply walking into another room of the house can typically work because, let’s be honest, who wants to hear (and probably smell) air that just came out of your butt.
Overall, there isn’t a clear reason why farting or burping is considered impolite in society, because when you break it down, it is just as natural as sneezing, and people bless others when they sneeze.
Farts are used in a lot of humor, especially in children’s cartoons, which I believe aides in the taboo surrounding farting since it’s seen as humor, instead of just a natural function.
Next time you have to fart or burp, I hope you know that you shouldn’t be ashamed, and if it smells bad just spray some air freshener and move on with your day.
Emma Farina
Opinions Columnist
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