[Ads-l] sideboob

[Baker, John]

Thanks, Garson, I was curious what poster was intended.  I expect that it was either Sunburn or Saturn 3, since both posters reveal the sides of one or both breasts, although it is the inner and not the outer sides that are revealed.  It is not unusual for the earliest uses of words, especially slang, to be different from later meanings.

Contrary to the timing suggested by Chrisman-Campbell, “sideboob” is not thereafter seen until late 2005, although it’s possible that the phenomenon and not the word was popular in the early 2000s.


John Baker


From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> On Behalf Of ADSGarson O'Toole
Sent: Sunday, July 16, 2023 10:43 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: sideboob

Warning: Objectification
John notes that the famous poster of Fawcett in a red swimsuit does
not display "sideboob".

The 2022 excerpt below discusses the 1994 citation for the remark
mentioning sideboob attributed to Mike Myers. The author suggests that
Myers might have been referring to a poster for the movie Sunburn. A
google image search for posters of Farrah Fawcett in Sunburn does
yield pertinent images. However, Fawcett's bathing suit has a plunging
neckline that reveals the "inner" sides of her breasts. This does not
correspond to the modern meaning of sideboob which I think refers to
the "outer" sides of breasts.

Year: 2022
Book Title: Skirts: Fashioning Modern Femininity in the Twentieth Century
Author: Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

https://books.google.com/books?id=C5RVEAAAQBAJ&<https://books.google.com/books?id=C5RVEAAAQBAJ&>

[Begin excerpt]
The Oxford English Dictionary credits the first published use of the
term “side boob” (alt. “sideboob”) to Saturday Night Live cast member
Mike Myers, who used it in a January 30, 1994, interview with The
Sunday Times. He was referring to his first glimpse of the elusive
anatomical region, on a poster of actress Farrah Fawcett (likely the
one for her 1979 film Sunburn, in which her sleeveless wetsuit is
unzipped to just below her breasts). But 1994 was also the year
Elizabeth Hurley wore her Versace safety pin gown (see Chapter 3) and
the sideboob emerged as a new erogenous zone, piggybacking on the rise
of the naked dress. By the early 2000s, sideboob was the new cleavage,
the subject of think pieces in Salon and The New York Times.
[End excerpt]

Fawcett appeared partially nude in the 1980 movie Saturn 3. There is a
poster in which she is shown with a plunging neckline. The sides of
her breasts are visible, but the image does not fit the modern notion
of sideboob.

On Sun, Jul 16, 2023 at 6:24 PM Baker, John
<000014a9c79c3f97-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu<mailto:000014a9c79c3f97-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu>> wrote:
>
> It’s a popular term in certain venues. Urban Dictionary has it from September 17, 2005, https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sideboob<https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sideboob>
>
> A view of the female breast seen from a side; generally under loosely-fitting clothes. Very titillating (pun intended) and sexual without showing any overt nudity.
>
> There is so much sideboob at Los Angeles awards shows!
>
> My brother's g/f's sideboob totally distracted me from my own g/f.
>
>
> Almost all published uses postdate the Urban Dictionary posting, but NewsBank has an outlier example from the Sunday Times, January 30, 1994, in an article discussing token “babe” roles in movies and relying in part on an interview with the actor Mike Myers:
>
> He [sc. Myers] thinks the American actress Heather Locklear is a babe. So is his mother-in-law, so is Farrah Fawcett she was the first woman he saw on a poster where he could see what he refers to as “side boob”.
>
>
> I’m not sure what poster Myers was referring to; the famous poster of Fawcett in a red swimsuit emphasizes her breasts but does not contain sideboob, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farrah_Fawcett_red_swimsuit_poster<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farrah_Fawcett_red_swimsuit_poster>. As for Myers’s mother-in-law, that was Linda Richman, who was also the source of an affectionate parody character of the same name that Myers had created for Saturday Night Live. Richman is not otherwise particularly famous, although she is a public speaker and author.
>
>
> John Baker
>
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU<mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>> On Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter
> Sent: Friday, July 14, 2023 5:32 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU<mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: sideboob
>
> External Email - Think Before You Click
>
>
> Headline:
>
> <https://www.womenshealthmag.com/<https://www.womenshealthmag.com><https://www.womenshealthmag.com<https://www.womenshealthmag.com>>>
> Gal Gadot Just Flashed Some Major Sideboob And Legs In Minidress Pics
>
> https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/gal-gadot-just-flashed-major-165800177.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall<https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/gal-gadot-just-flashed-major-165800177.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall><https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/gal-gadot-just-flashed-major-165800177.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall<https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/gal-gadot-just-flashed-major-165800177.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall>>
>
> JL
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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