The Hand-on-Thigh Metaphor (Adapted from an excerpt from Isaac Asimov's Prelude to Foundation)
Narrator: Anything you make forbidden gains attractiveness--any body part you make forbidden gains sexual attractiveness. Reflect for a moment, would a woman's breasts be of particular interest to you in a society in which they were constantly displayed? You may think so, but would such breasts not be more interesting if they were always hidden, as they are in most societies. Let us examine, for instance, an event experienced by a certain Dors Venabili on her home planet, Cinna. Here we find her on a beach next to a lake, at one of Cinna's famed resorts. On the beaches of this planet, people are pretty lighthearted about what they wear--or don't wear. They are not so much nude beaches, though if a person were to remove all of his or her clothes it would not be much remarked upon. As Dors Venabili sits on this beach, a man with whom she had spoken earlier that day approaches her. When he goes to sit down, he places his hand on Venabili's bare thigh in order to steady himself. They speak for a minute and a half or so, and then....
Man: Here I am, my hand on your thigh. You know me barely at all, yet it seems perfectly natural to me to have my hand there. What's more, it appears to be equally natural to you, being you don't seem to mind if it remains there.
Narrator: It was only then that Venabili actually noticed the hand on her bare thigh. Bare skin in public had somehow lost some of its attractiveness, its sexual quality. It appears to be it's the hiding from view that is crucial. The young man seemed to sense this too....
Man: Yet if we were to meet in a more formal setting and you were wearing, for instance, a gown would I dare place my hand on the precise spot of your thigh it now occupies?
Narrator: Venabili and the young man laughed and continued to talk of this and that. Of course, the young man was now acutely aware of the position of his hand, and felt it no longer appropriate to keep it there. Thus, he removed it. That night at supper, Venabili dressed considerably more formal than was required, and furthermore more formal than the other women in the resort's dining room. She found the young man in question and walked up to him....
Venabili: Here I am. I'm wearing a gown, but under this gown my left thigh is bare. I give you permission. Lift the gown and place your right hand on my left thigh, precisely where you had it earlier.
Man (after starting to lift the gown, but then stopping and looking up at her): But, everyone is staring.
Venabili: I won't stop you, and I'm almost certain no one else on a resort such as this will either if I'm not making objections.
Man (while letting go of her gown): I-- I-- I can't.
Narrator: What we see here is the norms of social acceptability. It was clear that Venabili had taken the initiative and had no objections, but the young man could not bring himself to violate any proprieties. The conditions, which on the beach had been hand-on-thigh, were not hand-on-thigh in the evening. That meant more than anything logic could say. Perhaps, thus, what decides the interest and attractiveness of an activity--as well as one's ability to perform it in public--is not the activity nor the consent, but rather the social acceptability.
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