Sounds like that camel might not be a virgin for long.

Didn't farmers (at least old-fashioned ones in the movies) refer to their cows as "girls"?

Well, and then there's that old joke about Scotsmen and their kilts...

In the Middle East, they say when a woman is hungry,

it is like when a camel is hungry.

And, they have a saying, when a woman is tired,

it is like when a camel is tired.

Also, they say, when a woman is old,

it is like when a camel is old.

tell me the camel kicked him in the nuts...

Yikes!

Camel toes always look nicer after a pedicure.

But many men in different parts of the world - for better or for worse - anthropomorphize animals, cars, sailboats and so on with female attributes and virtues.

Sexist? Sure - though not necessarily malicious in intent. Usually it's along the lines of "My Mustang GT has some sexy curves....and her V-8 purrs like a kitten in heat." [Think 'Eleanor' in the movie "Gone in 60 Seconds".]

Camels do have pretty eyes. They're big and brown and have long eyelashes. So what if their owner compares them to pretty girls and smooches them?

to men, or talk about them affectionately.

or maybe instead of vibrators, it is cats, or some other accoutrement.

Seems the argument always centers on why men are imperfect by women's standards, while ignoring that women do the same exact thing themselves. fun and cute at first, but it gets tiresome.

I agree, after all I understand the ladies in Auatralia get them for their beavers.

Maybe this is Too Much Information, but: I often refer to my dog as "my little boy" and kiss him square on the mouth. Of course, I don't usually do this while discussing his virginity.

In any case, since I tend to anthropomorphize my animals, I find the Saudi camel owner's comments rather endearing.

(CAVEAT: Knowing what I know about Saudi culture, I would not be shocked if the Saudi camel owner holds truly horrifying dehumanizing beliefs about women. But I don't think that his comments about his beloved camels are in and of themselves overly disturbing.)

Oh, heavens! This isn't anything about men and women and institutional sexism and anthropromorphizing camels and imagined genders.

Camels, like other mammals, come in two genders: male and female. This is not your imagination. They even have similar reproductive systems as the primates - who after all are mammals, including hairless primates like homo sapiens.

It's far from uncommon in any sort of human/non-human interactive sphere (showjumping, dog training, heck even dolphin training) to respect the gender of the individual being addressed and use the proper, gendered pronouns: he or she. That is, we would say of a well-regarded Schutzhund competitor "he's a really reliable dog in the tracking, and quite a pleasure to watch as he works." Saying "it" would be not only disrespectful, but silly. Mammals have gender.

A quite common extension of this is to use the more informal words for gendered individuals, like "boys" or "girls." Yes, we could call them "males," or use the proper, species-specific gendered descriptors (mares, stallions, bitches, cows, bulls, and so forth) but sometimes it's just as comfortable to say that "the boys are out in the exercise yard" rather than "the male dogs are out in the exercise yard."

Perhaps not as common is to refer to a "lady" or a "gentleman," but far from unusual. I'd say one hears this alot when discussing mares: "she's quite a fine lady when doing two-tempe changes isn't she?" In the proper place and time, it's simply an extension of everyday language.

Those who spend alot of time with nonhuman mammals quite naturally come to know them as individuals - and of course gender is a part of that. We need not get all snicker-y about it, or even assume that someone who kisses a nonhuman is, you know, an odd duck like me. Affection between species, even in Saudi Arabia, isn't against the law. We do share our planet and (many of us) our everyday lives with non-human mammals. It'd be a sad world indeed if the only friends we could make and enjoy spending time with were other two-leggers. People are great, I'm also proud of the fact that humans have a clever way of bringing other species into their every day social (and familial) lives. If there's an uniquely human trait that's worth of celebration, I'd vote this is the one.

Comparing a camel to a vibrator is sort of sad. Only someone with an awfully pinched view of the living world would fail to see the problem.

Peace,

Fausty

Some years ago when I was in Jerusalem with a very pretty woman, a local Arab offered me several camels for her -- with her present! I mulled over the possibilities and kept the woman.

Camels do not have the most positive image in American culture. We know they require little water, may know about them being tempermental and will spit in your face. We know they used to shill cigarettes until their cartoony images were deemed unworthy as they might tempt children to smoke.

Consider the value a camel has for the desert-faring fellow in the story. A camel is about as valuable a critter as he could hope for. I suspect in terms of his culture, the comparison is one of flattery. It just doesn't travel well to America.

For another example, check out the "Song of Solomon" in your Bibles for some ways the ancients Middle Easterners flattered their women. How many American women do you know that would melt at hearing their breasts were like fawns and their neck like a tower?

Poetry and flattery are fleeting; without proper cultural understanding, it cannot be understood.

My dad considered trading me for a leather vest in Tijuana. And yes, that will be the first line in the first country song that I ever write.

Just a leather vest? Either that was one hell of a vest, or...

Agreed, you have a great opening line for a C&W song. "I once traded my daughter for a vest in Tijuana, just to watch her die of embarrassment."