Do Geisha's Show Their Arms to Attract the Men?
does anyone know about geisha traditions?
is it true that they cover their body and skin, but then lift their sleeves and expose their arms to attract the men?
and why do they paint their faces and necks white?
thank you so much!
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I don’t ever remember reading anything about geisha showing off their arms in any of the real, factual things I’ve read about geisha. I suppose it’s possible, but the only place I’ve come across it is "Memoirs of a Geisha" so I’m not inclined to believe it without some evidence from an actual scholarly source.
As for the paint, it’s mostly because back in the old days when there wasn’t electricity, the paint made it easier for a geisha and her movements to be seen in the dim candlelight. Yeah, there’s an element of wearing a mask and accentuating the sensual neckline and all that, but there’s also a perfectly mundane and utilitarian explanation as well.
Well, I don’t know much about that, but here’s an educated guess. Apparently, Japanese men have a different perception of what’s sexy (at least they used to be, by now they probably like naked everything as much as Americans do). So the back of the neck and the wrists were considered attractive. If a geisha playfully (accidentally-on-purpose, of course) showed a man a bit of skin on her forearm, that was considered attractive. As for the "masks" of white powder they used to wear, it’s about geisha being artists, not mere women. It’s like they’re in character when they entertain, and the mask represent the character they play – an entertainer. But they used to leave some skin around the mask and on the neck, so the whole make-up looked very artificial – it kept men guessing as to what lies beneath the mask, and who the real woman is.