I spoke to the Instagrammer who went viral for promoting the supposed health benefits of #ButtholeSunning (buzzfeednews.com).
Yes indeed, apparently #ButtholeSunning is a thing.
This week, a woman’s Instagram post promoting the health benefits of #ButtholeSunning (her hashtag, not mine!) became virally infamous almost overnight. And the woman be-heinie the hole spectacle, 28-year-old massage therapist Meagan Whitson, became the…butt of internet jokes (I’ll stop with these bad butt puns now, promise).
But to allow everyone else to continue with them the reporter was able to finger more detail:
Here’s what you need to know. Meagan [@metaphysicalmeagan] has been sharing photos of herself “perineum sunning” over the past month with her around 16,000 Instagram followers. In these posts, Meagan claimed just a few minutes of tanning one’s perineum—aka the area between one’s anus and the vulva or scrotum—is “the equivalent of a full day of sunlight with your clothes on.”
So actually as much a case of #TaintTanning (urbandictionary.com) as allowing them rays to get to where they usually don’t shine and with more woo-woo (ibid.) holistic health rational than the ultimate in all over tan:
According to Meagan, there are a number of health benefits of doing this, like better sleep, more energy, and a better sex drive. She also claimed it helps to attract something called your “soul tribe,” or “people who are on the same frequency and wavelength.” (I didn’t ask a doctor about any of this.)
With Meagan the “energy healer”, who is seen indulging in perineum sunning in Joshua Tree National Park on her Instagram, claiming the practice is derived from ancient Taoism, in which the perineum is “a gateway where energy enters & exits the body” and likely leaving more than just anthropologists and semioticians curious to witness the reciprocal greetings members of said “soul tribe” may make upon meeting instead of a hand shake.
She confessed to being somewhat surprised the post went viral with much more than normal dropping by to see her bare bottom while in tantric pose, but stated that rather than taking her word for the benefits, you should try it out yourself. I would not hold your breath while getting the binocs out with intention of getting them focused on some perineum in parkland next summer though.
With “unaffected and down-to-earth” Divergent actress Shailene Woodley admitting to liking to give her vag “a little vitamin D” with “vaginal sunbathing” as one of her health rituals years ago (intothegloss.com, Mar. 2014) it can only up the ante for those celebs that extol their adherence to whatever is the latest holistic health fad.
Updated 5th December 2019
With some quickly seeing the story as pictorially viral, but sadly the list being all male, with Josh Brolin getting “crazy burned” taint (thesun.co.uk), Bulletproof 360 biohacking bro Dave Asprey getting sun to his “wacky hacks” (nypost.com) and Diplo grabbing his ankles while “presenting my peace offering to climate change” (papermag.com). So, in the spirit of gender equality:
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