Cooties
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cooties is a fictional disease and a slang word used primarily by North American children to refer to a highly along gender lines, as in "Mary Jane O'Connor, stay away from those boys or you might get cooties!" The Commonwealth/British English equivalent is the "lurgy".
Originally, the term implied body lice, but over time this became generalised first to any sort of lice, including head lice, then later to purely imaginary stand-ins for just about anything that is considered repulsive. Although the origin is not explicitly known, it can be speculated that the imaginary disease was conceived from reference to how cooties (meaning body lice) can be spread through physical contact with the infested body region. This theory could explain how children developed the idea that cooties can only be spread to the opposite sex. Cooties started out as something the boys had, but was quickly associated with girls too. Cootie can also be used as a verb, as in "Don't touch that book! It was cootied by a boy!"
In some areas, boys are thought to be immune to catching cooties from another boy, and likewise for girls: so as a result cooties can only be spread by contact between the sexes. However, once infected with the cooties of the opposite sex, those cooties can be spread to members of the same sex. Ex. Sara catches "boy cooties" from Ryan, so Laura should avoid Sara lest she catch Sara's "boy cooties."
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[edit] Etymology
The term is thought to have originated in the trenches of World War I, but its origin is uncertain. The term is used rarely in the UK and Europe, generally only as a joke directed towards the Americans who coined the term. (The UK has its own version, a fictitious infectious disease called the lurgy - from "The Dreaded Lurgi" of The Goons.) It may derive from the Malay word kutu, meaning biting insect, alternatively, the word kutu describes headlice in several Pacific Island languages and may have been introduced to the USA via Polynesia, although this theory has little support.
Another plausible theory has its roots in the American occupation of the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century. U.S. soldiers, afflicted with lice that festered under the humid conditions of the tropics, referred to these insects by their Tagalog term, "kuto". Eventually, these soldiers returned to the U.S. mainland, carrying their own version of the word with them. In time, the name stuck.
Cooties also are a deterrent to contact with the opposite sex, therefore a form of repression of child sexuality. Cooties are also used by alpha children to brand their less popular peers as untouchables to the followers of the alpha children, thus establishing social dominance (See bully). It is a well known word, used in many TV shows and movies.
[edit] The "Cootie Catcher"
Made of folded pink paper, the "cootie catcher" is a popular handheld toy among schoolchildren. One surface is blank, the other drawn with dots, the "cooties". The joke is to show the blank side, then run the toy through someone's hair, revealing the dotted surface. It's made so each surface looks the same apart from the "cooties". A variation of the same toy is known to British schoolchildren (and in some locations in the US) as the Fortune teller.
[edit] Protection from cooties
Other than avoiding those with the fictional disease, there are a variety of ways to cure or prevent cooties. A "cootie shot" can be administered in a variety of ways. The most common is to draw two circles and two dots with a finger on one's arm, while saying the rhyme "Circle circle, dot dot, now you have a Cootie shot." This immunization is often followed by "Circle circle, square square, now you have it everywhere", which protects the entire body, and occasionally with "Circle circle, knife knife, now you have it all your life." Cootie shots can also be a punch to a shoulder.
Another variation of the cootie shot is for the infectee to apply the tip of a pen or pencil to their arm as if using a hypodermic needle (with no actual penetration of the skin). (See also: Blood-borne disease)
Some children write P.A.L. on one of their legs for protection prior to entering an infected area (such as school), P.A.L. standing for Protection Against Lurgi.
Another standard cure is to transmit the cooties to someone else. This etiology has found its way into games of tag, which are occasionally described in terms of spreading cooties.
[edit] Cooties in the media
Cooties have been referred to in a number of episodes of The Simpsons. In one episode ("Homer Badman") Bart claims they come from "a girl's butt".
Cooties feature in the 1990s television series Dexter's Laboratory, as small, winged purple insects with curly snouts that inhabit the bedroom of Dexter's older sister, Dee Dee.
Calvin, of the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, does not seem to worry about catching cooties from close contact with individuals. However, he fears that he will catch them when he is the only boy on a playground full of girls. Apparently he believes that they are received from airborne transmission, as he begins breathing through his shirt and shouting "Air filter! Air filter!". In the same strip, Susie Derkins, one of the secondary characters who Calvin is with at the time, assures him that "Stupidity produces antibodies."
"Cooties" is a game of chance for preschoolers where the object is to be the first to construct a multicolored model of a "cootie" (a six-legged, multicolored insectoid).
Cooties are also a type of letterbox, part of an outdoor hobby known as letterboxing. These 'cooties' are passed from person to person, and usually discreetly. The 'finder' of that cootie then stamps into it and tries to pass it off on someone new.
Cooties have also been glamourized by Jamie Kennedy on MTV'S series Blowin Up. Jamie and his rapping friend Stu Stone have a song that says "circle circle dot dot i've got my cooties shot".
Cooties are mentioned in the September 14, 2006 strip of the famous online grad school comics Piled Higher and Deeper: Cecilia, a grad student character, is afraid to catch "Undergrad cooties".
Cooties are mentioned as mice in a childs hair in "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee.
"Cooties" was also one of the competitive song and dance numbers in the Broadway Musical, "Hairspray". It was sung by Amber announcing that her rival Tracy Turnblad has cooties. The song incorporates "Circle, Circle, Dot, Dot, Dot" as a dance move.
In the 1994 Hollywood hit, Pulp Fiction, cooties are mentioned in the context of sharing a drinking straw.
