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What do "titties" and "button" mean in Alice Walker's "The Color Purple?"

 
 
Reply Fri 20 Jan, 2012 08:20 pm
I came across some puzzles with two words - titties & button - when I was reading "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker.
The original paragraph is
"Us sleep like sisters, me and Shug. Much as I still want to be with her, much as I love to look, my titties stay soft, my little button never rise. Now I know I’m dead. But she say, Naw, just being mad, grief, wanting to kill somebody will make you feel this way. Nothing to worry about. Titties gonna perk up, button gonna rise again."
So what do titties and button mean here? Something homosexual?
 
Butrflynet
 
  4  
Reply Fri 20 Jan, 2012 09:16 pm
@Betelnut,
It is referring to the nipples on her breasts and her clitoris. Both words are slang words sometimes used to describe those body parts of a female.

It is not a homosexual reference. She thinks she must be dead, without emotions, because her body has lost any noticeable response when stimulated.

Shug is reassuring her that it is just the trauma she's been through and her sexual response will return.
0 Replies
 
Butrflynet
 
  1  
Reply Fri 20 Jan, 2012 09:30 pm
@Betelnut,
By the way, I hope you get a chance to see the movie after you've read the book.

Both are up there on my favorites list.

Here is a scene from the movie that is considered to be one of the best moments:



If you have more questions while reading it, be sure to come back and ask.
0 Replies
 
sozobe
 
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Reply Sat 21 Jan, 2012 11:04 am
@Betelnut,
"be with her" does refer to the two of them having sex, though, so it's homosexual in that way (they're both women).
0 Replies
 
 

 
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