Students at Stanford University mooning at a well-attended protest (and world record attempt) in May 1995

Mooning is the act of displaying one's bare buttocks by lowering the backside of one's trousers and underpants, usually without exposing the front side by bending forward. It is generally considered a rude and disrespectful or insulting act, but is much less offensive than flashing. Mooning is considered offensive because the buttocks are considered taboo by most cultures, and mooning therefore exposes the victim to the taboo. Also, the Maori of New Zealand moon as a sign of disrespect. It is often performed as a form of protest or simply for fun. Mooning is sometimes performed from a moving vehicle. The act of placing one's buttocks against glass while mooning (for example, a car window) is known as a pressed ham.

Formerly, mooning was slang for wandering idly and romantically pining.

Notable incidents of mooning

• During the Battle of Crécy when king Edward III of England took Caen, on the way to Crécy, several hundred Norman soldiers exposed their backsides to the English archers and many of them paid a high price for doing so. [1]

• During a visit by Queen Elisabeth II to New Zealand, a Maori mooned at the queen. His defense in court was that it was a traditional Maori form of protest and he could therefore not be charged with indecent exposure.

• In June 2000, a mass mooning event was organised outside of Buckingham Palace in England [2] by the Movement Against the Monarchy (M'AM). The idea was for anti monarchists to show their dislike of the British monarchy by performing a mass mooning at their home. However, a large police presence prevented a large scale mooning, but even so, a few individuals mooned (although there were many more who turned up to the event but were put off mooning by the large police presence). Some of them were arrested, but others managed to pose for various newspapers etc. This event is known as the Moon Against the Monarchy event.

• The Annual Mooning of Amtrak. [3] This long-running tradition occurs in Laguna Niguel, (Orange County) California, U.S.A once a year. A large group of people spend all day mooning at Amtrak trains. Some people even ride the trains on that day just so they can witness the event.

Popular culture

The film Braveheart contains a scene in which over a thousand Scottish warriors mooned the English forces, though this had not actually taken place in the historical battle depicted. Mooning scenes were included in the 1950s-set films American Graffiti and Grease. At the 2004 MTV Movie Awards, Eminem and his band mooned the crowd. On the TV series Futurama (TV series), Fry moons world-domineering billionaire robot company owner Mom by squishing his bare buttocks up against a window, eliciting her response, "You call that a pressed ham?!"

See also

• Indecent exposure

External links

• Mooning Amtrak Trains - Annual mooning of Amtrak
• Eminem moons at MTV awards
• A discussion on the history of Mooning