Camel toe is a slang term that refers to the outline of a human female's labia majora, as seen through tightly fitting clothes. Due to a combination of anatomical factors and the snugness of the fabric covering it, the crotch and pudendal cleft may take on a resemblance to the forefoot of a camel.
The causes of the camel toe effect are not always obvious. Camel toe commonly occurs as a result of wearing tight fitting clothes, such as shorts, hotpants or swimwear – particularly when the labia majora are hairless and the pubic hair cannot help to mask the underlying shape of the mons.
Some fashion analysts have identified clothing design as a cause, rather than its size. Camel toe may be exacerbated by garments with a tight central seam that serves to divide the labia majora.
Uncleft "bulges" are more often visible. The degree to which a woman's mons pubis protrudes depends on a number of factors, including body weight, distribution of adipose tissue and genetic variation in anatomy.
In men, the equivalent to "camel toe" is male organs showing through clothes at the crotch, which has been referred to as a "moose knuckle".
Famous quotes containing the words camel and/or toe:
“Ask a wise man to dinner and he’ll upset everyone by his gloomy silence or tiresome questions. Invite him to a dance and you’ll have a camel prancing about. Haul him off to a public entertainment and his face will be enough to spoil the people’s entertainment.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)
“In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and the future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)