Sternocleidomastoid Muscle - Cultural Significance

Cultural Significance

• In Tom Wolfe's novel The Bonfire of the Vanities, Larry Kramer, a Bronx District Attorney and one of the novel's main protagonists, prides himself on his strong sternocleidomastoids, which he "fans out" in front of women to help give himself a more tough, masculine appearance. However, in the last chapter he is publicly described by his client Maria Ruskin as "doing something weird with his neck", which deeply wounds his ego. Its use here is possibly a dramatic device signalling the lengths ambitious men go to, looking after every ridiculous detail, in order to appear powerful.
• Creature designers often include the sternocleidomastoid muscle in models of alien characters when they want them to seem attractive and familiar to human viewers due to the muscle's uniqueness as a mammalian feature. "Even C-3PO has it, in the form of little pistons on his neck. Watch Star Trek: The good guys always have them, and the bad guys don't. It's a classic alien designer trick," notes biologist and Hollywood anatomy consultant Stuart Sumida.
• The famous Argentinian comedy/musical group Les Luthiers mention the sternocleidomastoid muscle in their song "El negro quiere bailar". The main actor (Daniel Rabinovich) is asked to move his sternocleidomastoid muscle as part of a dance class, but he erroneously interprets it as a pelvic/genital body part, and nervously covers himself with his arms.