Elongated labia

Elongated labia (also known as sinus pudoris or macronympha,[1] and colloquially as khoikhoi apron or hottentot apron) is a feature of certain Khoekhoe and other African women[citation needed] who develop, whether naturally or through artificial stretching, relatively elongated labia minora, which may hang up to 10 centimetres (4 in) outside the rest of the vulva when they are standing in an upright position.

[2] The characteristics of this trait were known as early as the 1680s, the first European note on the subject being made by Anderson and Iverson, who visited the Cape of Good Hope in 1644, in relation to the "Hottentots" of that region,[3] but became extensively documented in the late 18th and 19th century.

[5][clarification needed] When Captain James Cook reached Cape Town in 1771, towards the end of his first voyage, he acknowledged being “very desirous to determine the great question among natural historians, whether the women of this country have or have not that fleshy flap or apron which has been called the sinus pudoris”; eventually a physician described treating patients with labia ranging from 1.3 to 7.6 or 10.2 centimetres (1⁄2 to 3 or 4 in) long.

[7] According to Schapera, some females were observed to exhibit elongated labia minora which sometimes projected as much as 10 cm below the vulva when standing.

[8] There was debate among these early anthropologists as to whether and in what circumstances such instances of elongated labia should be considered a physiological feature or the result of artificial manipulation.