The BBC talks to 26-year-old Rob Swainson, who had surgery right after his birth, to correct the fact that he was born with his stomach and intestines poking through a hole in the abdominal wall. He has a "cross-shaped scar" instead of a belly button. "I thought about having one constructed when I was getting interested in girls, but not for long," he says. "You only have to look at Michael Jackson to realize it's probably best to live with what you've got." Because yeah, having an artificial navel made sounds weird. But! Doctors do it all the time, the BBC reports. For people who have tummy tucks or hernias. A plastic surgeon will create a belly button.

And the comments on this BBC story are fascinating. "Riv" writes:

I too was short-changed a navel at birth; although to this day I have no idea why. I suspect being born three months premature via caesarean section may have meant the tissue was pliable enough to gently set into a mild indentation. Any doctors out there who can confirm? I used to tell people I was grown in a vat…

"Maureen" idenifies with Karolina:

I have exactly the same sort of smooth indentation. It's the result of a repair of an umbilical hernia when I was two years old, 65 years ago. For many years now this operation, if done in the UK, would be completed with a cosmetic belly button. Perhaps The Czech republic hadn't caught up with the modern technique 24 years ago.

There's this amusing anecdote from "Bill":

Sixty years ago I was house-surgeon to a London surgeon, a real Lancelot Spratt character. He thought the umbilicus was a nasty dirty place and when operating on anyone's abdomen he would, without permission or consultation, cut it out. My job was to invent some story to tell the patient why it had been necessary. How times have changed.

And, lastly, wise words from "Edward" :

Adam and Eve didn't have belly buttons either.

Who Doesn't Have A Belly Button? [BBC News]
Victoria's Secret Model Karolina Kurkova And The Riddle Of Her Missing Belly Button [Daily Mail]

In this hostile, ultra-macho, morally arid climate, to stand up and be counted as a male vegetarian must require cojones of immense size, much bigger balls, in fact, than your average carnivorous wimp, who just goes along with the crowd.

Of course, in our collective human history, the man was the hunter while the woman collected colorful berries. Fast forward a few millennia and dudes go in for the kill on Wall Street while women forage and collect berry-colored shoes. But like all generalizations, this is only partly true. Men eat berries, women eat meat. And while there was a time that salad bars were for chicks and steakhouses were for the boys, haven't we left all that behind? Are vegetarian (or vegan) guys — presumably educated about the cruelty of factory farming — smarter, ballsier, sexier?

Full disclosure: My boyfriend is vegan. He is not a "hippie," hates camping and never comes near patchouli. He eats, among other things, popcorn, spicy noodles, French fries, jelly beans, guacamole, cookies and tacos made with beans and soy chicken, none of which could be called "rabbit food." So I don't agree with Jessica's previous post branding male vegetarians "sissies." Just like it's offensive to say that eating meat is "manly," isn't it awful to assume that not eating meat is "girly"? Why would caring about what's in your body be gender-specific? And what's up with using "sissy" or "girly" as an insult?

It Takes A Real Man To Say He Enjoys Tofu [Guardian]
Related: Soy Vey! Does Eating Tofu Lower Sperm Count? [Scientific American]
Soy-Based Foods May Lower Sperm Count: Study [Reuters]
Soy Foods 'Reduce Sperm Numbers' [BBC]
Health: Soya-Based Foods May Harm Male Fertility, Say Scientists [Guardian]
Earlier: Do More Men Really Go Vegan Because Of Pamela Anderson's Boobs?
Can Female Vegetarians And Male Carnivores Ever Find True Foodie Love?