beaver shot

Definition

Or: burgershot / split beaver / spread beaver , a sexually explicit photograph or movie scene in which a nude or partially nude woman is sitting or reclining in a position fully exposing her genitals and pubic hair or underpants. This is one of many beaver terms that appeared on college campuses across the country during the Roaring Twenties; it gained in popularity in the late 1960s when it became permissible to show the pubic hair in pornographic magazines. The interrogation scene with Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct (1992) barely qualifies, but the still (as seen in Playboy's 45 ^th anniversary issue) does; it's definitely a beaver scene. In the spoof, National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 (1993), Destiny Demeanor (Kathy Ireland) the same scene is cut and replaced by a shot of a Stuffed Beaver with the caption GRATUITOUS BEAVER SHOT.
Etymology: Lawrence Paros. The Erotic Tongue (1984): ' Kilgore Trout, in Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions , defined a beaver as "the photo of a woman not wearing underpants and with her legs far apart so that the growth of her vagina could be seen." He then went on to explain that: "The expression was first used by news photographers who often got to see up women's skirts at accidents, sporting events, and from underneath fire escapes and so on. They needed a code word to yell to other newsmen and friendly policemen and firemen and so on, to let them know what could be seen in case they wanted to see it. The word was this: " Beaver! " '
Synonym: gynecologic spread.
See also: beaver; beaver pose; eager beavers; split-beaver shot; wide-open beaver.