"Her loins were burning"

Yeah, everyone know this tired phrase. No longer cringe-worthy, it now only outlines a pieces as bad romance fiction.

Then, while browsing Soc Images, I saw this:

Spoiler:

And then I was like... Loins? My lower back only burns when I've twisted something horribly wrong. Is this picture inaccurate, or have I been imagining the wrong body part being on fire this whole time?

P.S. the article was about the idea of women = pieces of meat but equally, pieces of meat = women.

There's a difference between anatomical loins and a butcher's cut of loins.

The pic is kinda right for the position of a buther's cut of the loin, at least in beef and pork. But in terms of anatomy, the loin is another name for your groin (and ribs, and lower back).

Saying that, that pic is all over the place in terms of it's labels... You shouldn't find both rump and round on the same animal, one's American the other's British. (In the US there are three or four different cuts for the loin - Top, Bottom, silver and sir, to name a few, while in the UK that'd the Sirloin and that's it. Also what an American would call the round would be sold here as either rump, silverside and/or topside). But's that's only in beef or pork, as far as I know... I dunno about poultry.. Also, I'm pretty sure you'd only get breast off of poultry anyhow, that area in a cow is the brisket, and I think it's actually part of the shoulder in pork.

Yeah, you can only get breast off of poultry (chickens, ducks, geese, etc.).

WD-40s right, though; the loins (at least in humans) refer to the groin area. Though the only circumstances I've ever heard them referred to as 'loins' was in either Biblical or historical literature ('girding one's loins') or badly written porn.

Edited to add: You can get 'Breast of Lamb,' though the area it comes from is basically identical to beef or pork short-ribs.

I asked for a lamb shank in a Liverpool boozer so it came out and stabbed me.

"Loins are burning" sounds like a nasty infection.

"From forth the fatal loins of these two foes.
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life"

I misread that as "her lions were burning" and have no idea why I found that interesting.

"Loins burning"

Shit, there's something about that phrase. It doesn't bring out a picture of burning genitals but... I feel like I'm having sex thirty years late.

"Her loins were burning and she hurried into the kitchen to take the pan out of the oven."

Just for once, I'd like to see the phrase "her loins were burning" in reference to an arson attack on a butcher's shop.

The problem with the phrase isn't that it's bad in itself (though it's a bit purple by modern standards). The problem is that it's so damn cliched. It's so tied with bad romantic novels that (like "it was a dark and stormy night"), it can no longer be used seriously without sniggers.