Mostly, I feel concern for the old Rainbow Brite avatar: she had no knees. How did she shim sham with no knees? More importantly, how did she get down without knees?
After all…
Africans brought to North American were no doubt affirming their ancestral values when they sang a slave song that urged dancers to gimme de kneebone bent. To many western and central Africans, flexed joints represented life and energy, while straightened hips, elbows, and knees epitomized rigidity and death. The bent kneebone symbolized the ability to get down (12).
More talk about knees over here.