text: a question of manners? the other day, my neice invited me for tea.  we sat down, and after sipping tea for a minute my neice farted.  i told her that this was unbecoming of a lady and considered rude.  she was curious as to which society or civilization invented that rule -- that passing wind is rude.  frankly, i didn't know what to tell her, so i thought i'd post the question here. i'm not sure of who invented "that rule", but think of it like this:  when you burp, you shouldn't just belch out and act like nothing happened, you should say "excuse me".  it isn't really rude to "fart" because man or woman or whatever race you are, we are all humans and that isn't unusual, but if you do fart, you should say "excuse me" or "sorry", instead of laughing at it and doing it to aggrevate.