Little of the human body had to be concealed for modesty's sake. In informal settings, men went naked except for a belt with a piece of string attached holding their foreskin shut over their glans penis. Women covered their pubic area with small aprons or bunches of fragrant plant material when in the presence of men – although these parts could be exposed in protest. Pre-pubescent children wore no clothes at all. There was no shame or modesty attached to women's breasts, and therefore no garments devoted to concealing them; the bodices () now worn in performances became standard costume only in the 1950s. The European colonists regarded nudity as obscene, and cited it as a sign of Māori racial inferiority (calling them "naked savages").