Tongue Magazine
Fall 2002
Why Men Are Fascinated with Big Breasts
By Dr. Ava Cadell
Titties, tits, ta-tas, boobs, melons, jugs, knockers, honkers, headlights, twins, bazookas, bazongas, rack, cantaloupes, peaches, yabos, pomegranates, ya-yas, hee-haws, honeydews, boobs/boobies, cups, balloons, mammaries, hooters, bazookers, nips, coconuts, rascals, waps, baps, buns, cushions, dirty pillows, bust, chest, bosoms, bouncy castles, puppies, funbags, chubbas, and chebs.
The male fascination with breasts starts from the moment he is born and is a direct result of being breastfed as a baby. An infant has basic instincts that draw him towards his mother. He can actually smell her milk. The comfort a child receives by being nestled close to a mother’s breasts is one of total safety from the outside world. The feelings newborn experiences when suckling his mother’s breast include oral satisfaction, nourishment, nurturance, and unconditional love. Images of the mother’s breasts are imbedded in his brain and resurface periodically as sexual fantasies. Sigmund Freud said that a child’s first erotic object is the mother’s breast. Not only mother’s love, but also sexual love--starting with the pleasure of kissing--centers around the breast.
“What about the men who weren’t breastfed?” you may be wondering to yourself. Many men who were bottle-fed are just as fascinated with breasts as those who were breastfed, especially if their mothers had large breasts. These men who were deprived of oral satisfaction during infancy are even more fascinated with breasts as they get older. Touching a girl’s breast for the first time can be an initiation into adulthood for some boys, becoming a lifelong obsession and perpetual preoccupation for many men. They hunger for women with large breasts and often become obsessed with them. You may wonder why women don’t react the same way as men after being breastfed or breast deprived. It may be simply because women grow their own breasts. However, women who were breastfed and nurtured by their mothers have a healthier opinion of their own breasts in their adulthood.
Men’s fascination with breasts is also due to the visible dominance of breasts. The other sex organs are more hidden and less accessible. I guarantee that if men’s penises were as highly visible as our breasts, protruding blatantly out of their pants, women would be just as fascinated with them as men are with breasts. I also believe that men are more attracted to women with big breasts because they feel less threatened by them mentally. Large breasted women are often categorized by men as dumb, and they are often visualized as easy to seduce and more sexual in bed than small breasted women. Breasts therefore become the barometer for sexuality. Having large breasts implies that a woman is more sexual. Men who date women with large breasts thus become more sexual by default.
The societal emphasis on the importance of having large breasts cannot be overstated. During World War II, large breasts stood as symbols of abundance during this time of depression. By the 1940’s, advertisers were using breasts to promote and influence everything from common household items to cars. Voluptuous movie stars like Jane Russell and Jane Mansfield dominated the screen with their large breasts. By the 1950’s, big breasts were mandatory if you wanted to become a Hollywood sex symbol.
In 1953, Hugh Hefner published the first edition of Playboy Magazine with the voluptuous Marilyn Monroe as his nude centerfold, and it was the beginning of breast mania for adolescent boys everywhere. Playboy has maintained its image by publishing nude photos of young women with either big breasts or perfect breasts. The ongoing demand for breast implants, despite the risks the procedure entails, makes it clear that today’s ideal is still a Playboy centerfold or a Barbie doll figure--both top heavy and lusted after by men. The FDA estimates that over two million women have had breast implants, primarily to please men.
Still, the obsession with breasts is not a recent phenomenon. Breasts have been celebrated, admired and envied throughout the ages, as evinced in ancient art and fashion. In 1600 BC, there were sculptures of Minoan bare breasted high priestesses. Thereafter, many statues portrayed multi-breasted goddesses to signify power. In ancient Egypt, women adorned their breasts with primitive paintings and added perfumes to attract the opposite sex. They also kept their breasts bare so that they could frequently suckle their babies. In early Rome and Greece, Nubian slaves exposed their breasts to please their masters. Greek sculptors and Athenian vases frequently depicted exposed breasts.
Even during the reign of Christianity, around 341 AD, when women were forced to wear shapeless fashions, art frequently portrayed women with one or more of their breasts exposed to signify fertility rather than sexuality.
In the 14th Century, necklines lowered, clothes tightened and breasts were once again flaunted to the delight of every red-blooded man. It was during the Renaissance period that the corset was born. Breasts were pushed up, pushed together and molded into firm protruding decorations of desire that emphasized breasts to the max.
In 1508, Michelangelo was commissioned to repaint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which he adorned with nudity in his portrayal of Adam and Eve. Rembrandt’s renowned portrait The Jewish Bride from 1666 depicts the husband holding his wife’s left breast as if he is claiming her.
In the 17th Century large breasts were the symbol of both erotica and productivity. This was an age of sensuality, wealth and power, especially in Europe, which was thriving on the success of its growing trade industry. In the 19th Century in America, female slaves were displayed bare breasted as they were put up for auction. Men judged their worth by the size and firmness of their breasts.
It should be noted that today breasts are much less sexualized in other non-Western cultures such as certain parts of Asia and Africa where breasts are not hidden under clothes or exaggerated with cleavage. In places like Bali, Indonesia and some parts of China, women walk around with their breasts exposed while they work, and it is considered natural, normal--completely void of eroticism. Perspectives on female breasts and nakedness vary enormously across cultures. For instance, at one extreme, women in certain parts of the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, are prohibited from revealing any part of their breasts in public; yet, in many Western European nations such as France, Sweden and Holland, women can parade around topless or totally naked at public beaches. In the United States, this same behavior on the part of women often results in extremely puerile behavior by men.
It could be argued that if men did not worship big breasts, women would not be obsessed with enlarging them. If the media didn’t continue to hire big-breasted women to promote products, teenage boys would not focus their sexual energy on them. Even the traditional willowy, high fashion model has now been transformed into a new, more titillating 5’11” sex symbol like Tyra Banks as seen in the pages of the Victoria Secrets catalog. And what would TV be without seeing the ever scintillating, bouncing breasts of Pamela Anderson? What's more, Oscar winning actresses like Halle Berry are drop dead gorgeous with impeccable breasts, so it’s no wonder that men are fascinated, mesmerized and often obsessed with breasts.
Whatever the biological, historical, psychological, or cultural reasons for the fascination with breasts are, the issue is even more convoluted by the existence of silicone and saline breasts. For some men who love to look at big breasts, when they find out that those perfectly perky double D’s are false, they freak out. So what are the perfect breasts?
The majority of men say their definition of the perfect breasts is a perky 36D, firm but not too firm, bouncy, not too far apart, long nipples, slight hang, medium-size areola, not took dark, and more than a handful. (A tall order, even for the most talented plastic surgeon.) They want to be able to bury their head in soft, warm flesh that jiggles when it moves. Other men admit that size really matters and don’t care if the breasts are real or fake. And, there are still other men who will compromise their size fixation if a woman has small breasts but long nipples.
This "bigger is better" tendency is analogous to Americans’ obsessions with having a bigger car, a bigger house and getting paid bigger bucks. It’s possible that some of this arrogance has transformed into a societal set of values that bigger breasts are the sexiest and most gratifying. There is so much more to a woman than a pair of breasts, and it would be revolutionary to be appreciated for the entire package-other physical attributes such as eyes, feet, smile-as well as inner beauty and sexuality.
What else is behind this passion for what is, let’s face it, ultimately just another body part? Breasts have often been compared to many round things that we find appealing, such as melons, the sun, moon, pearls. The breast has also been used to denote supremacy, possession, beauty and power. Perhaps therein lies the answer-supremacy, beauty and power-that which we desire so ardently and find so difficult to resist. Whatever shape or size breasts a woman has, the result is always the same when a man is making love to her-a direct link from the brain to the penis!
Bibliography:
Breasts: The Women’s Perspective on an American Obsession, By Carolyn Latteier, published by Harrington Park Press, 1998.
Woman: An Intimate Geography By Natalie Angier, published by Houghton Mifflin, 1999.
“Sexual History Breasts” in
www.all-beauty.net, Bustline Design, 1999.
My Bio Page - Missouri
I have perfect breasts
