It is time that social attitudes towards women’s nipples changed. All
the publicity including Miley Cyrus on Jimmy Kimmel's talk show recently
has been women’s public perception of themselves but there is a male
perspective that could be more far reaching.
Men are sexualised into ogling women’s “boobies” when they reach puberty. It is part of our culture, but it is not universally and not biologically part humanity. We have the absurd situation where being topless in public is illegal, but it is widespread to find publicly hidden pornography including live shows as well as the ubiquitous InterNet.
From an early age, boys are taught that women’s breasts are secret things that they must not see. Of course the forbidden becomes an obsession with most boys. At the stage in life when they become sexually mature they spontaneously experience sexual arousal due to hormone production. Then for the first time, they are exposed to the fully naked female breast at the same time they experience their first sexual union. Therefore the sight of the usually concealed nipple becomes a trigger for sexual arousal that remains throughout life.
There is a particular difficulty in Australia where Aboriginal women have no problem with going topless. In dances and rituals many paint their breasts in “figure enhancing” ways, though of course women everywhere who have nursed a few children have pendulous breasts. In past years, the National Geographic magazine was “porn” for many adolescent boys who ignored the ethnicity of the topless women in the pictures in an age when race officially determined sexuality. For Aboriginal Cultures to be normalised within Australia, women’s breasts need to stop being sexualised by society.
This Western adolescent sexualisation of breasts is not an inherent, instinctive part of the human psyche, but a social construct. It was exported to many so called “primitive” cultures where women “had no shame” and exposed their breasts in public. This is cultural colonialism. The way to overcome this is for women to stop going along with this sham. It was obviously developed by men for the benefit of men. Though history, women bought into the process and developed the décolletage, the cleavage, the bra, pasties and other phenomenon designed to keep nipples the trigger for instant sexual arousal. It was probably very convenient when raping and pillaging after war, as all that was needed was to rip open a blouse and up it goes.
If women want to stop being treated like sex objects they need to change. Do we want a society of sexual adults or sex objects? It has always been the conservative, female belief, inculcated from infancy and enforced from puberty, that the way to stop men was to hide the nipple, because this clearly was the trigger for the animal instinct in every man to be irrepressible. But this is wrong. Women have been duped in this as in many things. It is up to women to change their attitudes to the public exposure of their own nipples. Then, a change in men will follow on, like obedient puppies who suddenly stop salivating and start behaving.
It is the practice of concealing female nipples that has led to the extorted sexualisation of breasts. In gender-neutral settings including work environments, there is still a lot of ogling and other puerile behaviour, but once men grow up and get used to seeing topless women in the normal, day-to-day world, then women will be able to go to meetings and practice their professions or trades in complete equality with men and without sex or gender being an issue in interpersonal relationships.
naum@tered.org
Men are sexualised into ogling women’s “boobies” when they reach puberty. It is part of our culture, but it is not universally and not biologically part humanity. We have the absurd situation where being topless in public is illegal, but it is widespread to find publicly hidden pornography including live shows as well as the ubiquitous InterNet.
From an early age, boys are taught that women’s breasts are secret things that they must not see. Of course the forbidden becomes an obsession with most boys. At the stage in life when they become sexually mature they spontaneously experience sexual arousal due to hormone production. Then for the first time, they are exposed to the fully naked female breast at the same time they experience their first sexual union. Therefore the sight of the usually concealed nipple becomes a trigger for sexual arousal that remains throughout life.
There is a particular difficulty in Australia where Aboriginal women have no problem with going topless. In dances and rituals many paint their breasts in “figure enhancing” ways, though of course women everywhere who have nursed a few children have pendulous breasts. In past years, the National Geographic magazine was “porn” for many adolescent boys who ignored the ethnicity of the topless women in the pictures in an age when race officially determined sexuality. For Aboriginal Cultures to be normalised within Australia, women’s breasts need to stop being sexualised by society.
This Western adolescent sexualisation of breasts is not an inherent, instinctive part of the human psyche, but a social construct. It was exported to many so called “primitive” cultures where women “had no shame” and exposed their breasts in public. This is cultural colonialism. The way to overcome this is for women to stop going along with this sham. It was obviously developed by men for the benefit of men. Though history, women bought into the process and developed the décolletage, the cleavage, the bra, pasties and other phenomenon designed to keep nipples the trigger for instant sexual arousal. It was probably very convenient when raping and pillaging after war, as all that was needed was to rip open a blouse and up it goes.
If women want to stop being treated like sex objects they need to change. Do we want a society of sexual adults or sex objects? It has always been the conservative, female belief, inculcated from infancy and enforced from puberty, that the way to stop men was to hide the nipple, because this clearly was the trigger for the animal instinct in every man to be irrepressible. But this is wrong. Women have been duped in this as in many things. It is up to women to change their attitudes to the public exposure of their own nipples. Then, a change in men will follow on, like obedient puppies who suddenly stop salivating and start behaving.
It is the practice of concealing female nipples that has led to the extorted sexualisation of breasts. In gender-neutral settings including work environments, there is still a lot of ogling and other puerile behaviour, but once men grow up and get used to seeing topless women in the normal, day-to-day world, then women will be able to go to meetings and practice their professions or trades in complete equality with men and without sex or gender being an issue in interpersonal relationships.
naum@tered.org
The
#freethenipple campaign is to desexualize the nipple and gain equality
and freedom for the female’s chest to be viewed without sexual
judgement.
elephantjournal.com
Lyn La Canna Burrows The problem with this shirt is that the location of the printing doesn't cater for the middle aged mother of four breast fed children.
New Whig It is surely an aspect of the Patriarchy that women are expected to impersonate "pert" at increasing inconvenience throughout life, and if some women do it to compete with or impress other women, it is because of the culture of being ashamed of our ageing bodies.
