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What Are Breasts Really For?
How Important Is Breast Milk?
Each week on TestTubePlus, we pick one topic and cover it from multiple angles. This week's topic is breasts. During the course of this five-part series, hosts Trace Dominguez and Amy Shira Teitel will be diving deep into the science, history and more of boobs. So far, Trace and Amy have discussed what breasts are for and why (most) humans only have two nipples, as well as the importance of breastfeeding, and how milk gets made. Today, they explore what your favorite breast size says about you, when society started sexualizing boobs, and where some men's obsession with them comes from.
Emory University Professor of Psychiatry Larry Young studies the neurological basis of complex social behaviors, like our love of breasts. He thinks that attraction to breasts correlates with the mother-infant bond during breast-feeding, so it's possible that men love breasts for the same reasons babies do. While media and advertising exploits our love of breasts, there seems to be one component that most humans particularly gravitate towards: their size. However, not all men are love big breasts, therefore, is our attachment to breasts emotional, biological, cultural, or something else altogether?
Not surprisingly, there's been lots of studies on this. According to a 2012 study published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, men who expressed desire to become fathers selected women with larger breasts. A 2008 study published in The Journal of Socio-Economics concluded that wealthy men who have plenty of resources may not need a woman with excessive fat reserves, unlike their less-wealthy counterparts who seek abundance. Psychologist Stuart Fischoff found that men looking for submissive partners preferred smaller breasts.
Of course, thanks to modern medicine, women can have whatever size breasts they want. And so the topic of implants enters the picture. We see a lot of fake breasts in porn: how does that change the way we feel about breast size in general? Female commenters: what are your thoughts about breast implants? Do you think they would make your partner treat you differently in a sexual situation? Male commenters: how do you feel about it breast implants? Would you ask your partner to get them? We'd love to hear your take in the comments section down below.
TestTube Plus is built for enthusiastic science fans seeking out comprehensive conversations on the geeky topics they love. Each week, host Trace Dominguez probes deep to unearth the details, latest developments, and opinions on big topics like the ocean, porn, exercise, stereotypes, fear, survival, dreams, space travel, and many more.
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Learn More:
Preferred female body proportions among child-free men (NCBI)
"Based on conceptual extrapolations from sociobiological models concerning the significance of secondary sex characteristics as markers of a female's capacity to produce and nurture offspring, we reasoned that men's greater unwillingness to reproduce would be linked to preference for a female body type characterized by the relative absence of such markers."
The Cleavage Countdown: 8 Facts About Breasts (LiveScience.com)
"The quintessential embodiment of female sexuality, breasts have fascinated and mystified since the beginning of time. From the biology that makes breasts, and breast-feeding, possible, and the odd boob changes that occur with motherhood to historical perceptions of the hourglass shape, LiveScience the art and science of breasts."
Men Vs. Women: Our Key Physical Differences Explained (LiveScience)
"Sexual dimorphism" is the scientific term for physical differences between males and females of a species. Many extreme examples exist: Peacocks far outclass peahens, for instance, while female anglerfish both outsize and outwit their tiny, rudimentary, parasitic male counterparts."
Breasts are barrier to exercise (University of Portsmouth)
"Nearly one in five women say their breasts stop them from participating in physical activity, new research reveals. The research also found that physical activity levels weren't influenced by breast size, which suggests the breast could be a barrier to exercise for women across all bra sizes."