Why do Women have Breasts?
Evolution of Breasts As a Sexual Organ
“Your upper part is quite flat” — I heard one of my batchmates say this to my friend. She later apologised claiming it was a joke but it caught my attention. Why does breast size matter? In fact, why do women have breasts in the first place? To find the answers, we’re going to dive into the evolution of breasts as a sexual organ rather than mammary glands.
Evolution of Human Breasts
In the last few decades/centuries, the breasts have evolved to be seen as an organ of sexual attention. However, their primary purpose has been to produce breast milk and feed the babies.
Even in animals, the females carry flat chests throughout their lives except during pregnancy. Their mammal organs become fat to nurture the newborn inside as well as outside the body. And they come back to their normal size once the period is over. But that’s not the case with humans.
Though the natural purpose of breasts is to produce breast milk and caress the newborn, they have grown to garner male attention. In females, most of the breasts are just fat given the fact that even women with flat chests also reproduce healthy babies.
So, breasts have been glorified to become a symbol of respect which they are supposed to keep hidden under their veil.
Breast Size: A Societal Norm
Breasts primarily served as an energy bar or power supply for females and infants. But with human evolution, they became a sign of maturity and “Come, I’m ready for ovulation, let’s reproduce”. A swollen breast indicates that the woman has reached puberty or gone through it.
Rather than just mammary glands, breasts are now a parameter to judge a woman’s sexual growth and her ability to conceive healthily. Several researches have shown that men are attracted to females with large breasts and slim waist.
The Barbie figure (large breasts, slim waist and big buttocks) has been a popular standard of female beauty in contemporary society. It has thoroughly shaped men’s and women’s desire for a perfect human body. It’s one of the criteria to call someone ‘not good-looking’.
However, this topic certainly needs more research to be done as some theorists argue that breast size and shape do not matter universally which means that some cultures are yet to be introduced to this perspective of breasts.
Surprisingly, there are claims that breasts were never this large. It’s only human evolution which led to the glorification of them as a sexual organ and the bigger it is the better. This sexual point of view didn’t just override the mammary glands but also men’s penis size.
Female Breasts: A Cause for Insecurity
When you declare something as a beauty or perfection criterion for the human body, it ultimately holds the potential to cause insecurity. The same case is with female breasts. While society continuously puts women through body shame and objectification, breasts add to it.
Once they reach the post-puberty stage, they start getting insecure about their bust size as it’s put in their head that if they don’t have bulky ones, males won’t get attracted to them. The fear of not being loved by a man or not attracting them becomes a terrifying nightmare sometimes for some women.
Hence, they convince themselves of breast augmentation sexuality. It means gaining breast fat through scientific methods just to look bulky and garner the attention of mates. They also get a sense of confidence from this which somehow justifies their action.
But the fact that society has put women through this struggle can not be ignored. While this body part exists to empower, society has turned this into a cause of mental health destruction.
Is There Any Connection Between Breastfeeding and Sex?
As you all must know, breasts play a crucial role in foreplay and sex nowadays. Nipple stimulation gives women a sense of pleasure and partners often play with them during sex to amplify the intensity. In Dutch research, a total of 15% of women said they experienced orgasm utterly due to breast stimulation. The combination of sex and breasts is a wider subject of great research.
But once women begin breastfeeding, there are various changes which may sound positive as well as negative to some. In addition, upon breast sexual arousal or orgasm during sex, milk outflow can worry some couples. However, it’s normal for such a situation to surface. But when the breast is given a culture-bound role such as the symbol of respect and so on, it becomes a matter of debate.
Breast Tax: Stories from the Past Unfolding
You would be surprised to know that in ancient India and some parts of Africa, women did not cover their breasts. To be accurate, it was not compulsory for them to cover it. However, they would tie them with a piece of cloth while doing physical labour to keep them in place.
There is a folklore tale from Kerala. According to this, a breast tax called Mulakkaram was levied upon the lower caste women belonging to Nadar, Ezhava by the kingdom of Travancore (presently known as Kerala).
This tax aimed to prevent lower-caste women from covering their breasts. It stayed in place until 1859. While this concept has been criticised by many people, historian Manu Pillai calls it a misnomer which had nothing to do with breasts. He claims that covering breasts was just not the norm in the matrilineal society of Travancore.
But the course of events changed after British/Christianity came into rule. Their Western influence and Victorian standards forced women to wear upper-body garments.
This article talks about the constant scrummage between the natural reason behind the existence of women’s breasts and its cultural definition given by society over the years and centuries. While they are originally for milk secretion and nurturing infants, society has turned them into a subject of male gaze and sexual attention. They have been intertwined with the modern-day respect of households which lie in the pair of just mammary glands. Well, that defines the evolution of breasts as a sexual organ.
