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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Usborne Puberty Book tells children that breasts exist to make milk and to make girls look grown up and attractive

209 replies

AssignedPerfectAtBirth · 30/08/2017 09:53

www.theguardian.com/books/2017/aug/29/usborne-apologises-puberty-book-childrens-publisher?CMP=share_btn_tw

Breasts are there for 1) milk 2) to make girls look grown up and attractive

Nice to know that our children are being taught that breasts are there to look at

OP posts:
Xenophile · 03/09/2017 21:27

Personally I lean towards the fat storage theory which is a pretty established theory, I think. It's the aquatic ape one.

It does seem compelling.

There are about 5 credible theories as to why human primates might have permanently enlarged breasts where our other primate cousins don't, and yet the one that has the most traction seems to be "bewbs gotta be big because they give men the dick tingles". And I wonder why, in our porn soaked, western white malecentric world that might be.

It would appear to be a mystery.

ALittleBitOfButter · 03/09/2017 21:30

Just a note on whether large breasts facilitate feeding.
IMO yes they do. I am very flat (something I rejoice about as I like to run) and I can't feed lying down (or be plugged in by DP Hmm ).
I also have never been able to feed while using the carrier, which many women do successfully). Essentially I can't 'pick up' the nipple to stuff it in, the baby must be moved to it.
I am a very successful feeder though.

ALittleBitOfButter · 03/09/2017 21:38

It really pisses me off that it's virtually impossible now to buy a bra without padding. At an op shop recently every single bra on the table was padded. If i want a non padded one i have to get an itritating crop top when I'd prefer a clasp.

What sort of message is that sending to girls?

Scrumplestiltskin · 03/09/2017 22:11

Female humans are also one of the only mammals to menstruating. And it's not because it's attractive to men.
It's because the physical resource drain of reproduction is far greater on female humans, than other mammals. Women menstruate as self-protection, because the egg burrows so deep into the lining that a thicker, shedding endometrium allows for survival.
I would say that logically speaking, the reason for fatty deposits at the breasts, stomach, and hips, would be because producing milk to sustain human infants is such a physical drain on resources, and having stored fat increases survival. Also, with human infants unable to cling onto the mother, and the infant breastfeeding regularly for several years, the pendulous shape of the breast would allow the infant to feed while the mother engaged in other activities, increasing the survival rate.
Also, as others have mentioned, seeing as breasts are composed of fat, in our ancestral past where humans would have been on the verge of starvation a good deal of the time, it seems likely that very large breasts are peculiar to modern times.
Some people also seem to have the idea that evolution actively selects for things. It doesn't. All evolution does, is mean that traits that don't actively kill you or your infant early on, or affect your reproductive success, are continued, and traits that do, are not continued by virtue of the carriers dying out.
So human males finding breasts attractive making breasts bigger, is an entirely illogical way of looking at things. If anything, the larger breasts would have to have existed before males found them attractive. And then one could argue that they meant those females were mated with more often, and thus it became more wide-spread - except I haven't noticed that flat-chested females are less likely to have children, so that explanation doesn't hold up.

Batteriesallgone · 04/09/2017 05:29

Totally agree Scrumple.

Also to the people saying big breasts impede survival I would add - where else on the body would be preferable to have fat deposits? Head, arms, legs - no. These need to be trim to function effectively. Belly? Not really - hunting and foraging would be difficult with a big belly impeding your bending and running. Bum - yes, that is another fat storage area, but it can only get so big before it starts to impede movement.

Big breasts might be slightly more disadvantageous to movement than small breasts, but it is one of the more sensible places on the body to store fat, if you think about it. And having fat stores is significantly more advantageous than not having fat stores so the advantage outweighs the disadvantage.

GriswaldFamilyVacation · 04/09/2017 07:55

Agree with a pp about breastfeeding with smaller breasts. It most definitely makes it more difficult to feed in a few normal position.

Datun · 04/09/2017 19:44

GriswaldFamilyVacation

That's interesting. My DH, obviously, is completely flat chested. Looking at him objectively, I think breastfeeding would be a struggle.

PrincessWonderRabbit · 07/09/2017 09:30

Idle thoughts on women and their "use"
Inspired by this thread.

I was just thinking that breasts don't disappear when a woman is beyond her use for reproductive capabilities.

And that often it's only after she has a baby they get much bigger.

Women are only "useful" for reproductive purposes for a third of their lives. Men twice that. Surely men are only here for reproductive value? They die when they're no longer sexually viable. Women still have half their lives left at the end of their reproductive capabilities. Almost like we're useful way beyond that our abilities to be fucked.

Our breasts, rather than disappearing when no man wants to fuck us (which is what Usborne and all the men on this forum thinks they are there for) stuck around till we die. The ability to spontaneously lactate for a child in need who is in need is documented. A child wouldn't be able to root for a breast if it couldn't get to them.

Obviously women could then and still do hunt, and woulnt t have starved while men were off hunting the mammoth.

Radom musings sorry. I just can't help but wonder why we see women as sex objects and not men as such when they added so little other value to society

morningrunner · 07/09/2017 11:33

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

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