Re: Breast Size (Was: Re: Homosexuality and genetic determinism)
Bryant (mycol1@unm.edu)
27 May 1995 09:25:37 -0600
In article <Pine.Sola.3.91.950526234535.16922D-100000@ux5.cso.uiuc.edu>,
Lemonhead <karpiak@bastard.org> wrote:
>>
> Why assume that just becuase men in modern Western culture find
>female breasts attractive that *all* men find breasts arousing? There is
>no evidence I am aware of that other cultures focus sexual attractiveness
>on the female breasts. I think out attraction has much much more to do
>with culturally-based cues- we cover them up, so there is an air of
>mystery about them.
That's a good point. Western men are more obsessed with breasts than the
Ache of the Amazon, for instance. I've heard it suggested that because
naked breasts in the West indicate that sexual access is forthcoming, it
excites Western men. Just like exposure of the female genetalia excites
Ache men, who see naked breasts every day, and consider the glances by
western male anthropologists rather odd.
But. I suspect that some minimal degree of development and normality (no
serious asymmetries, malformities, etc.) of breasts is considered
prerequesite for female beauty by even these men, to whom breasts are so
mundane.
> If anything, I would think that the human female breast evolved
>to *avoid* sexual attraction. There are certainly many such
>adaptiontions (concealed estruation for example) that seemed to have
>evolved in order to ease much of the sexual tension that must have been
>present in early hominid bands.
Unless you can explain why men would have preferred to mate with less
attractive women, you've just presented us with a group selectionist
argument.
Men in no culture I know of consider breasts unattractive; those
whose cultures cover them up are a bit more perved about seeing them, and
those who don't, tend to ignore them. If your hypothesis is
correct, shouldn't men prefer underdeveloped (or undeveloped) females?
Breast development accurately advertises hormonal profile, and hence,
fertility. Large breasts per se may be directly (and positively)
correlated with body fat deposits, which may well have been an important
cue of a female's survival potential, in our ancestral environs. (?)
Bryant
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