The Breast.and Double Standards

Ok for Africans but not New Yorkers. Double Standard?

Depending on your religion/cultural situation the subject can be exciting, disgusting, shameful or a completely non-issue.  And then there is the sexual difference in perception: it is Ok to see a male breast, including the nipple and Ok to see a female breast, but NOT the nipple. In some religions/cultures.

Confused? Of course you are. And the cause of this confusion is the, well, confusion. Let’s take a closer look: Before the Judeo-Christian-Moslem (people of the Book, the Old Testament) came along, breasts of both sexes were seen in equal measures. Men and women went topless when they wanted to, and covered up when they wanted to. Nobody ogled, grabbed or commented either way. People of the tropics, on every continent, went topless and some bottomless as well.

Then somebody decided to create the Bible, and included the idea that the female body, but not the male body, is somehow shameful. The idea that to see female body parts was sexually titillating (no pun intended) or shameful or disgusting was a construct of culture. This was taken to an extreme in many cultures, the most recent of which was the high-necked long hemmed clothing of women of the west, and the total coverage of some Moslem women today. In these contexts, in the western culture, a glimpse of an ankle was erotic in extremis and a glimpse of a burka-clad woman’s flesh, any flesh, might lead to her being killed on the spot.

What dynamics could lead to the demonizing of the female body? What god would create rules to make the female body, or parts of it, off limits to be seen? Who would perpetrate such nonsense? And why?

My answer is a loud “MEN”. And the why is simple: Control. In many primitive cultures, women are usually considered equal to men, and sometimes even superior. When the Book came along, suddenly women were relegated to a second class role, ordered to “submit” to men and cover up. And this is taken to the extreme in some Moslem cultures where men can beat, sometimes to death, any woman in public space who they find offensive for any reason. And of course, husbands can beat, sometimes to death, a wife for any reason at all.

I think we have had this second class citizenry for women for too long, and it is time for women to  claim their rightful place in the world, and that is one of equal status. And to do this? Bare the breast and take the wind out of the sails of women-hating men. Seriously Woody? Well, probably not right away, but that would go a long way to begin the process of turning the course of culture. Religion? That is a tougher nut to crack. That will take millions of people shouting “BULLSHIT” all at once. And that will never happen, will it?

So we are stuck with a set of ancient and arbitrary customs and values until the cows come home, bare breasted and proud of it.  

Image: http://nativenudity.tumblr.com/post/46537073426/zulu-reed-dancers