The Naked Woman: A Study of the Female Body by Morris Desmond

Author:Morris, Desmond [Morris, Desmond]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: anthropology, biology, culture, gender studies, retail, social science, sociology
ISBN: 9781446448847
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2011-05-31T00:00:00+00:00

14. The Breasts

The female breasts have received more erotic attention from males that any other part of the body. Focusing such attention directly on the genitals is too extreme; on other parts of the anatomy not extreme enough. The breasts are the perfect happy medium – a taboo zone, but one that is not too shocking.

As a result, breasts have attracted an amazing range of euphemisms. No fewer than 74 colourful titles have been ascribed to them over the centuries, including such exotica as Big Brown Eyes, Brace and Bits, Cats and Kitties, Charlie Wheeler, Cupid’s Kettledrums, Golden Apples, Mae West, Moons of Paradise and Twin Globes. Less flowery terms include bosom (tenth century), paps (fourteenth century), duckys (sixteenth century), bubbies or tits (seventeenth century), bust or diddies (eighteenth century), dugs or titties (nineteenth century), boobs, bristols, gazungas, hooters, jugs, knockers, mammaries or melons (twentieth century).

The breasts of the human female have two biological functions, one parental and the other sexual. Parentally they act as gigantic sweat glands producing the modified sweat we call milk. The glandular tissues that produce the milk become enlarged during pregnancy, making the breasts slightly bigger than usual. The blood vessels serving these tissues become much more conspicuous on the breast surfaces. As the milk forms it passes along ducts towards special storage spaces called sinuses. These are positioned in the centre of the breast behind the dark-brown areolar patches that surround the nipples. From these sinuses there are some 15 to 20 tubes, the lactiferous ducts, leading to each nipple.

When a baby sucks it takes the whole of the areolar patch and the nipple into its mouth, squeezing the brown skin with its gums and squirting the milk out of the nipple. If it takes only the nipple into its mouth it has a problem, because squeezing the nipple alone does not produce the desired milk. It may respond to this frustration by chewing on the nipple, which does little good either to mother or offspring. An inexperienced mother soon finds that she can avoid the pain caused by these hungry attentions by squeezing more of her breast into the baby’s mouth.

The areolar patch surrounding the nipple is an intriguing anatomical detail of the human species. In virgin females and those who have yet to become mothers it is a pinkish colour, but during pregnancy it changes. About two months after conception it starts to grow larger and becomes much darker. By the time lactation has started it is usually a darkish brown colour and later, when the baby is weaned, it never quite returns to its original virginal pink. In function these areolar patches appear to be protective. They are full of specialized glands that secrete a fatty substance. To the naked eye the glands look like ‘goose pimples’ on the pigmented skin. During the breast-feeding phase they become much enlarged, and are then called Montgomery’s tubercles. Their secretions help to protect the skin of the nipple and its surrounding skin – a form of biological ‘skin care’ much needed by the lovingly abused surface of the breast.

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