Getting off my chest HNT
Question #1: Would we get so bent out of shape about bare boobies if we got over the where-did-that-come-from-anyway? idea that breasts are some kind of magical surrogate erect-able cock equivalents or satellite clitorises or something? (Hold that thought!)
Question #2: Would we be so sanguine about men's bare chests if we acknowledged that, by and large, men's nipples and surrounding area have as much erogenous potential as women's? (Hold that thought!)
Answers: Sorry, no answers. I just know that there's some reason women's breasts are more off-limits than men's, and (as I started to get into here) it's evidently not about breast size since quite a few men have way bigger breasts than many women, and it may not even be about breasts at all since women are evidently expected to cover their chests even after surgical removal!
So I'm guessing maybe it's about something else like maybe arousal, but actually not all but quite a few women say they're actually more erogenously sensitive to kisses and caresses in other, non-taboo-by-convention areas like earlobes, forearms, and necks and throats, in which case...
Which is *not* to say that women's breasts aren't erogenous zones for many other women. They certainly are... the problem, though, is that (assuming one's partner bothers to pay attention) men's chests and nipples can be just as erogenous, in which case...
Well, in which case I'm stuck with questions and not enough answers.
Happy HNT (or Half-nekkid Thursday!)
Ouch! Cut that out. HHNT
[Heh. Thanks SCM. --fl]
OK. Most of the men I've known have way more sensitive nips than the women. I'd rather have my neck nibbled any day and I fed three of my four gorgeous angels with mine so a boob is special but not a freaking national treasure. lol HHNT!
[Thanks, Tragic, I really appreciate your comment. Some of my partners have been so sensitive you scarcely needed any other foreplay, others were so indifferent I never bothered. And me, sometimes I get totally transported, and I always noticed the more someone played with me the more sensitive I learned to be. (Something about training nerve pathways I think.) Thanks again. --fl]
Love the picture.
Very interesting questions, which brings up a question I have had long long long before the book came out..."why do men have nipples". My friends couldn't believe when the book came out, it made them realize I wasn't crazy for thinking about that...obviously others had too.
Happy HNT!
[Oh yeah, it's an old question that boils down, basically, to embryology. Mostly it's that the genes for breasts and nipples are on shared chromosomes and the natal tissue is laid out before we begin to differentiate sexually. Sorry I can't be more help though, Lee Ann. --fl]
I'm with Tragic on this one. I'm more aroused by kisses, licks and bites to my neck than to my nips. That's not to say that I don't want my boobs fondled at the same time because that's most definately nice as well!
[Right! Exactly! It's not that it's not nice (or *very* nice!) It's that it's not the robo-mesmerizing-ray kind of nice that you'd think it would be considering a) how much emphasis teens put on fending off, or attempting to reach, "second base," and b) how flipping panicked folks get at the least little peek. Thanks, le Cat. --fl]
I know many men respond with great enthusiasum if I lick, flick or suck on their nipples ... I'd like to prove that theory here ... ;)
HHNT
[Oh thank you, Bellarosa. And happy HNT. --fl]
A good tweaking never hurt anyone, unless you wanted it to. ;)
Happy HNT!
[Thank you, DL. Happy HNT. --fl]
Interesting questions you pose there, as well as an interesting pose.
HHNT!
[Thanks Momma. Happy HNT to you too. --fl]
Very nice :)
[Thank you, Crimson. --fl]
In my experience men's nipples are easily as sensitive as a woman's...why are women's more taboo? Perhaps because men have made them that way (niticable oogling), where as women have not made men's that way (a little more subtle maybe). Just my 2 cents...
Happy HNT
[I'm guessing part two as much as part one, MC. I do strongly think sensitivity, well, pretty much anywhere has to do with how much attention gets paid. I think that has a lot to do with why we're sometimes surprised when women aren't as sensitive as taboo demands, or when men are more sensitive than neglect suggests. Interesting when it happens, eh? Thanks! --fl]
LOL well, hmnnn, dont know, there is a lot of mystery around boobies....
Yours look very nice by the way...is it ok if I call them boobies?
Just kidding! HHNT
[Thanks, Susie! Actually there is a lot of mystery, just not the obvious ones. :-) Happy HNT. --fl]
I'm a little to distracted to comment anything other than... yummy. I'm not quite sure how you always do that to me...
Sage xox
[Thank you, Sage. I try my best. --fl]
Oh, Fig. It's the female fertility thing again, don't you see? Not only are breasts used for sex but for other, intimate things that only women can do. It's about the mystery of a woman's body and that must remain hidden at all times.
If you think about it, the father in prehistoric times was superfluous to the continuation of the species. Once the child was conceived, its only hope for survival lay with the mother. The father could die but if the mother survived (and has sufficient fat stores, in places our bodies are designed to deposit fat in during pregnancy) the child might still survive. If the mother died and the child was left with the father alone it would surely die.
Imagine how breasts must have been revered in Pagan times...the continuation of the species.
Damn, I feel proud of my breast stretch marks now!
Happy HNT, Fig!
i agree with melody censor. and sadly it is still said that women who do show too much skin especially of their boobs are called loose or oggled and blamed if men 'can't resist' it is assumed by muslim societies that men cannot control sexual desire so women should cover their bodies if they don't want to attract or tempt men. we in the western world are still getting over this ourselves.
i'm topless as much as possible and encourage my children. hopefully it'll change.
thanks for making us think. and thanks for a lovally nipple shot. yummsy.
happy hnt babe.
[Oh don't even get me started on the whole "men can't control themselves" thing. I could go on for days. I'll just say that a) muslim societies aren't much different from most other societies in this regard and b) the attitude implicitly juvenelizes men. (Also, I corrected your typo for you.) Thanks, Keda. --fl]
Why are women's breasts covered up?
It's a moral standard that isn't universal. In Bali/Indonesia for example, you still see topless women in the less touristy areas. In Africa too. In my homecountry Germany too. If the sun is shining, who wants a tan line?
[Right, and the Balinese and Germans are just so promiscuous and sexually immoral compared to, say, those all-covered-up Bible-belters. Thanks, Cosima. --fl]
I say we just cover everyone's nipples with Magic Shell and call the problem solved!
[As I said before, it's a crazy idea, Madame, but it just might work! Can't hurt to try it anyway. :-) Thanks. --fl]
lotsa questions. I like the nipples on either gender, myself.
HHNT!
[Thanks, Felicity! Happy HNT to you too. --fl]
I'm one of those girls with very, very sensitive nipples:)
Hey, at least women are allowed to go topless in Canada. Canada's always on the right track;) It's such an arbitrary rule; you're right there.
One of these days, though, I'm gonna go to a topless beach. One of these days! Happy HNT!
[I think you'd enjoy it, Camogirl. The cool little secret is that after the first five minutes or so it's just like being on a regular beach. Even the occasional gawkers are the same (think bikini tops slow those guys down?) but the interesting thing is that on bathing-suit beaches people don't give them crap but on birthday-suit beaches pretty much everybody'll give em grief about it. Thanks. --fl]
Ouch!!! Thanks for visiting!! HHNT!
[I think it must look like a harder pinch than I was giving myself. You're not the first person to say that. I'll be more careful next time. :-) Thanks, Diane. --fl]
Hmm, I've often contemplated the same thing. My nipples aren't nearly as sensitive as my man's. He reacts far more to me twiddlin' with his than I do when he twiddles with mine...go figure.
Great Picture! Happy Twiddlin' HNT!!
[I keep trying to tell people we're just not that different from each other but do people listen? Noooo. Well, not enough do. :-) Thanks, CeeCi. --fl]
Never thought about it like that...
[And now...? :-) Thanks, Wenchy. --fl]
god help the man with breasts bigger than mine...
[Thanks, LushlylMe. --fl]
One of my favorite places to play with on a man! Happy HNT!
[Thanks, Chickie! Happy HNT. --fl]
I think you're onto something about "training nerve pathways". The first time in the sack with Himself, I asked if he liked to have his nipples played with, and he seemed surprised that I asked, and honestly said that he didn't know if he liked it or not! He'd had quite a few partners, and no one had ever gone there! So, I had the supreme pleasure of being the first! Initially, his response was that it felt nice, but... As time passed, his nipples, and his brain, became much more sensitive to stimulation.
I'm breastfeeding the twins, so these days my (super-duper sensitive) nipples are off limits unless Himself wants to get squirted with large quantities of milk. Probably TMI!
I was in Alabama recently, one week after it became LEGAL to breastfeed in any public place in the state. How in the hell could it have ever been NOT legal? I still got more than a few disapproving glares from the fundy fuddy-duddies, the several times I breastfed in public. Wonder if those same folks freak when they see a dog nursing her puppies? I was only showing ONE breast--dogs show EIGHT!
[Great points, WH. Thank you! --fl]
Figleaf, your post and your questions made me think of the photography of Art Myers. In 1996 Myers, who is also a physician, and his wife, a breast cancer survivor, created a book entitled, Winged Victory: Altered Images. Transcending Breast Cancer. Winged Victory is a collection of photographs of women with one breast, or two, or none. The women are alone, or with their partners. They are young and old. One reclines like Aphrodite, another straddles a motorcylce. All are beautiful.
Since you have spent so much time thinking about how we view our bodies, and how those perceptions affect our behavior, I've provided a link to Breast Cancer Answers a site which presents a brief profile of Myers and photographs from Winged Victory.
Thank you, fl and readers.
[I've seen Winged Victory and you're right, the photos are wild -- alarmingly unfamiliar at first (since we're all so used to hiding our scars) but then unfamiliarly beautiful and finally just so cool. Thank you, Kochanie. --fl]
Thank you! It is time to liberate the male nipple. I can talk about all kinds of sex subjects with my male friends, but if I touch on the subject of male nipples everyone gets uncomfortable. It must be some homophobic thing. Well, I'm 110% straight and the best way to get me going is to lick and suck my nipples. I've been fortunate to have partners who dug that as a number of your female respondents do. Heck, it's fun for us to suck women's nipples; why shouldn't it be fun for them to suck ours? Lick your man's nipples today!
[Hey thanks, Al! Sound advice! :-) --fl]