Quick follow-up to the previous post. So… Nipples aren’t little penises, contrary to 10,000 cheesie porn stories (written, one could sometimes imagine, by people who actually haven’t had a lot of actual sex.) And so nipple erections aren’t nearly the reliable an indicators of arousal that penis erections are. Instead if they consistently mean anything it seems to be “something just changed.” A chill, a breeze, a touch, a surprise, a shift in emotion, even recognition of someone or something that’s arousing. (I think it’s less noticiable but they seem to behave the same way for men as women.)
To be honest between all manner of erotic interactions with quite a few partners and experience with multiple friends and a partner while they’re nursing their children I’ve always wondered what, exactly, the point of the stereotypical pinup-style crinkly-areola nipple erections might be. (During arousal and during nursing the nipples engorge sure — in fact during pregnancy they undergo some amazing, and amazingly reversible changes. But not so much crinkling at all.)
I got one possible clue from a bodyworker (can’t remember if he was a physical therapist or a chiropractor) who was talking about the surprisingly redundant number of muscles in people’s necks. He said that while they don’t do very much (except give us literal pains in the neck, or at least my neck!!!) they contain thousands of special nerves for detecting body position (a.k.a. proprioception) which would be pretty critical if you were a featherless biped trying to balance our heavy-as-a-bowling-ball heads on the ends of our spines.
So I’m just sooo guessing here but maybe the point of the extra muscles in our nipples isn’t the nerves themselves but the proprioceptors that come with them. How, or whether, that would actually make a difference in women or men might be beyond me but they are there so… anyone else care to take a guess?
By the way I’d like to say I was just curious but I can’t. :-)
Submitted by 2236 (not verified) on Tue, 2008-06-17 22:34.
i don't know much about nipples, but i do know mine are usually erect, and i'm not usually aroused. i think in my case it's more a case of being sensitive to room temperature.
it all kind of reminds me of cats' purring--it doesn't always mean they're happy, unless childbirth is a really enjoyable process for them...
[I know, it's like saying goosebumps always mean we're cold. Because sure, *sometimes* it does, but the rest would be somewhere between wishful thinking and, well, just incorrect. Thanks, nekobawt. --fl]
Submitted by 2236 (not verified) on Wed, 2008-06-18 07:12.
I took a walk through the swimsuit department the other day, thinking I could use a new bikini before my beach vacation in July, and all of the bikinis had foam padding in them. Well, no, I think there might have been one that didn't, the kind that is just a horizontal tube around your breasts. Maybe they couldn't figure out a way to put padding in there.
Padding in bathing suits ... not that this is new, but it never ceases to amaze and annoy me. Women's bathing suits take long enough to dry without adding thick chunks of absorbent material into the mix. I personally don't want to make my boobs look bigger than they are, anyway. I have to wonder, are women not supposed to swim, just lay on the beach and look sexy (and nipple-less)?
And yeah, padding in bras -- ugh. On a warm day, why on earth would I wear something to make me any warmer? In general, ugh. I do, actually, own a padded bra for certain tight shirts, because I have this vague idea that maybe it's unprofessional to be wandering around with my nipples making their presence known ... but it feels so artificial and weird.
It's all compounded by what I call my cast-iron nipples. There is no padding I've seen so far that can truly hide them, so why bother? I remember a college incident, when a male friend of mine pulled my blazer tight over my t-shirt to hide my inappropriate (in his eyes) nipples.
Meh. Very annoying. I have nipples, world. Deal.
(This would segueway nicely into a rant about women's clothing, including bathing suits, designed to suck in your gut for you, and how we're supposed to be thrilled about these torture devices because they will finally make us beautiful (because of course we're not beautiful until we fix all those unsightly bulges), and how awful it is to wear anything with pressure on your belly when you have IBS. But I won't go there. Much.)
[Yikes! Good point about foam insulation in something you *wear to the beach!* Thank you, Monique. --fl]
Submitted by 2236 (not verified) on Wed, 2008-06-18 07:14.
oops, maybe I should have posted in the other nipple thread =)
[It works either way, Monique. Thanks. --fl]
Submitted by 2236 (not verified) on Wed, 2008-06-18 16:13.
Heh. I thought the trend of foam padding on bikinis was a local thing only. But really, we're not supposed to "just lay on the beach and look sexy (and nipple-less)". You forgot that we're also supposed to do that while staying in the shadow and avoid getting the ridiculous tan marks that would come from wearing the most fashion forward but impractical swimsuits.
[And not to change the subject, and maybe I'm dating myself, but OMG I think tan lines are sexy! I can totally see staying out of the sun (like many others in my family before me I've been getting sun-spots frozen off every year since I turned 25.) But *if* you're going to then I'm sorry that tan lines are so far out of fashion. (Odd that piercings and tattoos are ok but not lines.) Thanks, Colorlessblue. --fl]