Breastfeeding

Originally posted by royalchicken
"I don't want my son or husband to accidentally see a breast they didn't want to see."

I wouldn't worry too hard about this if I were that woman.

what she means is "I don't want my husband or son to see a breast I didn't want them to see"

Originally posted by XanthosNZ
But you see it's the implication that it's a breast that's the offensive bit.

And some of the quotes in the article are hilarious:

[b]"Gross, I am sick of seeing a baby attached to a boob," wrote Lauren, a mother of a 4-month-old.
Well if that's gross in your eyes then you're in for a rough ride lady.

"I shredded it," said Gayle Ash, of Be g and psychology.

*I like touching them too but that's just because it's fun.

[/b]I'm totally on board with how silly the reaction is, but I disagree that the sexualisation of the breast is totally due to preconditioning (forgive me if I've misunderstood you here).

True, the fact that we tend to hide boobs away enhances the appeal of seeing them. In much in the same way as asphixiating someone massively increases their appreciation of being allowed to breath - maybe if we didn't hide boobs away we would hardly notice them. There are certainly cultures where this seems to be the case, where breasts are left on view all the time and no one seems to pay them any attention.

However, breasts do have a secondary function as sexual objects. You say yourself that their fun to play with/be played with (I'm only halfway through "foreplay for beginners" but boobs were in the second chapter. Can't wait to get to the practical) .
Boobs also show that a female is sexually developed. In some primates, 'inflated' boobs show that a female is in heat, which therefore attracts males. One theory is that human females developed perminently 'inflated' breasts so as to gain attention from males all month through, enhancing the social system.
So as boobs are both sexually fun to play with and are flags to show sexual maturity/fertility they are both baby feeders and (secondarily) sexual objects, and I think it is important to recognise this if trying to understand the reasons why some people react as they do to their exposure.

[edit] don't know why, but it all came out in bold first time

Originally posted by belgianfreak
I'm totally on board with how silly the reaction is, but I disagree that the sexualisation of the breast is totally due to preconditioning (forgive me if I've misunderstood you here).

True, the fact that we tend to hide boobs away enhances the appeal of seeing them. In much in the same way as asphixiating someone massively increases their apprec ...[text shortened]... to their exposure.

[edit] don't know why, but it all came out in bold first time[/b]

It came out in bold because you quoted something which was partly in bold. When the site editted the quote by cutting out the part right after "Gayle Ash" it also removed the command to end the bold.

However, breasts do have a secondary function as sexual objects.

I don't think anyone said this was not true. What is being argued here is whether the sexuality of the breast is caused by "nature or nurture".