Breasts are less sexualized in most African traditional societies where women go topless. In most other societies breasts are exploited in advertising and in pornography.
Nature or merchandise, the Sexualisation of Breasts
Explore and Understand Africa Through Her Food and Culture
The Sexualisation of Breasts
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| Isis breastfeeding young Horus |
Female breasts wield amazing power in some societies. Curvy women
have leveraged the power of their breasts to manipulate even the most able,
self-controlled. Empires have fallen, wills revised, millions of magazines and
bras sold, and Super Bowl audiences scandalized.
Breasts in the US are big business, because sex sells. Women’s breasts are everywhere on television, at the movies, in magazines, and on
billboards. The addictive and harmful nature of porn is likely another reason
why women’s breasts have become sexualized.
According to the National Geographic Society’s official website,
one of the magazine’s early milestones came when its publishers decided that
from then on out, they would show native peoples as they were, including when
photographed nude.
In the case of November 1896, that month’s issue included a
photograph of a topless Zulu bride and groom from South Africa. The
message conveyed is that nudity is not necessarily “pornographic” in nature,
but that it has a legitimate, academic place when studying world cultures. One problem is other cultures see bare breasted African women as
lacking modesty, that they are closer to animals, that they are loose and want
sex all the time.
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| Breastfeeding African mother |
However, in the 18th and 19th centuries, at the same time National
Geographic displayed bare breasted African women for scientific cultural
purposes, in the Victorian age there were and still are taboos and social
stigmas against showing nakedness, including showing your ankles or wearing
pants. The images of bare chested African women were disgraceful to say the
least and African women were seen as heathens and not real people.
No breach of etiquette elucidates the point more than the
Victorian taboo about female toplessness. A taboo persists to the present day.
In Africa, women were not taught to be ashamed of their bodies, ashamed of
being naked. The African culture understood, even from ancient times, breastfeeding is the best way to feed
baby and breasts are for nourishing life, not giving pleasure.
One example of the African culture understanding the natural
importance of breasts is the Temple of Horus at Edfu built between 237 BC and
57 BC. The Temple of Edfu is an ancient Egyptian temple, located on the west
bank of the Nile in Edfu, Upper Egypt. Carved on the Edfu Temple walls is Isis
breast-feeding young Horus. The child Horus is depicted in the form of naked boy
with his hand held up against his mouth or huddle up on his mother Isis' lap
who is breastfeeding him.
Did you know
Many boys will start to develop breasts in their
teenage years. This can be quite alarming for them, but it is perfectly normal
and the breast tissue will disappear later on. Breast growth in boys - usually
around the ages of 12-14 - is caused by a lag in the production of testosterone.
Background levels of female hormones may cause the breast to grow. As soon as
testosterone levels increase, they will swamp the female hormone and the breast
growth will disappear. Up to a third of boys experience some breast development
on one or both sides. This causes great worry and embarrassment for the
affected boy.
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Economic and social structures have been involved in the sexualization of breasts when women's breasts are from nature, advertisers ignore and exploit reproduction.
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