# Breasts are just for feeding babies? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 19, 2016, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-are-just-for-feeding-babies/763338 "2016-08-19T19:27:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-are-just-for-feeding-babies/763338/21 "2016-08-20T02:38:31Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > FWIW, I also have met a few women who didn’t want to breastfeed, because their husbands didn’t want to “share.” That’s pretty dysfunctional, if you ask me, because an adult, who should check his emotions at the door, is letting them overrule the best interests of his child. There are reasons not to breastfeed, some very good. But that is a pretty bad one, if you ask me. You are absolutely right. Titties are fun but they have a job to do too. I can’t even imagine why a father would object to the most natural way of feeding their own child. Even speaking as a guy, I think that is a clear case of abuse of duty. It is perfectly possible for things to serve more than one purpose. I like nice breasts on many women but that has never been a key asset. I have never been turned on or offended by a woman nursing in public. That is just as erotic as a newborn calf sucking on its mother’s teat on a farm. ---
**Author:** ![keturah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e95f7d/32.png) [@keturah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/keturah)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-are-just-for-feeding-babies/763338/22 "2016-08-20T03:10:50Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Question from person who doesn’t know. Do breasts just stop milk production if you aren’t breastfeeding? I always assumed you would have to do something with the milk. How do wet nurses breastfeed babies? Do they have to have just had babies themselves? > > I’ve known so many people with breastfeeding issues/pain/chafed nipples etc. it’s just #3,940 of reasons I don’t particularly want to give birth. Adoption all the way. There is a hormone cascade that makes your breasts produce milk when you are nearing the end of pregnancy and after you give birth. The hormones will continue as long as the stimulus for it, i.e. Sucking on the nipples, is continued. When the regular stimulus is removed the hormones will decrease until the mom no longer lactates. So yes, wet nurses generally were pregnant, fed their babies and the additional child and could take on other infants as long as it was uninterrupted. Women today have been known to breastfeed children to 5 years and beyond. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-are-just-for-feeding-babies/763338/23 "2016-08-20T03:26:25Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > FWIW, I also have met a few women who didn’t want to breastfeed, because their husbands didn’t want to “share.” That’s pretty dysfunctional, if you ask me, because an adult, who should check his emotions at the door, is letting them overrule the best interests of his child. There are reasons not to breastfeed, some very good. But that is a pretty bad one, if you ask me. Did these men also want the babies to be delivered by c-section so she wouldn’t get stretched out down there? :mad: Why would anyone want to have a baby with a man who is that selfish, anyway? I have heard that when Paul McCartney’s second wife got pregnant, he didn’t want her to breastfeed for that reason. :rolleyes: If you think about it, Linda probably nursed their kids until they started school. I’ve only had one woman tell me that she had to give up breastfeeding because her husband had a bad attitude about it; she said that whenever they went out in public, her by now ex-husband (gee, I wonder why) would point at her milk-swollen breasts and yell, “Check out them hooters!” :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-are-just-for-feeding-babies/763338/24 "2016-08-20T03:31:30Z")
What would be the problem with the kid and the dad sharing? There’s one tit for each. … Wait, that is not a good mental image. Not at all. Sorry about that. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-are-just-for-feeding-babies/763338/25 "2016-08-20T03:57:23Z")
Many women consider breast play a\* necessary\* step in foreplay. (Just don’t _stop_ there.) Breasts aren’t exactly sex organs. Neither are necks or hands. But human sexuality isn’t really just about “sex organs.” ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-are-just-for-feeding-babies/763338/26 "2016-08-20T04:06:21Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > I remember the zoologist and sociobiologist Desmond Morris saying something about there being a correlation between the breasts and the buttocks - breasts basically resembling buttocks, but with nipples on them. > > Some female primates have sexual swellings - enlarged buttock/genital area - over the course of their menstrual cycle. This is thought to be a signal of fertility and male primates are attracted to these swellings, preferring - and competing for - females with the largest swellings. > > Morris linked the development of the human breast with a change in the human sexual “mating” position - from “doggy-style” to “missionary”. With the participants now typically being face-to-face, this would lead to the promotion of emotional bonding between them and subsequent benefits in terms of raising future offspring together. Morris was a 1960s science popularizer and his ideas are not really taken seriously by biologist today. Like almost all behavioral evolutionary hypotheses, they are simply unprovable. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-are-just-for-feeding-babies/763338/27 "2016-08-20T04:10:28Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > What would be the problem with the kid and the dad sharing? There’s one tit for each. > > … > > Wait, that is not a good mental image. Not at all. Sorry about that. I’ve seen cartoons where that was depicted. ---
**Author:** ![Firstservingman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f6c823/32.png) [@Firstservingman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Firstservingman)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-are-just-for-feeding-babies/763338/28 "2016-08-20T04:24:41Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > Many women consider breast play a\* necessary\* step in foreplay. (Just don’t _stop_ there.) > > Breasts aren’t exactly sex organs. Neither are necks or hands. But human sexuality isn’t really just about “sex organs.” I think the term “erogenous zones” applies to breasts. In more direct response to OP, however, it’s pretty clear that breasts do play a sexual role IMO. At least in recent evolutionary times. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-are-just-for-feeding-babies/763338/29 "2016-08-20T04:51:32Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Then I remembered that I share this fetish with every single man who ever lived, everywhere, ever. Since forever, everywhere. All of them. Not really. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-are-just-for-feeding-babies/763338/30 "2016-08-20T05:37:44Z")
> [@Mighty\_Girl](#): > > My sister had two kids 2 yrs apart and breastfed all the way through and 2 more years for the new baby while slowly weaning the eldest. > > Her doctor was fine with that. My wife was considered high risk. It’s been six years so I don’t remember the details, but this is Easy Asia where breast feeding isn’t pushed as much. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-are-just-for-feeding-babies/763338/31 "2016-08-20T07:08:43Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Morris was a 1960s science popularizer and his ideas are not really taken seriously by biologist today. Like almost all behavioral evolutionary hypotheses, they are simply unprovable. Yeah, it’s unprovable but his ideas are still a decent speculative theory and many of them make a lot of sense. He also posited that evolutionary-wise, permanently swollen breasts (unique to human women versus all other primates) made standing-upright women appear sexually attractive from the front and behind (the breasts and cleavage mimicking the round ass and butt crack). He also points out that unlike most all other mammals human men have no penis-bone, meaning they can’t just instantly pork anything on four legs or less, they have to go thru a courtship ritual to become aroused. He also suggests that the reason why pointing your index finger at someone or, even more, giving them the middle finger is so universally offensive is because it resembles a cock & balls. All seem at least plausible to me. It was the 60s and all, but by no means was Morris a _Chariots of the Gods_ ancient aliens-type crackpot pseudo-scientist… ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-are-just-for-feeding-babies/763338/32 "2016-08-20T07:24:47Z")
Agreed… Morris is always interesting, and at least has a veneer of plausibility. His two books on pets, Dogwatching and Catwatching are pretty good, although, as with The Naked Ape, he pushes speculation as far as it can go, well past the engineering red-line. (I think he sits on the emergency valve.) He isn’t a crank…but he skates on really thin ice (and mixes metaphors too.) ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-are-just-for-feeding-babies/763338/33 "2016-08-20T13:39:09Z")
If any part of a body has a lot of nerve endings and can be stimulated for pleasure they are usually going to become sexualised. Aside from the obvious ones, for some people that can also happen with ears, necks, legs, and maybe even hands. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-are-just-for-feeding-babies/763338/34 "2016-08-20T14:10:38Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > If any part of a body has a lot of nerve endings and can be stimulated for pleasure they are usually going to become sexualised. Aside from the obvious ones, for some people that can also happen with ears, necks, legs, and maybe even hands. Toes. But despite the fact the it feels good to have your prostate rubbed, we generally don’t fetishize it to the point where people think its inappropriate to have to poop because - I don’t know - you might get off, or might get someone else off. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-are-just-for-feeding-babies/763338/35 "2016-08-20T14:29:06Z")
So breast implants increase milk production? Fascinating. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-are-just-for-feeding-babies/763338/36 "2016-08-20T15:24:39Z")
[Funny buttocks/breasts photo](http://geekologie.com/2012/07/09/crack-cleavage-1.jpg) (NSFW?: cleavage). ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-are-just-for-feeding-babies/763338/37 "2016-08-20T18:17:00Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > I remember the zoologist and sociobiologist Desmond Morris saying something about there being a correlation between the breasts and the buttocks - breasts basically resembling buttocks, but with nipples on them. > > Some female primates have sexual swellings - enlarged buttock/genital area - over the course of their menstrual cycle. This is thought to be a signal of fertility and male primates are attracted to these swellings, preferring - and competing for - females with the largest swellings. > > Morris linked the development of the human breast with a change in the human sexual “mating” position - from “doggy-style” to “missionary”. With the participants now typically being face-to-face, this would lead to the promotion of emotional bonding between them and subsequent benefits in terms of raising future offspring together. Specifically he mentioned the gelada, a baboon-like old world monkey that have a “chest patch” mimicking the rump, and pointed out that this hypothesis seems to apply to humans too. Unlike most mammals where sexual signals are olfactory, in primates they’re primarily visual. ---
**Author:** ![Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/58956e/32.png) [@Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emtar_KronJonDerSohn)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-are-just-for-feeding-babies/763338/38 "2016-08-20T19:19:48Z")
I was at a family reunion this summer and my cousin seems to have married a misguided feminist breastfeeding advocate. She spent the entire time conspicuously holding her two year old against her bare breast in what seemed like trolling for martyrdom. The poor kid wasn’t eating, he just wanted to play with the other kids! That side of my family is very conservative, but breastfeeding is _The Right Thing To Do_ and formula is for a _A Different, Less Fortunate Kind Of Family_. It’s not a shocking antic or a prudishly discouraged act of immodesty, it’s a fully encouraged fact of life. Counterintuitively her display only served to make my cousins with babies feed them elsewhere to avoid being framed in a selfie and broadcast on Facebook as like-minded warriors against the patriarchy. Which probably reinforces her false impression of breastfeeding negativity. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-are-just-for-feeding-babies/763338/39 "2016-08-20T19:46:39Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > Yes, please, give some examples - as a feminist I’ve never heard of such a thing. Heck, even the lesbian feminists I know like to have their happy fun bags played with. > > Now, I have heard the case that breasts should not be publicly fetishized to the point where we are uncomfortable when a woman breastfeeds in public because “hey, sex.” And they shouldn’t be fetishized to the point where I need to say “hey, my eyes are here!” when talking to a guy. But I’ve never heard that they shouldn’t be sexualized at all. I’ve heard it said by some militant breastfeeders. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-are-just-for-feeding-babies/763338/40 "2016-08-20T20:25:14Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > Now, I have heard the case that breasts should not be publicly fetishized to the point where we are uncomfortable when a woman breastfeeds in public because “hey, sex.” I may be dense, but my brain just fails to compute how anyone can equate breastfeeding in public with sex to begin with. You know what is sexy? A naked boob. You know what is \*not \*sexy? A naked boob with an infant attached to it. Or, if someone finds that sexy, they probably actually do have some weird fetish. Which, I mean, is fine. Nothing wrong with that. Whatever rocks your boat, I don’t give a damn. I just don’t see why it’s my problem, particularly. Also, it doesn’t make any sense, when you think about it. “What you are doing appeals to my fetish! Stop doing it right now!” The hell? Just enjoy the view. Actually, this is something about prudishness that I’ve always profoundly failed to understand. “What you are doing titillates me! Stop doing it!” Wait, what now? Again, though, as I said, maybe I’m just dense. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-are-just-for-feeding-babies/763338.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breasts-are-just-for-feeding-babies/763338.md?page=3)