# Female breast nipple, why is it such a threat? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 23, 2003, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-breast-nipple-why-is-it-such-a-threat/214759 "2003-11-23T00:48:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EasyPhil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e47c2d/32.png) [@EasyPhil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EasyPhil)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-breast-nipple-why-is-it-such-a-threat/214759/1 "2003-11-23T00:48:32Z")
A woman can have 95% of her breast exposed i.e. the nipple covered and that’s okay, though if 5% of it was exposed i.e. the nipple that would be considered obscene. A man can have his nipples exposed i.e. go bare chested and that’s not a problem. Why is a woman’s breast nipple so threatning? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-breast-nipple-why-is-it-such-a-threat/214759/2 "2003-11-23T01:15:57Z")
It’s Bush’s fault. No question. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-breast-nipple-why-is-it-such-a-threat/214759/3 "2003-11-23T01:21:41Z")
Because they are sharp and pointy. Also, women pee out of them. Seriously, I would guess that it’s because the nipple is the _raison d’etre_ of the breast (unlike the male version), thus most precious, thus most gaurded. Or something. ---
**Author:** ![pervert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbe5ce/32.png) [@pervert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pervert)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-breast-nipple-why-is-it-such-a-threat/214759/4 "2003-11-23T01:23:43Z")
Let me be the first to say I missed the last h when I first read the title of this OP. 😃 Good, now that’s out of the way. This is the last gasp of a historical and perverse bias against the naked female form. It used to be true that to show any of the breast was considered obscene. Do any of you remember the old movies of the forties or fifties were the female leads had those angry breasts proudly jutting from underneath those tight sweaters? They could not show any cleavage, but they could show the outline of the breast. Of course at one time women were arrested for showing too much calf at the beach. Now, you can show as much as you want as long as you don’t cross that one line. It keeps shifting and soon it will disapear. (Of course, when I say soon, I mean in the next 100 years or so). It not like the law really objects to nipples, its just that this is the last portion of the breast behind the line. ---
**Author:** ![jshore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-breast-nipple-why-is-it-such-a-threat/214759/5 "2003-11-23T01:32:32Z")
Well, I am proud to say that here in liberal NY State, I believe that women are allowed to go topless. Alas, the women don’t seem to take advantage of this to anything near the extent they did in the parks of Copenhagen when I visited there. Bummer! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DaPearl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5e925/32.png) [@DaPearl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaPearl)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-breast-nipple-why-is-it-such-a-threat/214759/6 "2003-11-23T01:32:40Z")
Its because Europe kicked out all their prudes (the puritans) and sent them to America 400 years ago, so now we’re all stuck with their stupid ideas. Thanks Europe, that was real nice of you, now its slightly hard for me to see nude chicks. ---
**Author:** ![laigle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@laigle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/laigle)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-breast-nipple-why-is-it-such-a-threat/214759/7 "2003-11-23T01:56:01Z")
Probably goes back to times when only men worked. One femal nipple showing could shut down the higher brain functions of an entire factory. They had to do something to protect the industrial base. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-breast-nipple-why-is-it-such-a-threat/214759/8 "2003-11-23T02:10:07Z")
Can’t remember where I read this but female breasts are functionally larger than necessary because they serve as a sexual lure. The nipple is the part of the breast that will visually change during sexual arousal . So I guess they could be considered too sexy for public display. It’s why men must wear pants at car shows. Viva le binkee. ---
**Author:** ![ExecutiveJesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a6a055/32.png) [@ExecutiveJesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExecutiveJesus)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-breast-nipple-why-is-it-such-a-threat/214759/9 "2003-11-23T02:13:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by EasyPhil \* > \*\*A woman can have 95% of her breast exposed i.e. the nipple covered and that’s okay, though if 5% of it was exposed i.e. the nipple that would be considered obscene. A man can have his nipples exposed i.e. go bare chested and that’s not a problem. Why is a woman’s breast nipple so threatning? \*\* What makes you think that it is _threatning_? ---
**Author:** ![pervert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbe5ce/32.png) [@pervert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pervert)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-breast-nipple-why-is-it-such-a-threat/214759/10 "2003-11-23T02:16:00Z")
Well, yes. The _human_ female breast is permenant ly engorged. Other mamal’s breasts only become engorged when they are ready to procreate. It’s almost as if the human female’s were in a constant state of rediness for mating. Yea Us! \ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-breast-nipple-why-is-it-such-a-threat/214759/11 "2003-11-23T04:07:28Z")
[nitpick] “breast nipple” is sort of redundant isn’t it? i think you could just say “female nipple” and people would catch right on to the “breast” part without confusing it with an elbow nipple or a toe nipple. [/nitpick] I think that women’s breasts in this country are sexualized to a ridiculous degree. The nipple is seen as an erotic part of the anatomy whether that’s rational or not. It’s a stupid cultural prejudice but there it is. I think the absurd level to which women’s breasts are eroticized can be shown in the increasingly (and disheartenly) common trend for women to artificailly enlarge them by slitting them open and inserting plastic bags of salt water into them. IMO, breasts implants are the contemporary western equivalent of those tribal African women who put plates in their lips or the old Chinese practice of crushing women’s feet to make them smaller. It’s every bit as irrational and every bit as grotesque. ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-breast-nipple-why-is-it-such-a-threat/214759/12 "2003-11-23T04:21:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pervert \* > **Of course at one time women were arrested for showing too much calf at the beach.** Can I get a cite for that? I’ve never heard of that before. ---
**Author:** ![Rashak\_Mani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rashak\_Mani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rashak_Mani)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-breast-nipple-why-is-it-such-a-threat/214759/13 "2003-11-23T04:23:11Z")
Its threatning to my sanity and good manners only… otherwise I think the girls can show 'em off whenever they want 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pervert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbe5ce/32.png) [@pervert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pervert)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-breast-nipple-why-is-it-such-a-threat/214759/14 "2003-11-23T04:39:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BlackKnight \* > \*\*Can I get a cite for that? I’ve never heard of that before. \*\* Certainly. [This site shows many examples of old time swimsuits.](http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~roseying/ids110/2FRAME.HTM) [This site has a reference to the arrest I mentioned.](http://www.sexycreations.com/swim_history.htm) > [@](#): > > the arrest of Annette Kellerman for appearing publicly in a one piece bathing suit in 1907 began to point to the role the swimsuit would play in challenging society’s notions of morality and helped to determine the ideal body shape for women. Hers is the only example I could find. Perhaps the arrests were not very widespread. I seem to remember seeing film of women lining up to have the distance between the bottom of their shorts and their ankles measured. Presumably to make sure they were not in volation of some ordinance or other. ---
**Author:** ![pervert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbe5ce/32.png) [@pervert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pervert)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-breast-nipple-why-is-it-such-a-threat/214759/15 "2003-11-23T04:41:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rashak Mani \* > \*\*Its threatning to my sanity and good manners only… otherwise I think the girls can show 'em off whenever they want 🙂 \*\* Do you really mean that nipples are threatening to _your_ good manners? Do you not behave with good manners when they are displayed? :dubious: Personally, I behave much more mannerly when nipples are being displayed. Something about the lulling effect they have on my lizard brain I think. (of course it could simply be another symptom of my perverse nature;) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-breast-nipple-why-is-it-such-a-threat/214759/16 "2003-11-23T06:18:26Z")
Haven’t you people ever seen Woody Allen’s _Everything you Wanted to Know About Sex_? Those things are dangerous!!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Drastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Drastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drastic)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-breast-nipple-why-is-it-such-a-threat/214759/17 "2003-11-23T07:33:29Z")
Breast nipples aren’t nearly as threatening as forehead nipples. ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-breast-nipple-why-is-it-such-a-threat/214759/18 "2003-11-23T21:00:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Diogenes the Cynic \* > IMO, breasts implants are the contemporary western equivalent of those tribal African women who put plates in their lips or the old Chinese practice of crushing women’s feet to make them smaller. It’s every bit as irrational and every bit as grotesque. \*\* I don’t think you can compare breast implants with foot binding. A woman who was foot bound could barely walk. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-breast-nipple-why-is-it-such-a-threat/214759/19 "2003-11-23T21:12:09Z")
Yeah, well, I could name a few porn stars who couldn’t fall flat on their faces if they wanted to. And durned if I can figure out how some of THEM walk. Upright, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Stoneburg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Stoneburg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoneburg)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2003, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-breast-nipple-why-is-it-such-a-threat/214759/20 "2003-11-23T23:44:34Z")
I’m gonna need to see some pictures to be able to respond in an informed manner. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-breast-nipple-why-is-it-such-a-threat/214759.md?page=2)