You mean it doesn’t??? My God.
Crystalguy
Just in case no one knows, the USSC ruled today in favor of allowing communities to require dancers to wear pasties and a g-string. Since I doubt the pasties apply to male exotic dancers, this is another example of gender-based nipple censorship.
Sheeesh… why is this nation so freakin’ obsessed with controlling sexuality?
Well, on the other hand, can you imagine if they did require male exotic dancers to wear pasties? I’d laugh my ass off. Buisness would drop off incredibly since women would be to busy pointing and laughing at the little coverings clinging to the guy’s nipples like minature fruit bats (well, actually, that’s rather a disguisting anaology, now that I think on it).
hmmmmm… Gaudere, you make it sound like you have first-hand knowledge of the male exotic dancer industry! 
Green Bean posted 03-28-2000 11:14 PM
Your vocabulary word for today is: areoli.
Gaudere posted 03-29-2000 02:54 PM
Why, thank you. I had a feeling you did 
But seriously, I think that a more accurate explanation is that anything which suggests, even if it’s not 100% unambigious, that a woman is aroused will, in turn, generally arouse a man. Isn’t the same true to some extent for women? If a cute guy comes up and starts talking to you, won’t you be happy at the possibility that he’s attracted to you, even if you’re not 100% sure?
As for the OP: I think that one of the biggest things about nipples is that they are a very definite demarkation. It can be debated as to just where the breast begins, but there isn’t much debate about where a nipple begins. Also, they are the most prominent and most important part of the breast, and so they naturally attract most of a guy’s attention. Since there is not as much attention paid to men’s chests as women’s chests, there is less attention to be focused onto a guy’s nipples. Also, attention that is paid to a man’s chest isn’t directly sexual. Finally, aren’t women’s nipples generally more prominent than men’s? That is, isn’t their color generally more different from the rest of the chest than on a man?
Areoli, areoli, areoli. Thank you, The Ryan!
Sorry to be a wet blanket, but the word “areola” only refers to the darkly pigmented ring around the nipple itself. If you want to talk nipples, ya still gotta say “nipples”. 
[de-cloaking]
Green Bean: “By the way, I absolutely HATE the word ‘nipples.’” Are you more comfortable using a different word? Why? Nipples. Penis. Vagina. Tits. Dick. Pussy. Hooters. Cock. Cunt. Melons. Purple-headed soldier. Bearded clam. Mams. Love wand. Sugar walls (like the song.) Gosh, I hope I haven’t offended anyone. They’re all just words and they refer to the same natural condition.
This whole prudishness pertaining to sexuality is the result of a vicious cycle. As a symbol becomes more and more taboo, it becomes more taboo and sometimes more desireable. If everyone would lighten up, we men would feel the same about a woman’s nipple as women feel about ours. “It’s a nipple so what?” I’ve perused the National Geographic before and it doesn’t appear to me that the villagers are going all google-eyed over a naked breast. Personally, I’m with the naturists and would prefer to shed this false fur when it isn’t necessary for protection.
Admittedly, it does please me to know that my partner is aroused and enjoying herself, but if her nipples become engorged with blood at odd times about town or when it’s cold out, I feel it would be highly presumptive to assume it’s because she’s thinking about me knowing through my own experiences of having become aroused either for no reason or just because I had to pee that it’s not always something erotic that can trigger autoerotic reactions. In the proverbial bedroom it’s a different matter, but that’s no one’s business but hers and mine.
[re-cloaking]
And anyway, the correct plural is “areolae.”
Live a Lush Life
Da Chef
Put’cher cloak back on, nipple boy. Your heat-seeking-moisture-missile is offending me!
Before you start giving someone a lecture on what an uptight prude they are, why don’t you take a minute to think about what that person has just said. Just my posts in this thread alone should have shown you that I’m not exactly uptight about sex and the related body parts. A peek at many of my other posts would have shown you that I’ve got no problem discussing bodily parts or functions, sexual or otherwise.
Ever think that maybe I hate the word “nipples” because I hate the word. I hate the sound of it. Nipples, nipples, nipples. Yaaaargh! I just hate it. I hated it when I was a little kid, even before I knew what a nipple really was. I called it a “noodle” because I just couldn’t stand to say “nipple.” Don’t believe me? Ask my mom. Try being a bike racer who shudders every time she hears “spoke nipples.” No fun, let me tell you. I also hate the word “leotard.” Are you going to tell me that I just need to get more comfortable with dancers. Sheesh.
I just realized how much “leotard” sounds like “retard”.
“Heat-seeking-moisture-missile” that’s a good one. I hope you don’t mind if I use it some time. Yes, the whole euphemism paragraph was sort of directed at you, but half of that and certainly the whole of the remainder of my previous post was directed at the audience at large. Furthermore, I never accused you of being an uptight prude. Hell, I don’t even know you. “Ever think that maybe I hate the word ‘nipples’ because I hate the word” Actually no it hadn’t occurred to me, but it’s entirely valid. I don’t like the sound of two rocks grating together but don’t mind fingernails on a chalkboard <eeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkk>. I guess it takes all kinds.
It is my experience that most people who are put upon by words like nipple or penis or vagina don’t like them because of what they refer to and not the actual sound. Forgive me please. It was never truely my intention to offend any vegetables or even any fruits (we’ve got a lot of fruits around here don’t ya’ know.)
Anyone seen the video for REM’s Pop Song 89? It features three small-breasted, androgynous-looking women and one clean-shaven, androgynous-looking man, all topless and in jeans, shimmying to the music. The whole thing’s in black and white and is really fun. It makes fun of the video formula of scantily clad women being sexy and dancing, by showing completely topless people dancing and not being particularly sexy at all. The fact that it’s not immediately obvious that one of them is male makes it even funnier.
Well when REM got bigger, MTV wanted to show the video, but of course you can’t show nipples. (You can show all sorts of simulated sex; just not nipples.) So REM re-released the video with black bars over the nipples so you can’t see them, but they put the bars over the guy’s nipples too. It made my day anyway.
Your Quadell
Quadell,
IIRC, MTV only wanted to put the censorship bar over the women’s nipples, but Michael Stipe reasoned that a nipple was a nipple and insisted that there be one placed over his chest also.
You’re right. I meant “them” to mean R.E.M., not MTV.
Sorry, quadell, I didn’t mean that to sound argumentative
Those who do not learn from history are condemned to fail the class. --A WallyM7 creation
You’re probably right. Are you an alumni of a Latin course?
(inertia)
Amen. There isnt anything inherently sexual about breasts anymore than any other random body part. We just attatch a connotation to it.
By the way, whenever they blur private parts out on tv, all you have to do is blur your vision and then suddenly it’s in much greater detail than before. (you know I should send that one to Heloise)
David:
I assume that your second comment was facetious; once a 3d image is reduced to a 2d image, there’s no way to better the focus.
Your first comment is equally incorrect. Breasts are inherently sexual. While they aren’t perfect indicators, breasts are good indicators of ability to bear children, which makes them a sexual symbol.
Dude, The Ryan, there are plenty of cultures that don’t see breasts as any more sexual than shoulders or elbows. Just about all cultures will value health, symmetry, and youth in women, but breasts? Some cultures consider a woman’s teeth more sexual than her breasts (since a woman with healthy teeth has probably had a good diet and has been free of disease.)
Your Quadell,
Who nonetheless finds healthy breasts two of a woman’s most attractive features.