# Why do men have nipples? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 21, 2000, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-have-nipples/42116 "2000-11-21T12:41:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KV](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8baadc/32.png) [@KV](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KV)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-have-nipples/42116/1 "2000-11-21T12:41:13Z")
I was looking at mine this morning, ( don’t you? ) and started to wonder why I’ve got 'em. I don’t need them, I can’t squirt milk out of them, even though that would be REALLY cool, why do I have them, damn, I coulda had a V8. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-have-nipples/42116/2 "2000-11-21T12:47:22Z")
Cecil Adams on [Why do men have nipples](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_093.html) ---
**Author:** ![KV](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8baadc/32.png) [@KV](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KV)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-have-nipples/42116/3 "2000-11-21T13:11:04Z")
thanks, I must have missed that one 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![SuaSponte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SuaSponte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuaSponte)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-have-nipples/42116/4 "2000-11-21T14:55:05Z")
To help men find their cigarettes when they’re drunk. Sua ---
**Author:** ![Tygr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/df788c/32.png) [@Tygr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tygr)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-have-nipples/42116/5 "2000-11-21T15:24:44Z")
from “Time Bandits”. [http://dailywav.com/0199](http://dailywav.com/0199)!!/notech.wav ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-have-nipples/42116/6 "2000-11-21T16:05:30Z")
Almost any question can be answered simply by inputting the question itself, in a search box of any browser. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-have-nipples/42116/7 "2000-11-21T16:24:19Z")
I had supposed men had nipples in order to demonstrate our solidarity with the feminist movement. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Pinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dr.Pinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Pinky)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-have-nipples/42116/8 "2000-11-21T16:29:46Z")
The real question is why do I have 3? ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-have-nipples/42116/9 "2000-11-21T16:51:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dr.Pinky \* > \*\*The real question is why do I have 3? \*\* According to Uncle Cecil, you have a “benign congenital defect occurring in about one percent of the population”, according to [Is it true that Anne Boleyn, wife of Henry VIII, had a sixth finger and three breasts?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_053.html) from _Return of the Straight Dope_. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-have-nipples/42116/10 "2000-11-21T18:51:30Z")
Men were given nipples so that Marge Piercy could write her futurist/feminist science fiction novel, _Woman on the Edge of Time_. The Chicana heroine time-travels forward a couple centuries into a left-wing feminist gender-bender utopia. In the childcare center she sees a burly bearded man in a lumberjack shirt taking care of the children. A baby cries, so the man opens his shirt and gives breast to the baby who happily nurses the man’s milk. She is bowled over and outraged by seeing a man appropriate an ability that was supposed to belong only to women! Her guide to the future explains that they had decided complete gender equality was he only way to go. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Pinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dr.Pinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Pinky)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2000, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-men-have-nipples/42116/11 "2000-11-25T08:06:04Z")
> [@](#): > > According to Uncle Cecil, you have a “benign congenital defect occurring in about one percent of the population”, according to [Is it true that Anne Boleyn, wife of Henry VIII, had a sixth finger and three breasts?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_053.html) from _Return of the Straight Dope_. \*\* Well, it’s always nice to be in the top 1%, even if it is for physical abnormalities. * * * For best results, rotate your axioms regularly.