Girls' breasts

[Harrowby Hall]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4833482/Parents-slam-Growing-Boys-book.html

Here's an old favourite (well, it is for me). A children's book publisher, Usborne, forced to apologise for making a perfectly reasonable statement. Apparently, a book on growing up for boys has raised a storm by suggesting that girls grow breasts to produce milk but also (wait for it) to make them look grown up and attractive.

Outraged parents took to social media to complain.

Physiologically, breasts are not mammary glands. Mammary glands are (usually) small structures which - at the appropriate time - grow and produce milk. When not required for this purpose they shrink. Anyone who has owned a pet which had offspring can attest to this. Homo sapiens is the only species which has large permanent fatty lumps which surround the mammary glands. The fatty tissues play no part in milk production.

Breasts are a sign that the young woman is sexually mature and are attractive to young men. They are part of an enhanced fat distribution in human females which gives their bodies a distinctively different shape from those of men.

My assumption is that these angry parents are really unhappy at the suggestion that female children become sexual adults. Usborne should have stood its ground.

[Udayana]

Yes. Agreed. A bit like topic titles - as much to get attention as perform a function 

[floo]

I was extremely annoyed this morning when on TV I saw a breast enhancement ad, featuring very young women! 

[Robbie]

This thread's title is certainly attention grabbing HH!
I agree with what you say though, Usborn should have stayed firm.

What did the book say about boys? Their voices deepen and they they grow hair on their chest I suppose, the latter being unfashionable right now, but still happens.

Also floo I would be outraged at an advert like the one you saw same as I would if there was one for tattoos (I don't think there is atm but give it time).

[Nearly Sane]

I think in simplifying the idea of evolutionary adaptation and sexual selection though the writing has an implication that a woman with small breast is not grown up and unattractive.

[SusanDoris]

I think in simplifying the idea of evolutionary adaptation and sexual selection though the writing has an implication that a woman with small breast is not grown up and unattractive.

Well said.

[Robbie]

It didn't say anything about the size of breasts, just breasts. Little breasts, medium or large, they do appear and they're all nice in their way.

[jeremyp]

I think in simplifying the idea of evolutionary adaptation and sexual selection though the writing has an implication that a woman with small breast is not grown up and unattractive.

If it's not at least partially true, how do you explain the fact that many women are prepared to pay money to have foreign objects surgically inserted into their chests to make their breasts look bigger?

[Nearly Sane]

If it's not at least partially true, how do you explain the fact that many women are prepared to pay money to have foreign objects surgically inserted into their chests to make their breasts look bigger?

That some people may think it to be true is undeniable. Are you taking the position that you think it is partially true that a woman with small breasts isn't grown up and is unattractive, as your post seems to read?

[Rhiannon]

If it's not at least partially true, how do you explain the fact that many women are prepared to pay money to have foreign objects surgically inserted into their chests to make their breasts look bigger?

Well, because society has taught her that she isn't attractive if she's small breasted. It's currently fashionable to be larger, driven in part by porn; fashions change.

[Robbie]

You're quite right especially about porn.
Some of the most attractive women do not have oversized chesticles, they are well proportioned and healthy looking. In any case, the more you have the more you have to lose. Everything goes South eventually.

That some people may think it to be true is undeniable. Are you taking the position that you think it is partially true that a woman with small breasts isn't grown up and is unattractuvey, as your post seems to read?

I don't read jeremy's post like that, he was merely commenting on the fact that some women seem obsessed with enlarging their boobs; as Rhiannon said, a lot of that is fuelled by porn. Perhaps if they read a few horror stories about how the operation can go seriously wrong, they'd think more than twice about it & look at genuinely attractive people as role models. Duchess of Cambridge is an example, lovely girl, slim and healthy. Nothing healthy about being top heavy.

I've not seen the advert that floo mentioned where breast augmentation is being flogged but seriously think there is cause for complaint.

[Rhiannon]

I think in simplifying the idea of evolutionary adaptation and sexual selection though the writing has an implication that a woman with small breast is not grown up and unattractive.

I think the wording is wrong. Parents have huge issues with kids growing up too fast and being overly sexualised, girls ediecially. And many girksvthese days need a bra by age 12. Trying to think of better phrasing.

I guess it doesn't help that women without curves are often referred to as having a 'boyish' figure.

[Robbie]

I had my first bras at 11,a lot of kids my age did. I'd stopped growing by time I was thirteen and a half though. Once you start developing you need a bra, it's more comfortable and looks better. I'd have been embarrassed not to wear one then. Nothing to do with being sexualised just mildly self conscious.

It's normal surely to want to feel attractive as opposed to unattractive, all about confidence. Only a problem if you think about nothing else & there's plenty else to be bothered about. School & exams for a start.

A 'boyish' figure can be very attractive, "gamine" is a good word you don't hear that often nowadays.

[ippy]

Went to Spain on a beach holiday a while back, it was a while after we returned before I regained the ability to recognise odd numbers, lovely holiday.

ippy

[Sriram]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4833482/Parents-slam-Growing-Boys-book.html

Here's an old favourite (well, it is for me). A children's book publisher, Usborne, forced to apologise for making a perfectly reasonable statement. Apparently, a book on growing up for boys has raised a storm by suggesting that girls grow breasts to produce milk but also (wait for it) to make them look grown up and attractive.

Outraged parents took to social media to complain.

Physiologically, breasts are not mammary glands. Mammary glands are (usually) small structures which - at the appropriate time - grow and produce milk. When not required for this purpose they shrink. Anyone who has owned a pet which had offspring can attest to this. Homo sapiens is the only species which has large permanent fatty lumps which surround the mammary glands. The fatty tissues play no part in milk production.

Breasts are a sign that the young woman is sexually mature and are attractive to young men. They are part of an enhanced fat distribution in human females which gives their bodies a distinctively different shape from those of men.

My assumption is that these angry parents are really unhappy at the suggestion that female children become sexual adults. Usborne should have stood its ground.

Yes...makes sense I guess.  But why doesn't all the fat decrease as they become older when all the attractiveness and feeding children stuff is done and dusted?! Many poor women are burdened with huge breasts after fifty.

I can't imagine carrying all that around all day! Thank God I am a man (but many women may not feel comfortable about things dangling between their legs perhaps). 

[Nearly Sane]

Yes...makes sense I guess.  But why doesn't all the fat decrease as they become older when all the attractiveness and feeding children stuff is done and dusted?! Many poor women are burdened with huge breasts after fifty.

I can't imagine carrying all that around all day! Thank God I am a man (but many women may not feel comfortable about things dangling between their legs perhaps). 

Because evolution and sexual selection do not act with foresight and efficiency and outcomes past childbirth are not selected for.

[floo]

My mother found telling my sisters and I about breasts, periods etc too embarrassing. I was about 11 and thought it was about time I was wearing a bra, but didn't like to ask my mother about it. I set up one of my sisters, who is five years younger than me, to ask my mother if I required one. I was listening behind the door! The next day I had my very first bra.

[Robbie]

~Good for you, your sister and your mum for taking it on board.
My mum measured me and bought two very pretty ones which fit well but then took me to department store where I was professionally measured and had another three!
After that I used to measure myself and was given money to buy new ones - nothing compares to the first pretty ones though.

[jeremyp]

That some people may think it to be true is undeniable. Are you taking the position that you think it is partially true that a woman with small breasts isn't grown up and is unattractive, as your post seems to read?

Maybe you should think on what "partially true" means.

[jeremyp]

Well, because society has taught her that she isn't attractive if she's small breasted. It's currently fashionable to be larger, driven in part by porn; fashions change.

But you also have the selection pressure from evolution. Why do you think human breasts have the appearance that they do?

[Nearly Sane]

Maybe you should think on what "partially true" means.

How does that impact on using your term 'partially true' about a statement you applied it to? I asked for clarification of what you mean, why would you think that that would be dependent on what I think something means?

[jeremyp]

How does that impact on using your term 'partially true'

It impacts on your subsequent straw man.

about a statement you applied it to? I asked for clarification of what you mean, why would you think that that would be dependent on what I think something means?

You didn't ask for clarification. You created a caricature and challenged me to deny it. If you genuinely wanted clarification instead of trying to score a cheap point by making it personal, you would have framed the question differently.

[Nearly Sane]

It impacts on your subsequent straw man.

You didn't ask for clarification. You created a caricature and challenged me to deny it. If you genuinely wanted clarification instead of trying to score a cheap point by making it personal, you would have framed the question differently.

No, I asked a question, which is why it had a question mark at the end of it.  And asked if that was the correct reading.

[Steve H]

https://i.onthe.io/vllkyt3n0ih85ifu9.7b3cf605.jpg

[Steve H]

Good God - people on this forum can have a pompous, pretentious, pseudo-intellectual argument even on a thread about tits!