Check out this long but very interesting attempt to answer the question: “Why Do Men Like Tits?”

The title of this post at rantlust.com is blunt, to say the least, but the post itself, by a blogger who calls himself Manish, is a thoughtful consideration of how breasts have been perceived by various cultures and at different times through history and from biological, sociological and psychological perspectives. Manish touches on the Kama Sutra and even Darwin. His references include such works as Carolyn Latteier’s Breasts: The Women’s Perspective on an American Obsession, and Marilyn Yalom’s A History of the Breast.

The most interesting part of this post is, of course, towards the end. Manish says:

“Men sexually objectify women. The objectification of women that men do, leads to emotional distress for some women: negative body image, implants, depression, etc. Women’s studies and feminist thought are full of slogans like “women need to reclaim their bodies”, “breasts are solely for nurturing”, etc. Often in such circles, men, by sub-consciously responding to gratuitous use of sexual imagery ( e.g. in ads) and by concious consumption of sexual material (e.g. porn), are held responsible for the social pressure placed on women to meet a certain physique. The sentiment, if not the logic, behind these ideas is understandable.

“But women sexually objectify men too. To take an example off the top of my head, women in general prefer men with hair. This leads some men to go for hair transplants, hormonal treatment, toupees, etc. Consider the number of successful aging male actors (or men in many other professions in the public eye) who are bald. Does baldness make one a bad actor?

“I’m not laboring to make the obvious point that turnabout is fair play. I’m trying to point out that nature didn’t set out to create human beings who respect each other’s feelings and treat them as indviduals first. Nature didn’t give us bodies because the minds we have needed containers. We have the minds and bodies we do because that’s what the brutal, selfish processes of nature ended up creating. Nature in general, and the sex game in particular, works on the basis of individuals trying to get some benefit out of other individuals for their own needs.

“But we humans have the unique ability (ironically, another gift of nature) to rise above our animal selves. To do this, we can’t, shouldn’t and needn’t ignore the reasons that make things they way they are.”

We don’t often get the chance to hear men’s thoughts about breasts beyond such one-word grunts like, “Bigger,” so I really appreciated this effort.