The Breasts
Although
the breasts are not reproductive organs, they are clearly part
of sexual anatomy. There is a common fallacy that big-
breasted female has become an almost universal sex symbol, but
there that a woman with large breasts has definite sexual
advantage. This has led to number of harmful misconception. For
example, men and women alike come to believe that the larger a
woman’s breasts are, the
more sexually excitable she is or can become. Another fallacy,
still firmly subscribe to by many men, holds that the relatively
flat-chested woman is less able to respond sexually and actually
has little, if any, interest in sex.
The
fact is that there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that
breast size bears any relation to a woman’s level of sexual
interest, to her capacity for sexual response, or to the ease
with which she attains orgasm. Actually, many women experience
very little sexual sensation when their breasts are fondled or
caressed, and this is as true of those with large breasts as it
is of those with small ones. Furthermore, the woman who does
become sexually excited when her breasts are stimulated does so
regardless of their size.
For
all their erotic significance, breasts are actually just
modified sweat glands. The female breasts undergo changes in
size and shape during puberty, gradually becoming conical or
hemispherical with the left breast usually slightly larger than
the right. Each breast contains fifteen to twenty subdivided
lobes of glandular tissue arranged in a grapelike cluster, with
each lobe drained by a duct opening on the surface of the
nipple. The glandular lobes are surrounded by fatty and fibrous
tissue, giving a soft consistency to the breast.
The
nipple is located at the tip of the breast and mostly consists
of smooth muscle fibers and a network of nerve endings that make
it highly sensitive to touch and temperature. The dark wrinkled
skin of the nipple extends 1 or 2 centimeters onto the surface
of the breast to form an areola, a circular area of dark skin
with many nerve fibers and with muscle fibers that cause the
nipple to stiffen and become erect.
The
sexual sensitivity of the breast, areola, and nipple do not
depend upon breast size or shape. Personal preference, learned
habit, and biology all contribute to their responsiveness.
Nevertheless, the American male's fascination with female
breasts leads many woman who consider themselves “flat-chested
` or “underdeveloped` to seek to improve their sexual
attractiveness and self-esteem by the use of exercise, lotions
or mechanical devices such as suction machines to enlarge the
breasts. These methods, though widely advertised, do not work.
For this reason, so- called breast augmentation surgery has
become popular. In the past, liquid silicone was injected
directly into the breasts to increase their size, but this
technique proved to be highly unsatisfactory since it led to
many medical complications. Today, soft thin plastic pouches
filled with silicon gel are implanted through a simple breast
incision to increase breast size while retaining a
natural-appearing and soft-feeling breast.
Conversely,
some women are troubled by breasts that are too large. This
condition, called mammary hyperplasia or macromastia, can be
treated by reduction mammaplasty, a fairly simple operation to
reduce breast size and weight. Other common breast problems
include inverted nipples (the nipples are pushed inward). A
harmless anatomical variation that does not interfere with
nursing, and extra nipples, which are minor errors of
development that have no adverse health consequences but may be
a source of embarrassment.
