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Breast fetishism

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Breast fetishism (also known as: mastofact, breast partialism, or mazophilia)[1][2] is a type of sexual fetish which refers to the reliance on breasts to achieve sexual arousal.[3][4] The phrase is also used within ethnographic and feminist contexts to describe a society with a culture devoted to breasts; usually as sexual objects.[5][6] Clothing rituals of western culture have been attributed with causing breast fetishism in males,[6] though examples have been found which go back to neolithic times.

History

Feminists have argued that examples of breast fetishism have been found going back to the neolithic era, with the goddess shrines of Catal Huyuk (in modern Turkey). The archaeological excavations of the town in c. 1960 revealed that the walls of the shrine(s) were adorned with disembodied pairs of breasts that appeared to have "an existence of their own". Elizabeth Gould Davis argues that the breasts (along with phalluses) were revered by the women of Catal Huyuk as instruments of motherhood, but it was after what she describes as a patriarchal revolution – when men had appropriated both phallus worship and "the breast fetish" for themselves – that these organs "acquired the erotic significance with which they are now endowed".[7]

The reverence and theorizing shown to breasts also appears in the science of modern civilization. Breast fetishism is claimed to be an example of a contagious thought (or meme) spreading throughout society,[8] and that breasts are primarily biosemiotic features that have evolved to influence human sexuality rather than serve an exclusive maternal function.

American culture

Some authors from the USA say that the female breast is the American fetish-object of choice,[9] and that breast fetishism is predominantly found in the USA.[10][11][12] The critic Molly Haskell, a feminist from the USA, goes as far as to say that: "The mammary fixation is the most infantile, and the most American, of the sex fetishes".[13][verification needed]

Nacirema Case

In 1957, the American Anthropological Association published a parody essay Body Ritual among the Nacirema by the anthropologist Horace Miner which satirized - by alluding to "the magical beliefs and practices" of the Nacirema tribe - the attitudes to the human body within American culture. The Nacirema ("American", with the letters reversed) society is described as practicing rites of increasing or decreasing breast size in comic opposition to natural circumstances; a process which is motivated by a dissatisfaction with the idealized form of breast(s) existing "virtually outside the range of human variation". Miner goes on to describe the fetishistic situation with which the few women with "hypermammary development" find themselves; "...(they) are so idolized that they make a handsome living by simply going from village to village and permitting the natives to stare at them for a fee".[14]

Breast Expansion

Erotic fiction by the author Wilson Barber concerning breast expansion has been published in men's magazines in the USA since 1986, with titles such as; "Mind Over Mammaries" in 1990, and "Videodrain" published in Bust Out! in 1993. The more recent style within the fantasy fiction genre of comics and anime include stories of women's busts being enlarged by air, water, food, magic, medicine, alien technology or some other unseen force.

The "Experiment 45-EEE" produced in 1997 by graphic artists Kris Overstreet and John Barrett created "The Magnificent Milkmaid" character in response to breast expansion artwork published in Japanese hentai manga comics. The story of the "Magnificent Milkmaid" is of a female character designed by a "bored mad scientist" to experience "both breast expansion and lactation on a regular basis".[15]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Hickey, 2003.
  2. ^ Sexual Positions Terms
  3. ^ Bass, 2000. (p.163).
  4. ^ McConaghy, 1993. (p.319).
  5. ^ Evans, 1989. (p. 34).
  6. ^ a b Goldscheider, Glazier, Flowerday, 2003. (p. 58).
  7. ^ Davis, 1971. (p. 105).
  8. ^ Marsden, 1999.
  9. ^ Slade, 2000. (p. 402).
  10. ^ Miller, 2006. (p. 74).
  11. ^ Latteier, 1998.
  12. ^ Morrison, & Holden, 1971.
  13. ^ Molly Haskell, see source.
  14. ^ Miner, 1956.
  15. ^ White Lightning Productions. Artwork. "Experiment 45-EEE by John Barrett". retrieved 2007-10-12.

References

Further reading

  • Moreck, Curt. (1965). Breast fetishism. International Press of Sexology. ASIN B0007HAEES
  • Serpents in the Garden: Liaisons with Culture and Sex. 2004. (ed. Alexander Cockburn, Jeffrey St. Clair). Dr. Susan Block "Covering Justice: Ashcroft's Breast Fetish".
  • Tovar, Virgie. 2007. Destination DD: Adventures of a Breast Fetishist with 40DDs. Sexy Advisors Press. ISBN 0978869946.
  • Yalom, Marilyn. 1997. A History of the Breast. pub. Knopf. ISBN 0679434593.
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