In my travels many places in the world, I've been repeatedly surprised at how relatively free some people are. Then, when I return back to the U.S., I never fail to register a certain amount of shock at how sexually repressed my own people are. Where the hell did that come from? Is religion the chief source of all that guilt and repression? I appreciate this young lady for sharing her fear of going topless where men are topless.
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.In my view, religion and rules by elders are two major causes. Both make silly customs and traditions according their sense of right and wrong then and refuse to accept that times, people, values, taboos and worldviews change. But they don't want to change themselves nor want others to in the name of good values. It is like a grandma saying what the girls of today are wearing is just shocking.
My ex had a very strong sense of the good girl syndrome. Sex is only for making babies. She never wore a skirt or shorts. Windows had to be closed at all times. They make good mothers, sisters, daughters but not wives.
St-Sinner
Level 9
Jan 2, 2022
1
LovinLarge
Level 8
Jan 1, 2022
0
The male breast has not been made illegitimate or shameful as has the female breast. Which is the whole point of Sarah Stroh's blog post.
@mischl I don't think the female breast has been made illegitimate or shameful, I think it has been sexualized even though its fundamental purpose is biological.
@LovinLarge It is against the laws in many places in the U.S. for women to expose their breasts. That simple indisputable fact is the point of the writer's post.
@mischl This article says 33 states allow it, but I did not fact check it. I am saying that the motivation for the double standard is the sexualization of women's breasts, and I make this point because getting to the "why" might help us solve the problem.
@LovinLarge lt is called male biology and the way most men are wired. There is nothing wrong with sex or sexual desires. The taboo of sex and the idea it is dirty is societal. The way men feel about women and sex is not going to change no matter how hard some women would like it to change. They way some men feel women are inferior or should be submissive to men is also societal. And that should and must change.
@Sticks48 If that were true, the sexualization of female breasts would be universal among cis men and that is not my observation. I have known many men who recognize that the sexualization of things and places that are not inherently sexual is an affront to gender equality.
Men are even more stigmatized than women, if that's possible. Normal instincts are condemned as evil.
I wonder if that has anything to do with the level of sexual deviancy, sex crimes, etc., wherein the normal is discouraged, so the abnormal is turned to, since the urge itself is impossible to suppress for long...
Storm1752
Level 8
Jan 1, 2022
1
Totally agree, women need to stop raping men.
@SnowyOwl Is that a joke, or a slam? If the latter, I wasn't talking about women at all, in case I somehow gave you that mistaken impression.
I simply was saying it's possible ONE of the reasons some men develop extremely unhealthy sexual pathologies is our culture's pathologically negative attitude regarding sex in general. Not to excuse it, and not to say it's the ONLY reason (sexual abuse, or witnessing or experiencing domestic violence, or a criminally amoral profit motive, etc.), just one factor. I certainly wasn't trivializing what I know is a very complicated issue.
Normal instincts are considered evil is true in conservatives societies and to my surprise in the US too. Western Europe is more open.
The Puritan streak runs deep….the Mayflower brought the first ones and established a base of prudery which spread from Plymouth Rock to infest the whole country.
Marionville
Level 10
Jan 1, 2022
1
There is an organization, l can't remember the name who just published a report ranking countries based on the freedoms provide or allowed,by each country. The United States didn't crack the top 50. As usual, it was the Nordic countries at or near the top of the list. The same as in the results of the countries where the populations are the happiest, where the U.S. never cracks the top 15.
Sticks48
Level 9
Jan 1, 2022
2
Yes, I recall reading material like that. I'd love to find that information again.
We overturned those discriminatory laws in Canada several decades ago but changing the mindset of the people takes more than changing a few repressive laws against women's breasts. Breatfeeding in public is now considered normal and without sexual connotations but even this took time for people to get their head around and yes it was mainly the religious types with their misogynistic attitudes that caused all the fuss.
SnowyOwl
Level 8
Jan 1, 2022
4
I have to use my imagination to try to appreciate the "shock" of seeing a naked breast. Because I've seen thousands. And I'm not exaggerating. I overcame my Baptist-repressed childhood so long ago. Of course, by now that conditioning has been pushed largely out of my mind.
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