Dr. Page writes:

> History is filled with MANY cultures that adore and/or exploit the breast.
Some
>cultures are just better at hiding them than ours. In MOST cultures
throughout history, breasts have played an important role in sexuality AND
nurturing.

Sorry Dr. Page, but you are simply wrong about this.  In the vast majority
of cultures throughout history and still today in the modern world, breasts
play ABSOLUTELY NO ROLE IN SEXUALITY -- neither in sexual attraction nor
during sexual activity.  None, zip, nada, rien, foi ta la (lots of different
languages for saying NONE).  You do not know your history and anthropology
if you think the Western obsession with breasts is widespread through space
and time.  I suggest you read "Beauty and the Breast" and read ethnographic
descriptions of life in other cultures.

>Mutilating feet is a different issue
>than stopping human urges--cultural, biological or otherwise.

Mutilating feet to enhance them for male sexual pleasure was a cultural
phenomenon in China in previous centuries.  It was eradicated through the
concerted efforts of people to put the rights of women and children above
the sexual pleasure of men -- it was a human urge, developed and propagated
by culture.  Focusing on breasts as sex objects for male (and female) sexual
pleasure is a cultural phenomenon in a FEW cultures in the modern world.
There is no reason to be so pessimistic as to assume people cannot change
their cultural beliefs if given appropriate education and motivation.
Culture, as I have said many times before in this forum, is the sum total of
all the individual decisions people make every day.  We can make different
decisions.  We can teach our daughters that their breasts are for feeding
children.  We can teach our sons that women's breasts are for feeding
children.  This is what I have taught MY children, and what I have taught
thousands of college students.  It's not that difficult.  I refuse to be
pessimistic.

Kathy Dettwyler

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