Here we go again, folks.

It occurs to me on reading Kathy D's latest post that the definition of
sexuality might be a source of some of our confusion and/or disagreement.

It is commonly through an act of procreative sex that the breasts get to
perform their function of producing milk for the offspring.
The skin of the nipples is thin, like our oral and genital lips, and nipples
are sensitive to touch, both superficial and deep.  Nipples contain erectile
tissue which responds to several kinds of stimuli including oxytocin.  The
neurologic sensitivity of nipples aids the hormonal processes needed to
transfer milk to the nursling.  Oxytocin, the same hormone which is released
with uterine contractions in labor and at orgasm, is responsible for milk
ejection.  Niles and Michael Newton wrote about the parallels between these
processes, and most of us have probably read that literature, culturally
limited though it may be.

Kathy, I perceive from your post that sexual physiology as you define it is
something related only to acts between two beings for the purpose of having,
well, sex.  As a midwife defines it, sexual physiology will often be
synonymous with reproductive physiology, and as such encompasses lovemaking,
pregnancy, birth, and lactation.  Of course this involves the breasts; they
respond to all these things.  And of course the outward markers of sexual
attraction are culturally determined, as are taboos and norms concerning
cleanliness and dirtiness, sacred and profane, private and public.  Breasts
can not easily be dissociated from female reproductive physiology (though in
N. America they've come pretty close), but they have no innate role in
sexual attraction.

Is it any wonder we get confused?

Fascinated by the turns of this discussion every time it surfaces,
Rachel Myr
Norway

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