[JillValentine]

Seriously, what’s the problem? Breasts are not sexual organs the way penises or vaginas are. In Europe and Israel, it’s perfectly normal for women to go to the beach topless, just like men. Why do people have to act like they’ve never seen a breast before? It should be no big deal. (in my case, it’s definitely a “small” deal, or two small deals)

[dayglored]

> Why do people have to act like they’ve never seen a breast before?

Ask any teenage boy who's sweating bullets about how to manage to cop his first feel of his date in a movie without getting slapped.

It's unfortunate, but we are raised to believe that female breasts are these forbidden, magical, and incredibly wonderful things.

Breasts themselves are not [particularly] sexual organs, as you say; but they are charged with that connection by our society, and that's damned hard to overcome.

[fr_freak]

In Europe and Israel, it’s perfectly normal for women to go to the beach topless, just like men.

There are a lot of things that are perfectly normal in European society that we DO NOT want to include in our culture, especially when it comes to things of a sexual nature. As someone who spent a couple of years in Germany, I can testify to this. I am less familiar with Israel's social mores. A line of modesty has to be drawn somewhere, however, and the fact is that, despite how female breasts should be viewed non-sexually, they are viewed that way and will continue to be as long as there are men on the planet.