Men love breasts, and they cannot lie.
Beauty is depicted all around our society by way of breasts, with ads featuring a “perfect” woman dressed in a red two-piece bathing suit as she stands on a yacht, the tiny droplets shining off her bodacious ta-tas. And men love it.
So it’s interesting that women who post pictures of themselves on social media showing a little cleavage are typically met with harsh criticisms, such as “slut” or “easy.”
One woman, Kimberly Hall, wrote in an article on her personal blog that she even goes so far as to block those kinds of girls from her sons’ social media accounts, so she may protect her three teenage boys from such flirty tarts and their tempting ways.
Hall’s article starts with her description of an activity she and her family enjoy — sitting around the dining room table and looking at the girls that her sons are friends with on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
“It appears you are not wearing bras,” she complains to these anonymous girls through her blog.
She goes on to say, “And now — big bummer — we have to block your posts. Because… we care about our sons.”
Then Hall drops a bomb: “Did you know that once a male sees you in a state of undress, he can’t ever un-see it? You don’t want the Hall boys to only think of you in this sexual way, do you?”
Who would have known that a few pictures of a girl not wearing a bra, even though it’s the modern-day corset, could result in boys thinking of her in only a sexual way? All her intelligence and self-worth is apparently negated by her nipples under her shirt.
In that case, it sounds as if the onus is on the boys to change their thoughts, not on the girl to change her clothes.
It is wholly unfair to force women to cover up so that men can control their sexual urges, even though they can’t un-see things.
Maybe it would seem fairer if every time a woman drove down the street and saw a shirtless man jogging on the sidewalk, with sweat dripping down his exposed back muscles, his anatomy swinging freely in his gym shorts, she thought, “Eesh, he’s asking for it.”
But that doesn’t happen, because the liabilities of sexuality are placed on women.
Dress this way. Don’t act like that. If you touch his shoulder and giggle, it means you want to have sex.
In her blog article, Hall posts pictures of her family, one of which shows her shirtless sons posed as if they’re trying to make the cover of Men’s Health magazine, flashing their biceps and punctuating their faces with grunting expressions.
There is no difference in the showy display of boys acting like weight-lifting bodybuilders and girls showing some skin. But a mother is never going to block these boys from her daughter’s Facebook, saying, “Cover up your abs, you pervs! Unfriended.”
No, these skin-showing boys are wholesome and respectable, even if they are wearing only shorts.
The U.S. is a forward-thinking society and we’ve already started the movement toward more-equal social conditions. We should all, women and men alike, accept that women’s bodies are not the cause of sexuality.
Everyone has the ability to control him or herself.
Reach the columnist at kwrenick@asu.edu or follow him at @kwrenick
