REVEALED: Why straight males like breasts
Scientists are working to resolve a life-long question… why straight men love breasts?
For years, researchers have debated whether men’s fixation on breasts is innate or simply the result of cultural conditioning in the West.
Researchers wanted to know: would men who had grown up surrounded by topless women be less interested in breasts? Or was the attraction hardwired?
To answer these questions, a team from the University of Wrocław set out to study the Dani tribe of Western New Guinea, Indonesia.
Until about 20 years ago, it was the norm for Dani women to go topless – but as Western influence spread, most began covering up.
As part of the research 40 older Dani men who came of age when toplessness was the norm, and 40 younger men who grew up in a society where women covered up. The result? It made no difference at all.
‘The two groups did not differ in terms of how frequently they touch their partner’s breasts during sexual intercourse, [or] how sexually aroused they feel when they see naked female breasts,’ the study, published in Archives of Sexual Behaviour, concluded.
In other words, even in a society where breasts were freely on display, men still found them attractive.
To answer these questions, a team from the University of Wrocław set out to study the Dani tribe of Western New Guinea, Indonesia .
As part of the research 40 older Dani men who came of age when toplessness was the norm, and 40 younger men who grew up in a society where women covered up
The famous Wobderbra advert from the 90s proved that sex sells in the West
Despite just researching one tribe and it relying on the older men’s recollections, Lead researcher Michal Stefanczyk said that it seemed reasonable to assume that this was not a cultural imposition.
Stefanczyk told the Times: ‘What we can say is breasts are sexy — naturally so. Men like breasts.’
However, he was keen to point out that this doesn’t mean breasts are the be-all and end-all for men. In fact, many of the Dani men said breasts weren’t a major factor in choosing a life partner.
Steve Stewart-Williams, a psychology professor at the University of Nottingham Malaysia, said: ‘I’ve often heard people argue that men’s love of breasts is just an invention of Western culture, and that there are cultures out there where breasts are no big deal to men.
‘It’s always struck me as implausible — could Western culture have randomly created a male obsession with women’s elbows or nostrils? I find the new study persuasive. And it also strikes me as a win for common sense over an eccentric academic theory.’
