Growing up Baptist, I was always told that my body was to be hidden, especially the breasts. I always wondered why that is. AFAB people have breasts, consisting of tissue and mammary glands to give life, to feed their young. Why is that sexual? As a lesbian, I understand the appeal, but once again, why is there such a deep seated sexualization of these two orbs of tissue? An example of the sexualization of breasts is seen in the change of saree styles pre and post British rule in India. Before the western influence, sarees were often worn without a blouse under it, simply consisting of a long piece of cloth draped around the body. With the British rule came the western ideals of modesty, leading to sarees being worn almost exclusively with blouses in the modern day, ensuring there is no breast visible. I remember being 15, babysitting for an Indian family that taught me this. The mother who is now a dear friend of mine showed me historical portraits of Hindu deities, many of which had breasts visible, specifically the goddess Durga. She is a warrior goddess, seen as a symbol of feminine strength, depicted in ancient sculptures with breasts uncovered, the breasts being a part of symbolizing feminine strength. In this sculpture, she is seen slaying a buffalo-headed beast called Mahisha. (See photo.) Durga was a fierce warrior while simultaneously being a symbol for motherhood and maternal love. She is the Hindu maternal protector of the universe itself.
The first photo is a painting of a woman wearing a saree in the 19th century. The second photo is of a woman wearing a saree in 1910.
Breasts themselves are not sexual, rather they a reflection of the broader societal issues regarding women’s bodies. Sexualizing breasts gives men power over them by making women uncomfortable with them being visible or sexualised, leading to a change in women’s behavior, in this case, covering the breasts. If men are ogling something about your body, you will feel pressured to hide it, therefore the men have the power over what of the body is shown. It all goes back to the patriarchy.
Unruly Bodies 
The points you made talking about the saree is so interesting! Senior year of Highschool I went to the “world erotic art museum” where they had an exhibit on specifically how pre-colonial India outfits looked and they were very unrestrictive on the woman’s body. It’s so interesting to see how in so many parts of the world the breast wasn’t a part of the body you hid and it was normal to have showing.
I really like your post! It’s fascinating what religious art tells us about the way different cultures view modesty and breast tissue. Your examples of art depicting Hindu goddesses with bare chests and your past in the Baptist church reminded me of something I learned about Catholic iconography. There were many pieces of art depicting the Virgin Mary breastfeeding baby Jesus from about the 12th to 16th century. After the Council of Trent in 1545, the Roman Catholic Church began discouraging ‘profane’ depictions of holy figures and you don’t really see Mary nursing Jesus anymore. Having been raised in the Roman Catholic church, I was exposed to imagery of Mary every single day, but I never saw her breastfeeding until I went to college and took an art history class. It’s kind of mind blowing that even a figure described as a perpetual virgin breastfeeding Jesus Christ himself was determined to be overly sexual or undignified rather than a realistic depiction of motherhood.
Both the patriarchy and colonization are very good at rewriting history. So, thank you for sharing that information about sarees and Hindu goddesses. It’s good to remind ourselves that society has not always been this way nor is it like this in every part of the world.
I find myself often wondering why this is the case as well. what makes breasts so sexual? On television, they cover the nipples, and it makes it safe for viewership, but men, too, have nipples that are capable of lactating. So I am overall very confused with this topic, something in history flipped, and it is obvious it was for better control of the female body, giving them one more thing to worry about.
As a Nigerian, this intrigues me as well because the same influences of colonialism from various European countries in Africa definitely had an impact on how traditional clothes were worn and introduced a new form of modesty. Many women from various African countries just wore nothing on their top half, and this was completely normal and not odd in any way. It wasn’t until imperialism and colonialism that these practices were seen as odd. Then to even bring in intersectionality, Black women’s bodies are always heavily policed and while I use colonialism in my example, this still happens in current times with black female music artists. We briefly talked about this in class about how men are free to be shirtless, but all hell will break lose if a woman does the same.
It’s always interesting to learn about the cultural and historical perspectives on women’s bodies and how they’ve evolved over time. A woman’s naked body used to be seen as something worth painting and showing off to the world. Women’s bodies are capable of so much, from growing and raising children to fighting in wars. I wonder when the sexualization of women’s breasts grew to become such an issue. I often think about the fact that men can be casually shirtless at the beach, or even in other public spaces. Even if it one day became legal/acceptable for a woman to do this, we would most likely never feel comfortable enough to even attempt it.
omg yessss! I always wondered why breast have become sexualized because there was a point when humans used to walk around fully nude and they weren’t sexualized then what changed over the course of time I feel like the same thing could be applied to men like some women find a man’s chest sexually arousing, but they don’t hide their chest. They will show it off whereas us women choose to hide it and I guess that leads to the fact that men think that if they can comment on a woman’s chest and sexualize a woman’s chest that they should feel honored and appreciated that someone is taking notice.
I grew up Baptist too and I will never forget being a child and being asked at church “where is your sweater”, as my shoulders are out and breasts barely developed so I wasn’t wearing a training bra yet. It’s something I still think about now before I walk outside of my room with my shoulders out or without a bra on. It’s interesting to me that nipples are censored since everyone has them. Some children are breast fed at ages that they can somewhat remember being breast fed when they’re older. Some women feed their children with those orbs of tissue. Why can’t it be shown if everyone has already seen it?
I really liked how you connected the sexualization of breasts to colonialism and the way it forced women to hide their bodies. It reminded me of my own post about how patriarchal norms and colonialism taught me to make myself smaller and disconnect from my body. I think both our experiences show how women and AFAB people are taught to see our bodies through others’ eyes instead of our own, whether through modesty or the need to feel desirable.