How do you conflate grossness with immorality?
Also, quoting myself again:
A) Breasts are different from men’s chests
A common argument is that women’s breasts are different from men’s chests, and that’s why it’s wrong to expose them. However, men’s chests are just as different from women’s chests, as women’s are from men’s. The difference is exactly equal, in both directions: male to female, female to male. It’s indefensible to use men’s bodies as the “acceptable” standard by which we determine any deviation. If we did that, we could say that men’s genitals can be exposed, because … they’re not different from male genitals.
B) Breasts are different from children’s non-sexual bodies
This argument is similar to the last. It uses children as the standard: that is, male and female children have the same chest. After puberty, women grow breasts, and men do not. Thus, it’s a definitively female characteristic, and that’s why it shouldn’t be exposed. However, female breasts are secondary sex characteristics – not primary. Beards are a secondary sex characteristic of men, not primary. If we outlaw breast exposure for this reason, then we should also outlaw beard exposure. Alternatively, we could seek equality by requiring men to either shave, or to wear a beard bra.
C) Celebration
Many young men are excited about reaching puberty and growing a beard. They might be fooled by an old wives tale that shaving your beard makes it grow faster or thicker, so they shave in hope of appearing more mature when it grows back. Once their beard is grown, they may groom it, use good hygiene, and even decorate it. These men are proud of their beards; they’re characteristic of masculinity and adulthood, which are celebratory.
Women are not afforded the same opportunity with their breasts, at least not in the U.S. Although many women show deep cleavage, behaving similarly to the same way that many men do with their beards, they’re stigmatized for violating a taboo. And if they go further and expose areola, they face criminal charges.
This isn’t the case in all cultures. In Zambia, a “breast dance” is practiced (Turner, 1987; Taylor, 2006; both as cited in Bosteen, 2019). And in Nigeria, the Iria Ritual is a coming of age custom for females, in which they bare their breasts (Crespo, Duque, & Zuhlsdorf, 2013; MomoAfrica, n.d.; both as cited in LangLangC, 2019).
In the U.S., we’re teaching men that they should celebrate their adult bodies, and we’re teaching women that they should be ashamed of theirs.
