Everywhere I turn online right now, the breastfeeding discussion is raging, fueled by the cover of Time Magazine. I don’t want to get into the Time Magazine cover with this post though, I want to explain why, beyond a shadow of a doubt, breastfeeding is not sexual.
Breasts as Sex Organs
This all comes from the idea that breasts are also sexual organs. Well, here’s the deal: The reason that breasts are sexual organs is because we all know on an instinctive level that when a woman grows breasts, she is entering her fertile years. We don’t think about it that way, of course. We think of it as separate, but it’s really not separate. A woman becomes sexy as she matures because sex is a biological function. Since we are animals, we have biological impulses. These impulses end up propagating the species. The breasts purpose isn’t to be sexual. The breasts purpose is to feed babies. Breasts are only sexual BECAUSE of their job in fertility. Even though we have sex for fun, for bonding, or for any number of reasons, there is only one actual biological function of having sex: To make babies.
Sure, breasts are beautiful, but don’t you guys see why everyone likes them so much? Because they are a result of fertility, of physical maturity. And we notice that on an instinctive level. Biologically, we are sexual beings so that we will reproduce.
So, see, the whole point of breasts is to feed babies. So, instead of getting all weirded out by breastfeeding, if we like looking at sexy boobs, we should be grateful for breastfeeding, because it’s the only reason breasts are there in the first place. Let’s hope we never stop breastfeeding, lest maybe evolution would delete the boob gene. After all, evolution tends to delete genes whose loss will not have widespread negative biological effects on the species.
Sexual Gratification from Breastfeeding
Comments about women getting sexual gratification when they do extended breastfeeding are absurd. That is a statement only made by people who have never done it. I can state that confidently. I guess I’ll have to be really blunt and speak from personal experience to get this point across. Sexual use of nipples feel nothing like breastfeeding. Sexual use of nipples is stimulating, breastfeeding is relaxing.
I know it’s hard to believe if you’ve never done it, but breastfeeding doesn’t feel sexual. Similarly, when I go to the gynecologist and he examines my breasts, I don’t get turned on and I’m quite confident that he doesn’t either.
Perhaps people who call women who practice extended breastfeeding perverts should say the same of the gynecologists performing breast exams. After all, he gets turned on touching boobs during sex, so he obviously gets turned on touching breasts during an exam. Right?
Wrong.
My gyno doesn’t get turned on examining boobs and women don’t get turned on nursing babies.
To presume otherwise is just being ignorant.
Besides, a Woman’s Sex Drive Varies By Hormones
All this talk about a woman being turned on because she nurses her toddler is even more foolish given that a woman’s sex drive is very much dependent on her fertility. While I’m sure men would like to think that woman are driven by their man’s burning hot sexuality, the fact remains, a woman’s hormones are a far more influential force in determining her sex drive. Women are the most sexually driven while they are ovulating. While an egg will occasionally be produced while a woman breastfeeds, for the most part, nursing suspends strong ovulation hormones.
Boldly put, a breastfeeding women might desire sex for bonding, intimacy or other learned desires, but biologically, a breastfeeding woman generally doesn’t have the same desires that a non-breastfeeding, ovulating woman has. In my experience, when I was breastfeeding, even when my husband paid attention to my boobs, it wasn’t quite the turn on that it would have been if I were fertile. Actually, sex in general is never quite as exciting for a woman as when she is ovulating. It all goes back the whole reason we, as animals have sex: To make babies.
So there you have it: Breasts are sexy because the biological function of sex is to make babies and a woman having breasts imply that she is of childbearing years and able to feed the baby that the sexual activity creates.
Or even more simply: Babies are fed by boobs and made by sex.