for
4/14/2001
Large or small, pointy or round, conical, cylendrical, spherical, flat, or any of a million tweening shades of pseudomorph, breasts are more than a simple external mammary; they are a point of enjoyment....
The female breast doesn't need to have so many nerve endings, nor does it need to take part in the sexual arousal process. But it does....
Men like breasts because they're enjoyable to look at, fun to fondle, and pleasing to rest on....
Women like them for basically the same reasons--their own being displayable, arousing, and more portable than a pair of chest pillows. (Some even like them for all six reasons. For that matter, some men don't even like breasts, but hey, more for the rest of us...!)
Extensive, informal interviews conducted with women of differing breast sizes and shapes, over the course of many years, has brought me to the preceeding conclusion--that, at the end of the day, when all the uncomfortable bras have been discarded, and all the itchy dresses thrown away, women like their breasts almost as much as we men do....
And that's why I post this essay. We've travelled this far, and seen many different breasts--on the page and in life-- (Oh heck, here's some more...)
...but seldom do we see them and think of the other side of the coin--that breasts can get cancer, and they can kill the women we love. The breasts are the leading site of cancer in women, and only cancer of the lungs takes more of their lives. Only 5-10% of women who get breast cancer have a family history of it, although those who have one should be all the more vigilant. Risk factors are imprecise, and numerous; there is simply no easy way to know whether a healthy woman will or will not get breast cancer. (And they look so innocent....)
But the breast is not our enemy; the cancer is, and seperating the one from the other is becoming increasingly successful. A whopping 95% of women who get breast cancer live through it--so long as it's detected early.
And herein lies the key, oft repeated, but only said too many times if it grows ignorable: examine breasts. Women who like their breasts, and like being alive: examine them. Men who like their lovers' breasts: examine them too. While all the breast pictures on this page are culled from softcore porn sites, they are hyperlinked to information about breast cancer--all information we've heard before, no doubt, but all useful, and lifesaving, things to reaquaint ourselves with.
But don't read up about it on my behalf....
Touch the Toast