Why Do Men Like Boobs So Much?
It's not particularly complicated...
getty Breasts: Women have them, men love them — but why do men like boobs so much?
To you cis, heterosexual ladies, they're obviously part of your body, for better or worse. Sometimes you're proud of them, sometimes unhappy, and most of you know that you can use them to your advantage when dealing with the men who love them at least a little.
To heterosexual men, however, a woman's breasts are the object of something between strong interest and out-and-out obsession depending upon the guy (and the set).
They make straight men fixate, double-take, and lose their train of thought. They make eye contact stray during conversation. They make men sigh involuntarily. They make men gawk.
Why do men like breasts?
The thing is, most women don't realize that mens' borderline mania isn't very complicated: men simply like breasts — a lot. And they like them in pretty much all shapes and sizes.
Women constantly ask whether big breasts are better, why fake breasts are appealing to so many men, and what the big deal is as if there's a giant mystery surrounding why men are obsessed with breasts.
I don't think there's much mystery, though, and all these questions are pretty easy to answer.
Why do we find breasts attractive? According to Divine Feminine Educator Anna Thea, "Both men and women would be drawn to look at a woman's exposed breasts. They are the ultimate symbol of the nurturing side of the feminine. Just as men want to return back to the womb (and subconsciously 'get into our pants'), they also want to return back to the nipple. A woman's breasts encompass the heart, our most powerful center — the love center."
Men are biologically predisposed to like breasts.
To me, and to probably almost every other hetero man on the planet, breasts (and lips, and legs, and eyes, and hair, and all forms of women's beauty) are simply naturally appealing. We're born to like them. We see them, we appreciate them, they arouse us, and maybe we ogle a little (if we're not well-mannered).
Studies have shown that women's body shape — including hip-to-waist ratio and breast size — influence desirability.
One study found that women with large breasts and narrow hips were considered the most attractive and desirable, for both long-term and casual relationships. Another study concluded that bigger breasts may mean higher fertility.
RELATED: The Best Breast Size, According To Men And Women Around The World
All this is to say that somewhere in our genetic makeup, men are biologically driven to look at breasts as a way to determine the fertility of a possible partner.
That said, to most men there's something even more magical about breasts than our biological imperative to love them. And, adds Anna-Thea, it's completely healthy for men to look at breasts and be attracted to them:
"Deep within a man's core is his longing for the healing energy of the Divine Feminine, just like all of us. And it is the Divine Feminine that not only heals us but strengthens our soul. So consciously or unconsciously, and sadly most often unconsciously, men are attracted to a woman's breast because it offers healing energy. Our society just hasn't given a woman's body the sanctity that it deserves to understand this."
There's an evolutionary reason why men like breasts.
According to some evolutionary biologists, women with fuller breasts were more attractive or desirable, as that was a signal they stored needed fat and were in good health to have children and raise a family.
Paleolithic cave art from 35,000 years ago also suggests this, as naked women were drawn with large hips and breasts. Evolution has seemed to make men believe that the bigger the breasts, the greater the reproductive success. However, all different-sized breasts can swell with milk and nurture infants.
Women who also had larger breasts and a fuller body meant they had reliable access to food, which meant their survival odds for themselves, their baby, and their family were higher.
According to the book, "The Chemistry Between Us: Love, Sex, and the Science of Attraction" by Dr. Larry Young and co-author Brian Alexander, in the evolution of behaviors, the brain tends to tap into systems that already exist and tweak them a little bit. Oxytocin, which is responsible for promoting labor, ejecting milk, and used for maternal bonding, is the same molecule involved in bonding between a man and woman.
Breasts are a constant "tease".
I once heard a woman say that if you wanted to distract a man, simply don't wear a bra, regardless of whether your breasts are large or small. And it's true!
There's an enormous thrill in spotting the outline of someone's areola or the push against the clothing that reveals a breast's shape. It's partly because in America — and many other places — showing breasts publicly is taboo.
We can see them there beneath your clothes. We don't know exactly what they look like, but we can gather enough data to have a pretty good sense of what's there.
Breasts also do not get bigger when touched by a male; however, a woman's nipples become more prominent when a man touches them, especially during sex.
When the breasts are stimulated, the hormone oxytocin is released, which causes the nipples to become erect and the muscles behind the breast contract, causing the areolas to tighten and look like goosebumps.
It also isn't just women that become stimulated by their nipples — men can get turned on by their nipples as well. A study on nipple and breast stimulation and sexual arousal found that men and women experience enhanced sexual arousal from nipple stimulation.
All breast shapes and sizes are attractive.
As for what men prefer in terms of chest size, women need to understand that there's an enormously wide range of breasts that men like, and every man has a different attraction to breasts.
Whatever you happen to have is probably pretty great to the eyes of most guys. So no, they don't have to be big to be appealing, though a lot of guys feel that the bigger they are, the better — including fake ones.
I personally think size is overrated; I judge breasts not on size but on firmness: the more stuffed, the more I like them, and if they can stay stuffed and be larger, that's just amazing (and rare).
Alex Alexander is a frequent contributor to YourTango and has written extensively on love, relationships, and lifestyle topics.