Who owns the Breast? Man, Child or Woman

“Who owns the breast: child or husband?”

Speaking with both women and men, the responses were pretty evenly split: half of the folks saying that since the primary purpose of the breast was for feeding, it therefore belongs to the children, while the other half argue that since the woman belongs to her husband, he “owns” everything about her, including her breasts.

We all know that the woman owns the breast. After all, it is attached to her body so husband or not it is hard to claim ownership of something that is not in your physical possession. Likewise, just because breasts are also mammary
glands doesn't mean that women are not using the breast right if it is for purposes outside of being a food source for a baby.

Some women do get sexual pleasure from their breasts, and in fact, recent studies have found that nipple stimulation activates the same brain areas as vaginal and clitoral stimulation. How and in what way her breasts are being used is solely up to her.

Yet before we attribute this to the backwards thinking of some indigenous Africans (because I know how some folks think), we in Western societies too find ways to enforce, albeit subtly, this belief that the use of a woman’s body is not of her own fruition and it is a major reason why some folks responded with flat out ridicule when Angelina Jolie announced that she had both breasts removed in hopes of preemptively striking against a hereditary and aggressively deadly form of breast cancer. Nevermind her very real health concerns, keeping a pair of perky breasts was deemed by some as much more important.

The negative reaction to her announcement should serve as a reminder that the female form, particularly the breasts, are still very much treated as public domain, created for the sole purpose of sexual arousal – regardless if she sees it that way or not.