Fun & Famous

ABOUT WOMEN WHO ALWAYS WANT TO SHOW THEIR BREASTS

(And why that's actually a pretty good idea)

by Marion Pauw

A friend who shall remain nameless (you know who you are) always shows her breasts after three glasses of wine. By the first sips, we already start to shuffle awkwardly until the moment she lifts her T-shirt and says: ‘I think I still have pretty nice breasts. Right?’ She does this always and everywhere. Whether we are sitting in a fancy restaurant or at home on the couch. Detail: she never wears a bra.

And then I have another friend who recently had her breasts enlarged. Whether I wanted to feel them. Whether my boyfriend wanted to feel them. Whether the cheese vendor wanted to feel them. In short, everyone has to feel how real her breasts, uh... felt.

What is it that some women want to show their breasts so much? Correction: want to show their breasts in public? And I’m not talking about breastfeeding, okay. I mean: hooray for breastfeeding. I’m talking about women who deliberately show their breasts in plain public. What is all the hubbub about breasts, where men can just show their naked upper body?

Once I stayed with an Indian tribe in Panama where the women walked around with bare breasts. I must honestly say that for the first few hours I could hardly take my eyes off them. Both from the old breasts that wobbled freely around the navel and from the young firm specimens. What I found most remarkable was that no one seemed aware of their breasts. There was no shame about the wrinkled hanging specimens and there seemed to be no pride in the aesthetically more successful curves. Breasts were just breasts. And if they get in the way, you just throw them over your shoulder (really seen!). It was really refreshing compared to the culture we come from. We always have to meet certain aesthetic standards to be found attractive.

And that can also vary. I was at Nikki Beach in Miami in the 2000s and everyone, really everyone, had an injected E-cup. At least. Nowadays we are more focused on the butt and breasts are preferably a bit smaller. Also, padding is going out of style and it’s actually cool if your nipples poke through your clothing a bit. And can you still remember the time when everyone was topless on the beach? It seems to be coming back if you ask me (just like the high-cut swimsuits, and I’m already looking forward to that). But there is also a counter-movement. Yesterday, an old woman in France was ordered by armed officers to take off her burkini. I looked at her frightened face in the photos and thought: that can’t be the intention, can it?

I wish every woman to feel good in her own body. And to dress as she feels comfortable. Not for men, not for the prevailing fashion image, but for herself. And if you occasionally want to show your breasts, then I think that’s fine. And if you don’t want to show your body either.