Sex and the Breast

Sexism, or discrimination against women, remains alive at the most basic level – the neglected study of the female body. While human society is conversant with vast new computer technologies, we are content to live with the notion that female sexuality is “mysterious” or difficult to comprehend. Part of the problem is the failure to examine the complexity of women’s sexuality – essentially a devaluation of our health – perpetuating a vision of a permanent male dominated society in which women do not control our own bodies. The erotic nature of the female breast is rarely researched, with the result that woman’s sexuality is today as misunderstood and tabooed as ever, and the possible connection of breast sex to breast health is overlooked. Breast cancer is a killer of women, yet there is no comprehensive health initiative to investigate women’s sexual use of the breast, an acknowledged practice around the world. The feminine use of the breast for sex is an ancient practice that defines a unique feminine way of sex – knowledge of which is passed from woman to woman outside the realm of academe and medicine. There is a possible moral dimension to the silence about breast sex. Recognizing that the famous metaphor of Genesis, “forbidden fruit,” is a veiled reference to woman’s breasts, one perceives that breast sex is condemned by Western religion as the sin of Adam and Eve, no doubt because of woman’s instigation and pleasure in it. But if you look with enough persistence, you will find cultural data that indicate that breast sex as a means of attaining female sexual pleasure and orgasm has been practiced in many societies around the world. Taking its impetus from the work of an exceptional person, Dr. Timothy Murrell, the present book is about female sexuality, specifically sexuality of the breast, its origins and practice and its implications for women’s well being and happiness. Dr. Timothy G. C. Murrell, writing in the 1990s, was an Australian physician concerned about the loss of functionality of the human female breast and how this lack of use might be instrumental in the origin of breast cancer. During his tenure at the medical school of Adelaide University, South Australia, he wrote several papers in which he promoted a program of women's self-help that he felt had the potential to reduce the risk of breast cancer. His recommendations to women notably included using the breasts sexually in conjunction with a partner. His theory is that nipple stimulation works to relieve the breasts of damaging carcinogens that collect there. He believed that not only the environment, but behavior has a part in causing breast cancer, and he felt that his observations in clinical cases at Adelaide University over the course of 15 years of teaching general medical practice gave credence to his theory. His interest in medical sociology led him to study the function of the breast in several cultures. He also lectured on the positive influence of sex on health and longevity. We know that the breast provides an undeniable turn-on for the interested man, but, for a woman, what is the sexual meaning, specifically for her, of her breasts? This book is about women’s sexuality, and as such it has links to the work of Shere Hite and Naomi Wolf. But whereas Hite’s focus is the clitoris, and Wolf’s is the vagina, the focus here is the breasts, especially a woman’s sexual use of her breasts. The custom of women using their breasts during climactic lovemaking is a cultural phenomenon – not prevalent in every society today, but it may have been universal or near universal in the past. The use of the breast for sexual pleasure is perhaps more characteristic of simpler societies, but it is important to consider that this cultural style of sexuality may be vital to women’s health today. This way of sex is sometimes thought of as preliminary only, and male initiated, as in the dating ritual of petting, but there is more to it than the cursory satisfaction of male interest, and it is critical to understand why.