It’s not often you get to enrage both feminists and misogynists at the same time but a new study, just published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, may have managed this impressive feat.
It found that men’s preference for larger breasts was associated with having a greater number of oppressive beliefs about women.
Feminists can be enraged about how a natural variation in body shape has become associated with sexist attitudes while misogynists that their breast size preference can be thought of as a problem.
Social scientists, however, may be left relatively unperturbed at the thought of this study. But please, allow me.
So, come on now. What does it really tell us?
You can thank me later.
Link to coverage on Feminist Philosophers blog (via @KateClancy)
Link to locked study.
Mind Hacks 
“Feminists can be enraged about how a natural variation…” come on now, is anyone really enraged?
We are a nation of lascivious puritans. We celebrate our exaggerated sexual dimorphism, but honor the social niceties that prevent us from sheer copulatory instinct. These opposing forces are in a state of constant negotiation.
Whether feminists like it or even admit it, large breasts make a woman less athletic and more endowed for reproduction… making her more dependent on a man to protect and provide for her children. Biology is destiny, as they say, and the potential of a voluptuous woman could only be realized when she was paired with an equally robust husband. This evolutionary reality must be aggravating to feminists, who seem to think females shoulod be males with a womb. Male chauvinists (I think you used the word “misogynists” wrongly) will forever yearn for a primitive world of testosterone saturated gratification.
To both types, the large breasted woman is in-your-face proof of a world governed by immutable biology.
http://www.implantinfo.com/faqs/3.6.aspx
If some boobehs are fake doesn’t that discredit the study? False boobs=false misogynists.
Feminists vs Chauvinists is the same circular, unending (& pointless) viewpoints as the arguments between the extreme ends of politics, or the extreme ends of anything. Other than entertainment value in the short term (long term annoyance), there isn’t any real value in these kinds of studies. These views do not represent the majority — only the loudest of the fringe dwellers.
We need to return our focus to the middle ground where most of us reside. These kinds of extremists views are confusing to kids (& many adults) who already have a distorted black & white view of the world — hero vs evil. Refocus our attention on the gray areas where many people fall prey to seemingly ‘nice people’ who do bad things & ‘bad people’ who do good things (to distract from their bad agendas). Education across the entire social scale is needed, rather than these short term fluff pieces that merely entertain rather than educate.
Feminist here- not enraged. Why would I be? Interesting findings though…
So latent homosexuality is correlated with a desire for smaller breast size.
Derrière Liberation Front have been notified.
@Gnarlodius, who said: …large breasts make a woman less athletic and more endowed for reproduction…
You DO realise that we don’t give birth through our breasts, right? Or that the size of a woman’s breasts don’t have anything to do with her ability to lactate and feed her young? Or that modern technology has made wonderful advances in support sports bras? Yes, we have the SCIENCE now!
BTW, big-breasted woman here who has no intention of having children. Should I just be exterminated ’cause I have no biological point? Hmm… maybe don’t answer that.
Yes Ms Baggage it’s obvious to any reasonable person that’s exactly the point I was trying to make, that all you non-chilbearing females should be exterminated.
It could just be that feminist big boob loving men think it is unacceptable to reveal their (biologically determined) preference or are in denial about it because of a supposed incompatibility with their beliefs.
I’ve always associated larger breast size with higher IQ, so I’m not sure what these researchers are talking about.
But seriously… and here’s where people can get angry (or not)… What psychological generalizations can be made about women with larger breasts? Is it possible that due to their own choices as well as their interactions with society at large, that they tend to develop certain general psychological traits as a group? And is it possible that those psychological traits are more – or less – appealing to men in general – even the non-a$$holes?
I’m just asking if it’s possible. But I guarantee that even asking such questions *will* enrage someone. The fact that the act of asking questions is a problem to certain groups is what these academics should really be looking at.
Side point: I wonder, in this politically correct world, if a researcher could get away with making such a negative inference about, say, homosexuals’ sexual preferences.