Goddess Hera breastfeeding Hercules (Pic Courtesy: Google Images)

The other day there was a twitter outrage on a photographic rendition of a goddess suckling an infant. Breasts exposed she was an epitome of the pure Mother Earth and the child grasping at her hair tendrils was none other than this entire creation. Yet there were people who were intolerant about this image and then ensued a lot of discussion for and against this ‘exposition’. Culturally, as a race, we have seen our Gods, demi-gods and such cultural icons and their iconographies, seemingly extremely confident of their bodies – not covering up, shying away or hiding from anything or anyone. So, one wonders when we became so conscious of our bodies, especially women, trying to cover up at the drop of a hat.

Imagine a situation when you are seated comfortably, freeing your breasts from your wired bra and thereby your mind and the doorbell goes off. The first thing you do, is to look for a stole or a robe to cover up. At the library, if the book gives a slip and you bend to pick it up, one of your hands go up to cover the chest. So is the case when you are going for a presentation and you realise that your bra-ed breasts may peep through the stretched gap between two buttons. And then there is a frantic search for that ever-elusive safety pin. Though breasts are supposed to be normalized, since the modern world has used it everywhere from selling a toothpaste to even corporate exhibition. Yet, the obsession women’s breasts are not over with. The primary reason being SEXUALISATION and not normalization.

Growing up years are the foundation of such insecurities and embarrassment. While growing up boys could tear away their t-shirts and jump into the river for a summer-swim, their female comrades could not do the same. In fact, they would rather get embarrassed when their tiny budding breasts would see through their wet dresses. Girls and boys from the age of 9-10 start learning what body parts are ‘okay to show’ and those that are not. From science to art and photography, the human body is told to be treated just that – as a human body. But nudity creates an uproar, because exposition of your sexual organs is unwarranted. Having said, when did breasts cross over from being a reproductive organ to a sexual organ.

Breasts have been oversexualized and that is a fact and that is precisely the reason, why people feel uncomfortable noticing the outline of slightly jiggling braless breast. Indecent exposition, today is a matter of the length of your top, from the above! Though science and anatomy have never proved that breasts were verboten, a seemingly ‘progressive’, which actually became more patriarchal in nature, society pushed the woman to the indoors. And because breasts have been always the symbol of feminine fertility, it had to be kept from view. Though the woman’s role changed over time, we are still driven by a largely patriarchal society integrated by a misogynistic fabric of its tapestry.

Can we imagine a society nevertheless, where breasts are freed from its various bondages, especially its “sexual objectification bondage”? Everyone knows what breasts are for and who have them. So if the awareness is there then why such an indecent obsession? Till then fight the urge of getting embarrassed by your own body part, in whose blossoming, you had absolutely no hand.