Ida Tin’s “Dear Men” Series: Part 6 of 29 – What it feels like to have breasts

Dear Men, post 6/29 about what it feels like to live in a woman’s body. Breasts!

What it feels like to have breasts

Most women I know will have something to complain about regarding their breasts. Too small, too big (more rare), too saggy, left and right isn’t the same, or there will be resentments about their functionality; they hurt before our periods, they bounce when we do sports, the look funny when we bend over or they fall out of our bras when we lay down. Some might resent that they are there at all and bind them to make them unnoticeable.

And noticeable is maybe the keyword here. Breasts gets notices whether we like it or not. They are being noticed when they start forming, they are noticed when we wear a t-shirt, especially if we somehow end up in a wet t-shirt, which believes me, does happen. If you have large breasts standing up straight means that your breasts will meet the world several seconds before the rest of you arrive, and you might not actually want to stand up so straight after all.

Too many have experienced people touching their breasts in ways that wasn’t wanted. Not cool. Breasts are also given many names, some aren’t very nice.

Size will change together with firmness and sensitivity throughout the cycle. Often bigger and firmer before the period. If you have cyst this effect will be enhanced as they fill up with water according to your changing hormones. A delicate ebb and flow.

But at the same time having nothing that will make people look, aka very small breasts, is also challenging. Though no-one will enjoy having someone do the elevator gaze on you, having small breasts or some that are bigger but not “lifting off” is often a reason for disliking our own breasts. So much so that: “The latest statistics from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons show almost 300,000 patients underwent breast augmentation in 2022, a 4% gain over 2019 and 143,364 breast lift procedures were performed in 2022, a whopping 30% increase over 2019”.

It seems we feel we need to “fix” our breasts more and more while the world likes the idea of breasts more and more. Maybe the world hasn’t quite understood breasts, but only wants to replicate a cookie cutter beauty ideal.

Luckily breasts aren’t only grievances, they are also able to give much pleasure! Breasts can be anything from kind of numb to painfully sensitive and some enjoyable place in the middle. They can be decorated and sculpted in bras, revealed, teased, caressed and playful in endless other ways. All to the benefit of us women, but… probably also to people we allow to see and touch them 😉

Of course you can’t say breasts without thinking about breastfeeding and breast cancer but we get to that later.

-This post by Ida Tin is shared on LinkedIn and is republished here with her permission. The SheSight Team has not made any changes to the content.