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Joined 4 months ago
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Cake day: July 12th, 2024

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  • Men do sometimes have boobs, and women tend not to find them attractive (some do ofc) because they are a sign of a poorly maintained body.

    If they were a normal feature both sexes had regardless of health, like women sort of do (tho it is still absolutely based on health and hormone levels so this is kinda disingenuous) it would probably be like nice legs or nice butts; one can appreciate nice ones but it wouldn’t be a secondary sex characteristic anymore, so neither sex would be likely to have the present level of obsession with them.

    I don’t think women would be particularly concerned with breasts if men had them, too… for one thing even lesbian women don’t tend to get super giddy about breasts now because they are exposed to them a lot more readily and less sexually than men are, so they just aren’t special in any way, even if they are a lesbian’s preferred physical characteristic. This would become true for men as well re:female breasts, but more than that, I can’t really think of any male physical trait that similar numbers of women like the way men like breasts. And I doubt breasts would end up being it for women.

    It’s kinda amusing if you think about it but men are absolutely obsessed with genitalia and sex in a way women just aren’t, usually, and that translates to being absolutely obsessed with one’s own penis, such that it -is- a big chunk of the male personality (for the record I’m not saying this disparagingly, I find the differences to be fascinating as a fellow ace, and just listened to a book about erectile dysfunction where this exact tendency is mentioned many time for its usefulness as a diagnostic tool to determine if ED is caused by physical or hormonal issues). And along with that obsession with their own genitalia being the obvious appendage of all their musings, comes a twin obsession with a single highly obvious female body trait, breasts.

    Women just don’t operate like that at all. Maybe it’s socializing, maybe it’s inherent, but either way, I don’t think breasts on men for women (or any other trait, frankly) would or even could be like breasts on women for men. I think the problem is that male secondary sex characteristics are basically optional. Men basically get body hair, bad smells, a lump on the throat, and the ability to put on muscle more easily. Other than the Adam’s apple, which isn’t particularly prominent, none of those things are necessarily permanent. You can shave and shower and if you don’t use your muscles they fade, so men don’t have “one major trait”, like breasts, and women are thus more varied about the trait they find most attractive.

    For the other questions - women shirtless normal? I mean that’s just a socializing thing. There have been cultures where women are topless just as readily as men and it’s nbd. This is entirely puritanical nonsense.

    For breast cancer color - did you know pink used to be a boys color and blue girls? I see no reason the color couldn’t stay pink. But if it was a big deal for both sexes I don’t think it would ever have risen to the sort of prominance it has in society now. Breast cancer as a big deal is because of women making it a big deal because it disproportionately impacts women and men don’t tend to advocate for women’s issues. But if both sexes were impacted it would be more like lung cancer or something, just sort of non-gendered PSAs about your boobs trying to kill you.

    Here’s a fun thought experiment in similar spirits.

    If complex intelligent life evolved an an encrusted ocean moon (like Europa, which has liquid ocean topped by miles of ice crust, preventing any light or anything from penetrating to the depths), what would their technology look like, and what would their view of the universe be like?



  • Women/female bodies basically stop growing entirely about 2 years after menarche (first period), regardless when that hits. And once menarche hits they only grow another 1-3 inches, typically.

    For some girls, myself included, menarche was around 9 years old (the historical normal age of menarche was around 15 years, as far as we can tell, and that age has been going down in modern history) meaning I didn’t really get a chance to grow before my body stopped being able to do so. I have not grown since I was 12. Had I been able to delay puberty by a few years, I may have ended up average instead of 2 standard deviations below average. On the plus side I can wear kids stuff sometimes.

    Male puberty doesn’t work that way quite as dramatically, since puberty includes growth spurts through the early-mid 20s, but eventual adult height for men is still based on the height they are when the growth spurts start.

    Here’s a really surface level resource that explains further about female puberty if you are interested in learning more.

    https://www.familyeducation.com/teens/puberty-sex/do-girls-stop-growing-when-they-get-their-period



  • That’s totally fair; I’m also not really capable of doing something like that consistently (even tho I would absolutely love talking to smart people - my degree is science communication, so talking to smart people to learn about things and pass them along is easily my favorite thing), so I get it.

    That kinda makes me wonder if interviewing comedians would be funny… I’ve never really talked to any in person for the full impact, but some of them have that timing and wit that means any conversation can be funny. I certainly thought morning radio shows where they have guest comedians on sucked big time, but those are meant more for mass appeal, and they probably work for a lot of people or they wouldn’t have them on.


  • Have you ever listened to the podcast “ologies”? It’s a woman who interviews people who are -ologists (proctologist, ornithologist, geologist, etc., as well as some non-ologist specialties that nonetheless fit the theme)

    Maybe something like that would work for you :) then you aren’t stuck with a single topic, you don’t have to do it alone, and you don’t have to find one person to commit to it, it could be several. Just come up with good questions and have a semi-formal chat. It’s a very enjoyable model for learning new things you didn’t know you wanted to know about.

    https://www.alieward.com/ologies








  • There’s also a matter of size. Babies come in pretty standard sizes overall (ranging from tiny preemie to tiny newborn to toddler, and then a bit of extra market for in-between ages), but adults…

    What works for one country does not work for another. I, for example, cannot buy underpants made for the Chinese market (I’ve tried) because the dimensions are just wrong. Even when scaled, they don’t fit right. The body proportions are just different for adults from different places, and that’s ok, but it does make the adult diaper scene similarly localized.

    After all, you can make a one-size adult diaper, hospitals use them, but they have strong limitations for how hideable they are (most adult diaper products are marketed to women who suffer far greater rates of incontinence due to childbirth, so hideability is important).