"A society in which women have to hide and cover their breasts is a society in which nurturance is neglected.... The naked female breasts, as symbols of women's power, deeply frighten men. Breasts are covered for that reason alone, and not because they arouse passion and sexuality."If we want radical change, don't we need to make small radical changes to start?
"Today's taboos against the exposure of female breasts, while allowing males to freely expose the same anatomical area, has to do with the ancient symbolism. Symbols of nurturance are the most powerful in that they remind men of their dependence upon the Mother -- upon the Female....
~ from Z Budapest's The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries Part II, 1980, p. 204
Would facing our fear of female breasts in public be a place to start?
If they could see how totally horrified we are at the thought of female nipples exposed in public, the ancient Minoans would have laughed their fool heads off.
Actually, considering how fab the Minoans were, they'd probably be too kind to laugh and point. They'd probably have pitied us deeply, though.
Wow, women, think of it! Our chests are so powerful that they'd shrivel men into tiny little peanuts at the mere public sight of them! Our breasts are so packed full of natural power that to shine them upon each other in public is punishable in courts of law! Someone, somehow has managed to convince us that our chests are so dangerous we needed to heave laws onto the books to keep these dangerous things from seeing the light of day!
Could the next step in our march back to Goddess Power be our work to scrap the laws against uncovering women's stupendous, gorgeous, life-giving breasts in public?
Just the way we pity fundie Muslim women forced to cover all but their eyes in public -- that's exactly how the ancient Minoans would pity us. They would look at us and see (although they'd never say it), semi-retarded, bamboozled, wimp-heads.
How would we go about scrapping our breast laws? Should we act out first? Say stage a mass protest in Central Park with thousands of women marching around proudly wearing uncovered breasts for all to see?
What kinds of signs would we carry?
"Naked Breasts For One And For All!"
"Equal Rights for Women's Breasts!"
"If He Can Show His, I Can Show Mine!"
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the foto above is one surviving part of an ancient Minoan wall painting
