From: helene@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (Helene Blankespoor)
Subject: Re: Female breast (bosom) experience wanted!
Keywords: femal breast bosom
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Warwick University, England
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 09:45:23 GMT

In article <Bvtpxo.Mo@apollo.hp.com> nelson_p@apollo.hp.com (Peter Nelson) writes:
>In article <mrs.718489790@athena.research.ptt.nl> mrs@athena.research.ptt.nl  (Marieke Schuijt) writes:
>>s1006420@titan.ucc.umass.edu (If you want peace work for justice) writes:
>>
>>>In article <annius.718390197@freyr> annius@sif.research.ptt.nl (Annius Groenink) writes:
>>>>wuytswin@athena.research.ptt.nl (Wuijtswinkel R. van) writes:
>>>>OK girls. Put your breasts on the scanner and FAX them to PTT Research. Will you
>>>>bring me a copy, Ronald?
>>
>>>I see a lot of sexism on USENET, such as the post above. I am not
>>>in favor of sexism, racism, etc. and I also do not the like the
>>>condescending (when not demeaning) way which sexist men refer to women,
>>>an exact paralel of the way racist whites address people of color.
>>>I think this needs to improve.
>>
>>I totally agree with this and I still think that Ronald and Annius
>>should be hanged from a tree by the balls for 48 hours!
>
>
>  Actually there might be material of anthropological interest
>  in this topic yet . . . 
>
>  I was in Amsterdam for a week last October and I was surprised
>  at the sexual frankness to be found all over the city (i.e.,
>  not just in their famous "red light" district).  America will
>  not even show bare breasts in public, say on posters or advertising.
>  I've seen the occasional bare breasts or bottoms in ads on subway
>  trains or city streets in France, Germany, and Japan, but . . . 
>
>  In Amsterdam I saw posters featuring photographs of fully naked
>  men and women shown from the front.  In one (an ad for a play
>  going on at the time and plastered up all over the city) there
>  was an erect penis with a woman making a face at it.  EVERY
>  major postcard and gift and souvenir shop my wife and I went
>  into seemed to feature, among the usual postcards of tulips,
>  canals, and windmills, a popular postcard of an "eye" -- only
>  a second glance revealed this to be a photograph of a woman's
>  vulva with a glass eyeball inserted in the vagina, and the
>  whole photo tilted on its side.  
>
>  I've been to almost every major city in the world and Amsterdam
>  is actually one of the most charming cities I've been to; the 
>  people are friendly; they have done an extraordinary job of
>  preventing the steel-and-glass architectural disease that has
>  destroyed many other cities; the city is very "international"
>  and very walkable, and has a good public transit system, and
>  is full of history and I hope to return there someday (and any-
>  one who knows me knows how rare it is for me to express a
>  desire to go to ANY city!)   But after returning home, an
>  American friend of mine with two children in grade school 
>  asked me if I thought she and her family would like to visit
>  Amsterdam.  I had to tell her, "yes, but there's a few things
>  you should be prepared for . . .".
>
>  In light of all this I'm surprised at the topic here.  I
>  would have guessed (wrongly) from what I saw in Amsterdam 
>  that with sexually explicit images apparently being old-hat
>  among the Dutch that the fascination or preoccupation with
>  bare breasts displayed by the original poster would be daily
>  satisfied and so wouldn't exist.  On the other hand I'm 
>  surprised at the reaction as well, since it suggests a
>  prudishness that is also belied by the reality of Amsterdam.
>
>  Is this another one of those "cultural contradictions" on
>  sexuality that seems so common in major cultures?  For instance
>  the way communal bathing was accepted for centuries in Japan 
>  but pubic hair isn't allowed in skin magazines?  Or the way
>  nudity and toplessness is banned in most public places in the
>  US but sex is used to sell every product there is here?
>  
>
>---peter
>

That still doesn't mean that every Dutch female likes the posting or agrees
with it.
Go to any beach on the Dutch coast in the summer and you will find that not every female
is sunbathing topless.

groetjes,

Helene.