Note: This is excerpted/adapted from Psychology Today’s website from Sept. 25, published on the daily blog of Ed Strong, hardcore leftist and top-shelf pornography curator. I have no idea how I got on his mailing list — but it’s great fun. He posted this today. — efc
Americans seem inordinately obsessed with women’s breasts. The beach party flicks of the ’60s idolized the bouncing jugs of Gidget-style surfers. From Playboy to more hard-core stroke mags, giant bosoms dominate America’s Technicolor spreads.
What other country could found, patronize, and overall accept a restaurant franchise named “Hooters”? The founder of a chain called “Nichons” (the nearest translation available) in France would be viewed as a pathetic juvenile, a joke.
Cultures more comfortable with their sexuality view breasts as they should be viewed, as an attractive part of the more interesting overall context. Here is a quote from Time magazine, in the ’70s, when an Italian publisher booted up a marinara-flavored version of Playboy:
“Reflecting European tastes, Playmen does not display the mammary obsession that Playboy profitably discerns in Americans.