Tales from the Morgue: Why do men stare at very well-endowed women?

Monumental Mammality Dismissed As Freakish

But, Really, One Can't Help Looking

By MARILYN DRAGO

There must be something besides the obvious ─ and it is an obviously monumental 47-inch chest measurement ─ that lures 5,000 men out to a Wall Street sidewalk, just to stare.

A girl with a spectacular 47-inch bosom (and the latest challenger, a woman pridefully reporting a 50-inch chest measurement) have set New York City agog in recent weeks, to the evident delight of thousands of supposedly staid Wall St. brokers and clerks.

A clinical psychologist, a psychiatrist and five other men were interviewed by the Arizona Daily Star, shown a picture of the Wall St. bucks ogling the top-heavy young women and asked:

"Why"

The first response was laughter, then a flood of serious opinions ─ surprisingly in agreement.

None of those interviewed thought the girls were sexually attractive. Most expressed some pity for them, calling them "curiosities" and "freaks."

"My first feeling," said one young man, "was wonderment, something like 'What Hath Nature Wrought?', but, really, you can't help looking. It's like trying not to look at someone with a monstrous nose, for instance."

Another young man described the girls as "comical ─ not sexually attractive at all." But, he added, "the girls are probably a healthy distraction for all those Wall St. types."

Two men used almost the same words: "The female breast is extremely attractive to me ─ but I feel sorry for these girls. They poor kids have become sensations, freaks."

Predictably, the psychologist and the psychiatrist had a somewhat more clinical approach, but they, too, said the girls were not sexually attractive.

The professionals agreed that Americans tend to glorify the female breast, perhaps to defy the "Puritan Ethic" and perhaps because the breast is usually covered in our culture. Primitive cultures, in which the breast function is nursing, usually ignore the uncovered bosom in appraising female attractiveness.

"It's a prestige thing in this nation," said the psychologist. "A man dating a woman with tremendous breasts is sometimes showing off what he thinks of as his own sexual adequacy. Other men will envy him, he thinks, and he uses the girl's remarkable dimensions to enhance his own ego."

Both doctors mentioned the impact of movies and television on our breast-oriented society. "Glamour girls are famous for their breast measurements ─ other actresses for their ability. After exposure to many pictures of large breasts it's possible for an immature person to adopt breast size as a standard of beauty."

History is full of cults, not the least of which is the near-worship of not only the buxom, but the downright fat woman. "Fat probably signified womanliness, and still does for some," said the psychiatrist, "and, again, if the girls are more womanly the man who possesses them feels more masculine."

Why would so many men line up just to stare at one girl? "That's easy. They just don't want to miss anything," said the psychologist. "Don't forget the women who looked," said the psychiatrist. "They were probably there to see what was so attractive to the men."

Some women don't have a need to display what may be very ample measurements, the doctors said. This kind of woman "hides her charms discretely ─ she doesn't need to advertise."

Women could spoil a good thing, the psychiatrist warned. "Complete bareness, as in the new topless fashions, won't be intriguing." But, objected the psychologist, "How do you explain burlesque shows, then?"