The Semiotics of Breasts: Fashion and Sexuality

Beautiful Breasts are only limited by our erotic imaginations. A woman's breasts are her twin signposts denoting and connoting both sex and life, fertility and Eros, in one tight sweater, bra, or low-cut dress. Women's bodies go through many changes in life through time's passing, and the breasts are the most obvious and sexual aspect of this passing. They speak the truth of a woman's life even more than her face does because her breasts are both private and public resources and sources of erotic pleasure and nourishment.

Female breasts and how they are displayed say so much about a woman's relationship to both her own sexuality, and hence body, and to the world at large. How a woman dresses her breasts (plunging necklines, tight tops, loose-fitting shirts, or bulky padded bras) reveal the inner workings of her sexuality and notions of public display. A girl wearing padded bras and tight shirts almost always has small breasts and possesses an inferiority complex that usually speaks to a larger feeling of sexual and physical inadequacy, no matter how beautiful or unattractive she may appear to others. She feels that smaller breasts make her less sexual, less attractive, and hence, less desirable by men, even when the opposite is true for her lover. She is a prime candidate for breast implants , attempting, in vain, to craft herself into a more seductive Aphrodite.

Women wearing low necklines, lacy bras, and silky fabrics that highlight their chests seek male sexual attention through the gaze, yet resent any obvious or overt mention of their sexualized appearance. Women who choose to drown themselves in over-sized tops, flowing fabrics, and no visible chest or neck area are usually living in fear and denial of their sexual nature and dread being displayed or considered sexually attractive. Of course the opposite is true of women who experience difficulty in attracting men and try to over-compensate for this lack of sexualized seductiveness by dressing like whores, sluts, prostitutes or any other degrading desperate sexual female image that is usually met with equal parts disdain and fascination, depending on the viewer.

The moral of mores of the breasts story is that a woman's relationship to her breasts is usually a signifier of her larger relationship to sex, seduction, beauty, and her body image. There is no neutrality in how a woman exhibits her body, and the same is true of her decisions on her torso.

Bras are the last barrier between the flesh of the breast and the world at-large. As such they too say much about the semiotics of sex and breasts. Fine lace bras signify elegance, mysterious sexuality, and seduction. Padded bras bespeak desperation and obvious sex designed toward the outer clothed appearance of the breasts at the expense of the semi-nude appearance of a woman about to get dressed, just wearing her bra. Few things are more antiseptic or banal than a plain cream padded Victoria's Secret bra, with the possible exception of Crocs and Birkenstocks, whose ugliness can only be the work of either an evil mind or a disturbed one.

Demi-cup bras scream sex as they put the nipple and aureole on display, waiting to be devoured by their lover. See-through bras provide great frustration and seduction at once by offering a peep-show of desire while still being caged away under polyester or silk.