Lecture Notes

The male breast contains the same basic structures as the female breast—the nipple, areola, fat, and glandular tissue. However, the amounts of underlying fatty and glandular tissues are much smaller in men. But just like women, some men find stimulation of their breasts to be sexually arousing, while others do not. In our culture the male breast is thought of differently than the female breast. Male breasts are often not referred to as breasts, but instead called pecs, or more generally, just the chest. In our society it is acceptable for a man to walk around without a shirt on, but this would be deemed indecent exposure and illegal for women to do so. This is an example of how our culture influences our views on our sexual anatomy.