Social Commentary Rolled Up Into One Word

To understand this one word, it is important to know in what context it is, and what the entire meaning is. Our culture has a love/hate relationship with the human body, and the breasts in particular. It is flaunted everywhere, yet scorned and censored in movies and TV. There is very little reasoning behind it other than the well being of children. It is also ironic that once a child is weened off the mother's milk, the means in which it is given instantly becomes taboo.

In magazines, billboards, and just about anywhere in American culture, the breasts of a woman are presented, augmented, and shown off. Sometimes it is to the extent that the woman seems to scream at you "LOOK AT THESE!" As long as a nipple does not show, it seems to be okay. Yet once that occurs, it must all be covered up, or in the case of movies, gets a higher rating to prevent younger children from seeing that part of the human body.

This is not even about children seeing it, but of how society views it. It is shown at times to such an extreme that that is really the only point of the picture. And so the one word to sum it all up is "boobs." The word itself is only half of the meaning; the way in which it is said carries the other half of the meaning. When said with a total disconnection, or an almost professional or medical voice, it says everything.

In this one word, it is saying, "you are showing them for the sake of showing them, only to get a rise out of the audience, and to some degree point out the fact they are there, yet I am doing just as you ask but not caring about it in the least." It is essentially taking all of the connotations of what the picture is trying to convey, then throwing it back at them. They expect grown men to drool over it like they are thirteen seeing their first lady part. In saying the word with no inflection, it is saying everything about how society presents the breast, yet strives to keep it hidden. So the next time a movie has a topless woman that does not seem to fit the story, or a woman on TV or a magazine with her breasts about to burst from whatever fabric meant to hold them in, just say, "boobs."