Women Spend More Time Staring at Boobs Than Men Do

Science says (or at least a science article in a British tabloid), so it must be true:

When it comes to checking out competition women should not worry about men checking them out - but women instead. That is according to research carried out which suggests women ogle the bodies of other women for far longer than their male partners do.

But women are more subtle about it so it's OK. It's not like most women don't dress to display their breasts or anything.

University researchers discovered that while men stare at the faces of people in photographs and fine art paintings, women are more interested in looking at their breasts. In heterosexual couples shown a photo or a painting of a man and a woman, both preferred to look at the female form, but women ‘checked out’ the figure, whereas men tended to stare at the face.

I've seen that before, here, but I think it's kind on a minor effect. 

Boffins at the University of Bristol examined eye movement and found women looked in fewer places when presented with an image, but focused mainly on the female form.

 I think it's because men are interested in checking out the whole woman, and not just the breasts; the whole package as it were, and not just the size of the milk factories.

Men, on the other hand, made many more eye movements, scanning the entire image, but paused only to stare at faces rather than breasts.

Hence the term "Butter face"

The new findings prove that women in a relationship are much more interested in checking out other women than their men are.

Our closest relatives in the ape world have similar nursing requirements, but their females breasts are not prominently swollen when not nursing. Breasts are as much signaling devices as functional milk producers, serving the same function as swelled up blue and red asses on certain monkeys, giving clues as to the sexual status and availability of the woman, depending on size, how they are carried and displayed, etc. Both men and women are biologically predisposed to look for, evaluate and react to those signals, even though men and women are evaluating them for different reasons.


So go ahead; stare at them; that's what they're there for.

I just noticed that this post got the blog to be named "Blog of the Day" yesterday over at Pirate's Cove.  Thanks Teach! The Wombat had a busy week, so Rule 5 Sunday at The Other McCain done come on Tuesday again this week!