What is the current view of Gillian Bently's research on breast shape?
October 14, 2024 6:24 AM Subscribe
I remember reading about (but can only find this news article with googling) a theory that the flatness of human faces resulted in the prominence of breasts, with the idea being that it was easier for babies to suckle breasts than nipples on a flat surface.
Has anything more been written about this?
Trying to google any more on this is leading me to nothing, from what I can tell (if I am reading the reference correctly), the article/communication should be here, but I am finding nothing.
Google scholar shows only 4 citations, only one of which seems to be related, and that's a pop-sci book. Is this idea dead in the water, has it been disproved, or am I just looking in the wrong places? It seemed like a perfect rebuttal to the "current western beauty standards are universal and influenced the evolution of the female body" view from the worst of evolutionary psychology that breasts are there to gain male interest.
I've found more stuff on breast shape (something from Discover from 5 years ago saying that we had no idea why), but am particularly interested if this theory went anywhere.
Trying to google any more on this is leading me to nothing, from what I can tell (if I am reading the reference correctly), the article/communication should be here, but I am finding nothing.
Google scholar shows only 4 citations, only one of which seems to be related, and that's a pop-sci book. Is this idea dead in the water, has it been disproved, or am I just looking in the wrong places? It seemed like a perfect rebuttal to the "current western beauty standards are universal and influenced the evolution of the female body" view from the worst of evolutionary psychology that breasts are there to gain male interest.
I've found more stuff on breast shape (something from Discover from 5 years ago saying that we had no idea why), but am particularly interested if this theory went anywhere.
Best answer: Here's related article from 2021, SciHub does seem to have the full text (though who knows how long that domain will be up, so you can use the DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12778 & SciHub website availability). The article says "The adaptive role and developmental pattern of this breast morphology, unusual among primates, remains an unresolved conundrum".
I did find a discussion from 2001 about Gillian's work.
As well as the New Scientist article, though my institution doesn't have access.
posted by gregr at 6:57 AM on October 14
I did find a discussion from 2001 about Gillian's work.
As well as the New Scientist article, though my institution doesn't have access.
posted by gregr at 6:57 AM on October 14
Response by poster: akk2014 - I fixed the name in all my searches, but left the mistake in the title (of course). I'm messaging the mods to fix it.
posted by Hactar at 8:26 AM on October 14
posted by Hactar at 8:26 AM on October 14
The mods changed the spelling in the title of the post, but it's still wrong (lacking the second "e" in Bentley).
posted by akk2014 at 11:06 AM on October 14 [1 favorite]
posted by akk2014 at 11:06 AM on October 14 [1 favorite]
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posted by akk2014 at 6:46 AM on October 14 [1 favorite]