Archive for July, 2008

Breasts Used to Sell Everything from Mortgages to Cars

It’s funny when you see these ads these days, even the more down to earth, low key products and services that normally should appeal to the housewife next door, using sex to sell their good or service.  And there really are no exceptions, because even mortgage companies have commercials I’ve seen lately where they use a busty, good looking woman, but in a tasteful outfit, just tasteful enough to still reveal that she’s got some cleavage going on upstairs, talk about how she got a better rate with this company versus others.

No matter how we may fight it sometimes, we are a very sexual-based society, and sex does sell.  Not only that, but woman’s breasts and a womanly figure are a sign of power and also of maternal nature, which makes us all feel a little cozy and trustful.  It’s even evident when I do my clothes shopping for professional work clothes from younger, hipper places for women in their late twenties and early thirties who may have a professional job but still want to dress attractively.

The button downs are made so that they can button down pretty far while still being work appropriate, but while also leaving a nice little suggestive trail down the chest area, sounds crazy, but it’s not really!  Women still want to look somewhat sexy, even if they have a desk job, and that’s evident in the clothes that are popular today. 

Could Women Be Breast Feeding at 100 Yrs Old??

Well, that’s what one scientist is saying, that one day in the somewhat near future, women will still be able to bare children at the ripe old age of 100 years old!  Right now that is definitely something that would be considered to be tagged in the miracle category, but if you think about it, give it some time and lots of things are going to be possible as we evolve in to a longer living species, as has happened over and over in the course of human evolution over the last few thousand years.

People live longer and longer lives as time goes on.  I mean, back in the medieval days, it was unusual that a person live past their thirties.  In modern times, this would be considered a tragically early death, but back then you had already lived a “full life” by your thirties.  Doesn’t seem nearly long enough to live your life now, does it?  I almost feel greedy, because I’m in my early thirties and I still look forward to years of a happy and fulfilled life!

This is where the technology that they say will enable a 100 year old woman, or even a newborn to get pregnant (although that is really disgusting, but this is just theory), gets really wacky.  I guess that scientists are figuring out how to turn normal cells into sperms and eggs, the two cells that begin new life in the woman’s womb, so with something they call germ cell technology, they would be able to allow a woman at any age to be impregnated. 

As far as carrrying the baby to full term, and breastfeeding and caring for that baby, I don’t know, they don’t really say much about all the other trappings of motherhood, but supposedly the technology will at least be there in the next thirty years according to the main doctor who is doin this research.  As far as ethical questions, I highly doubt that this would actually be done, since women at these extreme ages most likely would not want to raise a child, but the point science likes to make is that it will be possible. 

Hopefully this research has some other useful utility other than an “I told you so”, such as curing cancer, or helping people out or children out who are already on this planet and sickly and need help to live life to their fullest and at their healthiest. 

Jessica Simpson Using Cleavage, Sex Appeal to Sell New Perfume, Record

Jessica Simpson is famous for her breasts, let’s just be blunt about it.  She also may be famouse because she does have a quirky and somewhat loveable yet dopey personality, but not many people would categorize her as uber talented or smart, well, until now that is.  Jessica is going to surprise a lot of people with her new country album that is set to launch soon, and is expanding on her multiple faceted empire by launching a new perfume called “Fancy”.

In the new ad campaign, which I’ve seen the bigger picture spread for, she looks like a young Bridget Bardot, with the heavily lined and mascaraed eyes – the “sex kitten” look, and she pulls it off well, bringing a throw back of the times when truly sexy women were curvier and not skin and bones with artificial breast implants – the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield, for example.

Early buzz on Jessica’s new country record is that it’s shockingly good, and this comes from people who, like me, thought she was a mediocre talent in the pop singing world.  Maybe this is truer to her roots and that will show.  Country music is crawling with hot, busty babes these days, so she’ll probably fit right in!

Dr.’s to Stop Recommending Breast Self Exams?

Well, while I can’t really say I’d personally recommend this since there are actually a few women I know who were alerted to the fact that they had breast cancer because of self exams or sort of accidental self exams or exams by their significant other if you know what I mean, but there is talk in the medical community now of not recommending breast self exams. 

They say that the self exams are especially not needed for those that are in the younger age group – ie perhaps under 45-50 years old since the risk dramatically increases with age in women.  I think that this bit of news, which happens to be coming from breast cancer specialists and researchers, can perhaps be a bit confusing to women of all ages, since we’re basically had it pounded in our heads over and over since we started visiting our gynecologists at a young age, that breast self exams could potentially save our lives if they were performed in a timely manner and with due dilligence. 

Specialists are saying now that breast self exams, also termed BSE’s as an acronym, say that self exams can not only be too confusing and result in too many biopsies and false alarms, but they also may be hard for patients to remember, and may give a false sense of security and have women doing them instead of going to get what they should, which is an annual mammogram, especially if in the target risk groups defined by age, and sometimes even race depending on the type of breast cancer you’re talking about. 

Even with this news, many women swear by BSE’s, and say that they’ve actually detected lumps that were later identified as cancerous in their breasts because of their regular breast self exams, and that they would never have found them on their own earlier had it not been for their early education on the importance of these exams.  In the end, it’s a personal decision. 

3-D Mammograms?

I think we discussed this a few months back, but it’s been in the news again lately, how now mammograms are hopefully going to be a little bit more exact and efficient perhaps with a newer technology using 3-D or three dimensional glasses.  Seeing in three dimension just means that you can see all angles of a person, or an object, in this case, the looker would be seeing any items of concern in the breast in three dimension, perhaps making it easier for them to identify and maybe even expediting the viewing process for mammograms and making them more effective.  At least that’s the goal.

The whole point of inventing the three dimension mammograms is to help women with the denser breasts, because it’s harder to identify lumps or cancerous masses in women with dense breasts, and often an MRI must be ordered for women where the test results of a mammogram are inconclusive because of density in the tissue and resulting difficulty in identification of any areas of concern.

The way the three dimensional mammogram would work is that the radiologist would simply use specially designed 3-D glasses.  I’m sure you’re picturing the type that you get to go to the movies, but I’m sure they’re a little more sophisticated than cheap cardboard   Just kidding.  This would mean that women who ordinarily might have to have an expensive MRI to conclude whether they have any problem areas would just have to have this 3-D test done, which is much less expensive.

Since there are many women under the age of fifty years old that have dense breast tissue, and there are still a lot after that age as well, when breast cancer risk is higher, this is a great money saving and time saving measure, researchers are hoping, and could even help save lives if it can identify early cancers that might be missed with just a regular mammogram.  All in all, this is some great news for women, and for women with dense breasts especially!

Man Who Was Pregnant Gives Birth : Can He Breast Feed?

The man who caused such a stir by being pregnant and being on the Oprah Winfrey show and in the news over these past few months, showing off “his” pregnant belly, has given birth.  The man though, is really a woman becoming a man, so it’s not really the miracle that all the headlines would have you believe. 

What’s funny about this story is that when I first read it I thought that an actual man, with all male plumbing had somehow miraculously conceived a baby, and that,I thought, was a miracle.  But a woman who is a woman on the inside still but a man on the outside “cosmetically” having a baby isn’t a miracle, it’s just interesting news and a reflection on our ever diversifying population – a good thing, but nonetheless, an example of media sensationalism.

The man, named Thomas Beatie, has given birth to a baby girl on the 29th of June.  But he won’t be able to breast feed because part of his transfer to a man (Thomas is a transgender man), he elected to have his breasts surgically removed, and has received hormone shots of the male hormone testosterone to remain with man-like features such as facial hair and a deeper voice, and rougher skin, all those things that make a man a man.

Beatie’s wife, Nancy, was not able to have childre, so Beatie stepped up to the plate and went about having a baby via artificial insemination.  He has said that he opted not to have his (her) sexual organs (female) removed, because he did want to have children some day. 

Man Turning Into Woman, Growing Breasts

A man who is a singer in a local bar has said that over the past decade he has slowly been turning into a woman, and he does not want to lose his masculinity but apparently he is afflicted with some sort of a hormonal imbalance that has caused him to slowly begin to exhibit womanly physical characteristics.

While some men desire to become women and purchased various products for male breast enhancement, this is a case where a man has actually been turning into a woman against his will, due to a biological reason that is as of yet unknown.  He has asked regular doctors for help after his past decade of beginning to lose facial hair, develop softer skin like a woman, and also to grow breasts like a woman, but doctors are saying that they have not seen a case where a man has spontaneously begun to produce estrogen on his own. 

Every man has a little bit of the female hormone estrogen in his system naturally, as every woman has a little bit of the male hormone testosterone in her system naturally, but this man claims that he has spontaneously started producing high levels of estrogen for an unknown reason and has doctors baffled.  I’m wondering if doses of testosterone might be the answer, but apparently that may not solve his problem.

When there are hormonal imbalances in a woman or a man, as in, when a woman has too much testosterone or a man has too much estrogen, there are noted changes to the body that exemplify the opposite sex.  So for women, they may begin to grow facial hair, may start to have problems with bad acne, or they may develop a thicker, tougher skin like men have, whereas a man may begin to grow female breasts, his voice may become higher, and his skin may become softer if he has too much estrogen producing in his body. 

Scientists do not know why this man might have simply just had such a huge increase in his estrogen production on his own, but he says that his doctors originally suspected he was trying to change his sex which he adamantly denies, and he says that he just wants his manhood back, and does not want a sex change, nor does he want to slowly become a woman as he is now. 

Can Tanning Beds Harm Your Nipples?

This is a somewhat obscure question, but nonetheless, it may be important, especially if you are a habitual indoor tanner in tanning beds, and happen to go topless in tanning beds or even out in the natural sun, which many women do (more the former than the latter since laying out in the public eye topless takes quite the cajones in most areas).

Well, I remember hearing about this when I was younger and was going to the tanning beds all the time in highschool (shame on me, I’m sure I caused a lot of damage to my skin that I would never dream of doing now that I’m an adult and don’t care as much about being tan to look good and “fit in” with the rest of the pretty girls), I used to hear about how you should put round bandaids on your nipples, or put powerful sunblock on them when you went tanning topless, because it could “deform” your nipples.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not slamming tanning beds.  As a matter of fact, I still sun myself once in a while now, I just think that constant tanning is dangerous and should be limited, but that’s my personal opinion and I don’t want to get preachy.  Now, about the “deformity” comment.  I don’t think that tanning can actually deform your nipples, but I think it can definitely discolor them.  I remember going unprotected a lot of times, and my nipples would take on a mottled look, with white coloring in them, instead of the pink healthy look that they should be sporting.

So, in short, I think if you’re a topless tanner you SHOULD protect your breast’s nipples by applying a stick of strong SPF to them.  I’d recommend the Neutrogena SPF stick, because I use that on my scars when I’m in the sun to protect them and it works wonderfully – they get almost no pigmentation or sun exposure when I use it.  I would say try the round bandaid thing, but let’s face it, that would be hard to get to stay on and you’d go through a lot of round bandaids if you’re a frequent tanner! 

Jessica Simpson Voted “Best Breasts” in Hollywood

Jessica Simpson is known for a lot of things, unfortunately, most of them not having to do with how talented a singer she is, but rather her reality tv exploits and who she happens to be dating and splitting from.  She’s also famous for having very nice breasts, as most guys who are fans of Ms. Simpson will attest to!  And who ran this very classy poll of who has the nicest celebrity breasts?  Well, it is none other than one of the biggest tabloid rags out there right now, InTouch Weekly, who ran a poll for the 2008 year to see who was voted to have the nicest boobs in H Town.

Jessica Simpson does claim that her breasts are 100% real, and it appears that may be true by looking at them, but sometimes it’s hard to tell when breasts are not in a top or a bra for sure whether they have been artificially enhanced or not, so that’s definitely nowhere near conclusive.  Oh, and I’m no expert on real boobs or fake ones either, of course!

Jessica’s latest woes were with her newest squeeze, Tony Romo, the football player, whom she was said to have broken up with, but it seems to the two have reconciled, at least for the time being, and have still been seen out and about town.  Jessica was married to boyband singer Nick Lachey for a while, then she started to date a couple other guys here and there, but didn’t seriously hook up with anyone until she dated singer John Mayer (she must have a thing for singers!), and she supposedly was “dumped” by him.

Jessica has said she’s wanted children before, so I’d hate to see how big her boobs get when that happens!  Nevertheless, Jessica seems like a nice enough girl, so kudos on her breast achievement. 

Sports Bra Saves Woman’s Life?

Well, it’s yet another breast or bra related story of how something breast related may have helped save a woman’s life.  This time it’s about how a sport’s bra (oh how we all love them!) may have helped save a hiker’s life.  This story comes out of the Bavarian Alps of Germany.  An American woman was hiking in the alps when she became stranded for several days.

She used her resourcefulness and was thankfully able to survive and use her sport’s bra as a flag to help make sure that rescuers saw her and were able to come to her rescue.  What ended up happening is that the 24 year old woman from Colorado attached her sports bra to a cable that was used to haul lumber down the mountain, signalling to near by lumberjacks that someone was there and needed help.  It worked.  The lumberjacks “followed the bra” and found her and were able to take her to safety. 

Here’s where this seemingly unimpressive story gets interesting.  Apparently the woman had fallen 16 feet onto a narrow ledge when travelling with a companion and had been searched for a few days by crews in the area after going missing.  She dislocated her shoulder in the fall, and also had a pretty banged up area on her legs, and was unable to climb or move very far.  She survived on what little water she had left over the next 70 or so hours, and noticed that the until-then out of service lumber cable had started moving again.

I can only imagine the relief when she saw it start to move again!  She then used her resourcefulness and put her sports bra on the cable, and who knows, without that if or when she would have been found, especially since she had very little water and was not in a visible area that was easily found.  The human body only survives for so many hours without water, so this was by far the most important part of her survival.