"Of Breasts and Men: A Phenomenological study of Men, Boys, and Female Breasts
(with no apologies to Sigmund Freud)"
By John McGondel - © 2004

As a "psycholologist (one who studies psychologists), and after having studied psychology for many years, and after having read countless case studies, and after having personally and professionally observed thousands of people, I have come up with this, my current theory regarding male behavior, infatuation with, and thought-patterns as pertains to the female breast, as relates to grown men having sex with minor females:

When a boy begins reaching adolescence, he begins to experience physical changes. These changes are often overwhelming, and associations are created within the boy's mind. For instance, say the boy is twelve years old, and is in seventh grade; these mystifying changes are happening, and the chances are that the females around him are at a similar age. This is typically the period of sexual obsession, and the primary release for a young boy would be through the healthy and normal act of masturbation.

However, the thoughts in this young boy's mind would naturally run to the images of the females around him every day in school. From that point until his next stage, the boy will have become, without his conscious knowledge, obsessed with the physical characteristics of the females of his own age, that surround him. This would be considered normal by most peoples' standards.

Then, however, the boy grows, and the females grow with him, and he adjusts to their growth as it parallels his own, and everything is more or less transitionally smooth. Now, the growing young man still remembers the excitement which he felt at his prior age, which was only a year or so ago, and he relishes it. But time usually marches on, and the young man, usually, grows up within an age group very close to his own, and develops healthy sexual relationships within his current age group. He may later grow up to become married, and to have children of his own, and to be in a healthy sexual relationship with a mate or through a series of adult relationships.

And, that is a wonderful thing, but it does not happen to everybody.

A different scenario: The boy grows up physically, but his emotional development is arrested at the age he was when he first began masturbating at thoughts of his first infatuation fantasies. Perhaps he goes for years, into his adult life, infatuated by, stimulated by, aroused by, and fantasizing about, girls who were the age that he was when he first hit full-blown puberty and adolescence. This could be the potential child molester or abuser that "suddenly erupts" at a playground.

This is not a Freudian-Mother-Breast thing; this is a case of not developing beyond the one level to the next developmental stage. In this scenario, the now-grown man would only seek out females of the age that he first associated his sexual awakening with, when the adolescent feelings overcame him. He may well deny it, he may use child porn to stimulate himself; he may actually watch young girls at schoolyards; and he may never dream of hurting or touching them in any way. But he might still be unable to stop his shameful thoughts.

He may not want to think this way, but somehow, maybe, his mind became cross-wired, or short-circuited if you will, (conditioned) to think this way. He may well wish to force such thoughts out from his mind, but be unable to. He may lead a normal life, with a family, yet still long for females of the age he was when his hormones overrode his brain.

Normally, males go through the adolescence-induced increased-libido stage, and then grow out of it. But perhaps a significant number do not progress along with other members of their age group, and there is often a reason for this. However, for this paper, and in support of my current theory, I will say that a man's infatuation with the female breast begins not when he is nursing, but when he becomes capable of sustaining an erection. And during those times of almost constant erections, his fantasies fly to the females around him, who are usually also developing, and usually more quickly than the boys. And that image sticks. And the one thing that stands out to adolescent boys is that the girls looked different with developing breasts. The boys don't know why, perhaps it is an ancient thing whereby males knew females were old enough to be approachable because of breasts. Breasts delineate a separation between a not-yet-a-woman and a woman. (I would give almost anything to debate this concept with Freud, but alas...)

Which explains why so many middle-aged men drool over females like Britney Spears. They just haven't managed to learn how to grow up yet. So, they can suppress or repress (hide) it, or express it. If they express it they will not only be exhibiting a case of arrested development, they stand an excellent chance of ending up in prison, where other sexual deviants may act out their psychological malfunctions on them.

This has been my theoretical observation and semi-accounting for child-molesters, which leads me to wonder if the same thing in reverse might be true of grown women who have relationships with underage males.

Next Month: Middle Age Male Crises: Myth, Fiction; Medical, or Psychological?