Sex and Psychology Podcast Episode 496: How Breasts Became Erotic – The Surprising History
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Apr 28, 2026 
Sarah Thornton, sociologist and nonfiction writer of Tits Up, explores how breasts shifted from feeding organs to erotic symbols. She traces wet nursing, infant formula, class and media influences. Cultural differences, Hollywood’s role, and why the nipple sparks debate are all discussed in lively historical and social context.
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Wet Nursing Turned Breasts Into Beauty Symbols
- Breasts became eroticized as elites decoupled them from feeding through widespread wet nursing in Renaissance France.
- Royalty and nobles outsourced breastfeeding, creating paintings that celebrated unused, perky breasts as beauty symbols contrasted with heavy, working wet nurses.
Formula Accelerated Cultural Detachment From Nursing
- The 20th century shift to infant formula further separated breasts from feeding, enabling new cultural meanings and eroticization.
- Thornton ties this to postwar beliefs that formula was superior and to modern human milk banks addressing premature infant needs.
Human Milk Bank Supports Diverse Families
- The Mother's Milk Bank of California supplies neonatal units, foster children, chemo patients, and even gay dads with donated human milk.
- Thornton describes the milk bank as a bipartisan community service where women donate gallons regardless of politics.
