Men have an eye for women's breasts

BY KEITH LYNCH

A new Kiwi study confirms what most women probably suspect - men look at a woman's breasts before her face.

Victoria University of Wellington researchers have found nearly half - 47 per cent - of men first look at women's breast. A third of men's ''first fixations'' are on women's midriff.

Shockingly less than 20 per cent of first glances were at the woman's face.

''Men spent consistently more time looking at the breasts of front posed female images and also made significantly more fixations upon the breasts than other regions of the body or head,'' the researchers suggested.

Outrageous Fortune star and New Zealand's ''sexiest woman'' Robyn Malcolm said women would be aware of men taking a peek but it has to be expected at times.

''There's a contract isn't there? If I'm going to go out in a low cut top it's not saying I'm asking for it, but it's not that I'm not. I've a really low cut dress and I really like it. We check each other out physically. Why wouldn't we?''

She said the Outrageous Fortune male stars aren't shy at taking a look at their female co-star's cleavage.

''We joke about it on the show. Most of the women on Outrageous Fortune wear really low cut tops so the male actors are constantly having a perv and they're really up front about it. But so are we! We're always checking out each other's breasts because women's breasts are really quite beautiful. They're kind of lovely to look at. It's a no brainer for me.''

Malcolm, who plays Cheryl West on the hit show, said men who are just interested in just looking at one thing is boring.

"It's more about whether that's all they're looking at. If that's all they're interested in and they're not at all interested in checking out a woman's face or engaging her in conversation then if anything I'm going to get really bored with the man first.''

In the study test subjects were presented with six images of the same woman, digitally altered to increase or decrease the size of her bust, waist and hips.

Special eye tracking equipment was used to determine how men examined images of the images of the naked woman.

Despite men's eyes going straight to a women's chest, waist to hip ratio primarily defines how attractive a woman is to men, researchers found.

The study was also noted, "men may be looking more often at the breasts because they are simply aesthetically pleasing, regardless of the size".

Newstalk ZB presenter Ali Jones said it was very important for a man's first look to be at a woman's face.

"However if the woman is falling out of her top who can blame him for having a look?  If the woman is being discreet with her decolletage though, it is so incredibly rude to be perving," she said.

New Zealand sexologist Dr Michelle Mars said it was OK for people to check each other out.

"There is nothing wrong with admiring bodies. It can be a turn on, 99.9 per cent of the time it is unobtrusive and natural. Sometimes women notice they are being admired rather than ogled and this is a nice sexy experience."

But she warned men who just can't maintain eye-contact that their behaviour is rude.

"It must be so obvious to those men that women are not enjoying having their breasts ogled or glared at. That kind of breast attention is just plain rude."
 
 

- © Fairfax NZ News