Man and women always co-existed together. It was long enough to get to know each other, study each other’s likings. Even books are written on the topic, to reveal some points that influence relationships and understanding in some way. A peculiar fact is that the process of cognition is never ending due to constantly changing epochs and elements within them: interests, morality and gender traditions. But one point, despite all the changings, has been perpetual throughout the history – the preference for types of female body, which is the question that every male ask himself at least once.
A common fact is, we (people) not only speak of what we like, but we also verse about it, draw it, sculpture it and even manage to express it in dance. And, of course, we sing about it. A song “My Humps” by Black Eyed Peas is the one of interest. If we go through the text, we see an image of a woman, who lives a careless life, feeling comfortable with everything that is happening around her. Next, we see a group of men who provide her with every single item she needs and even more, without asking much in return. And the cause of such probably unhealthy attention is a body type she has: buxom breasts and bum.
Closer to the middle of the song the possession becomes more visible. When the woman refuses a gift, men insist, and so she takes it. The line states “I say no, but they keep giving”, where we see the woman’s attitude to presents, which she also expresses by calling it “junk”. All this returns us to the stated reason. The woman uses her body to “get them drunk” with it. What is interesting, the influence is spread not only on her surrounding but on all the men she meets. Fergie exaggerates the shown obsession by sex metaphors in the song (“My Humps by The Blach Eyed Peas” par. 3).
The song basically reflects what men want to see when they look at a woman. Of course, preferences are not the same for every male of the world. Yet, movies and magazines tell us about general “demands” to women’s body, which were set by the majority of men. This is precisely the reason for stating that men throughout the world have common preferences as for women’s bodies: slim waist, large breasts and bums.
A question occurs: why do men chose these precise female body shapes and why do these forms influence men’s minds that much? To answer that, we need to go back in history to the first people. There were no words, no language to describe affection at that time. Men chose their women, using force to take their females with them. And still back then they were already choosing. Something on the instinct level was already determining their preferences. Due to small sheds of evidence that we find from that period, it is possible to conclude that a caveman’s choice was connected to an ability of lactation, which required a certain size of breasts. So, the fact that we derive from here is the instinctive basis of males’ choice.
The influence of the opposite gender’s bodies on minds is a part of the reason for taking women by force to exist after that period. Scholars of the past made attempts to figure out medical mechanisms of biology, basing on the available information (Huntley and McClain par. 3). Here it is important that we distinguish man desires from a notion of an ideal woman. The ideals were often being changed due to societies of history, sometimes contradicting each other. So, the ideal shape for women of Italian Renaissance was rounded (a little obese) body (“Women’s Ideal Body Types through History” par. 7), but in Victorian England, a century after that, people adored slim waists, and it gave a wide use to corsets (“The Fetishization and Objectification if the Female Body in Victorian Culture” par. 10). But in both Renaissance and Victorian periods men gave much appreciation to large breasts shapes. This is where the a joint feature is seen, which shows us similarities in preferences of the times. From here we derive that a certain element of men’s choice was not changed through history, no matter what the ideal was.
As present researches put it, in nowadays there is no ideal size of bodies, which men like (Dovey par. 11). It is a matter of a certain WHR, the preference of which also differs. We can state it as the result of how media influences male gender. But if we look at the influence of nature, we can trace it back to men’s childhood. A baby always seeks for the mother’s breast, and this natural habit somehow reflects on the mature period of life. (Wolchover par. 2)
To conclude, we see a number of changes in men’s tastes during the run of history. Nevertheless, steady features are present, which have instinctive and natural beginning. And, of course, these features make it clearly understandable what is the song “My Humps” about.
Works Cited
Dovey, Dana. “What Men Want: Women’s Body Image Largely Influenced by False Assumptions of Male Opinion.” Medical Daily Web. 2015
Huntley, Katherine, and Lisa McClain Legitimately Ancient Ideas about Rape. 2012. Web.
My Humps by The Blach Eyed Peas 2015. Web.
“The Fetishization and Objectification if the Female Body in Victorian Culture.” BrightOnline Student Literary Journal 4.2 (2012): n.pag. University of Brighton. Web. 2015.
Wolchover, Natalie 2012, New Theory on Why Men Love Breasts. Web. 2015.
Women’s Ideal Body Types through History 2015. Web.