The Secret Source of Femininity -or- Male Envy of the Breast

Development of Masculine and Feminine Body Images 

As children, boys and girls are flat chested, once puberty arrives, anatomical, physiological and psychological body image changes begin to take place. In "Verborgene Quellen der Weblichkeit: Die Brust - das enteigente Organ" (The Secret Source of Femininity: The Breast - the expropriated Organ) Ingrid Olbricht talks about and explores the meaning of the female breast. Olbricht's book contains many dreams about the topic both from men and women. Here is one dream that a 42 year old man reported having (the dream is translated from the German); 

"I dreamt, I had breasts. I attempt with great effort, to increase the size and augment the volume. With this I was only partially successful. At times I thought, they were large, then I was no longer certain (secure) if they really were large. For me it was a very autoerotic feeling." 

Transeurope -or- Rocky Horror's Sweet Transvestite 

In the same year as "Brokeback Mountain", the 2005 film "Transamerica" provided a serious conversation with its audience about "transsexualism". The autoerotic dream above is seen by Olbricht as an expression of male envy of the "sexual function of the breast." While not having any case background information, one might speculate that the dream could also be viewed as one that expresses a "hermaphrodidic" "bi-sexual desire". Said differently, he wants to go both ways, at least in his dreams. The cult classic film "Rocky Horror Picture Show" features the rock musical song "Sweet Transvestite" (watch music video) sung by a Janus faced character (Tim Curry) and lover who does indeed go both ways.

Further Reading:

  •  Carolyn Latteier: Breasts: the women's perspective on an American obsession
All material Copyright 2006 International Institute for Dream Research. All rights reserved.