Breasts seem to be the focal point for numerous contemporary controversies. Some argue that women’s position in society is adversely affected by the objectification of breasts and by images of certain breasts in public spaces, for example in the Sun’s Page 3 or in advertising and entertainment. For decades, feminists have campaigned against photographs of topless female models. More recently, students’ unions have banned the Sun from campus shops to maintain the campus as a ‘safe space’ for female students. After pressure from advocacy groups, some supermarkets and newsagents have introduced ‘modesty sleeves’ to cover up pictures of breasts on the covers of certain magazines. In these instances, the presence of ‘sexualised’ naked breasts in public view is said to be offensive and even harmful to women and children and to contribute to an unhealthy social climate for all.

Conversely, pro­breastfeeding activists regularly stage ‘feed­ins’ or ‘flash mobs’ in public places to assert the right of mothers to breastfeed wherever necessary and the ‘Free the Nipple’ campaign calls for ‘equality’ in the way male and female nipples are treated in legislation and on social media. Even more confusingly, feminist campaigners such as FEMEN have taken to baring their breasts in public in protest against what they see as the misogyny of institutions like the church. And so it seems, some breasts are good and some breasts are bad.

All of which raises the question, who decides? Why have breasts become such a focus for contemporary advocacy and campaigning and is it really possible or desirable to ‘desexualise’ breasts?