Study: Breast Baring Popular in 1600s

[Champ]

May 17, 2004 — Women of the 1600s, from queens to prostitutes, commonly exposed one or both breasts in public and in the popular media of the day, according to a study of fashion, portraits, prints, and thousands of woodcuts from 17th-century ballads.

The finding suggests breast exposure by women in England and in the Netherlands during the 17th century was more accepted than it is in most countries today. Researchers, for example, say Janet Jackson's Super Bowl baring would not even have raised eyebrows in the 17th century.

Angela McShane Jones, a lecturer in history at University of Warwick in Coventry, England, became interested in the subject while studying the nearly 2,000 woodcut ballads housed in the Samuel Pepys collection at Cambridge University. Additional ballad sheets located at the British Library, the National Library of Scotland, Harvard University, and other institutions fuelled her study.

Ballad sheets served as the pop music and pulp fiction of their time. With a cost between half a penny and a penny, they were affordable, and could be purchased from street hawkers, and at fairs and markets. Most featured a woodcut that illustrated 10 to 14 verses of song.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20040517/breasts.html

[Burma Jones]

1. Gee Whiz, no wonder the Puritans Came Here

[JHB]

5. Precisely!

As someone (Garrison keillor?) once said, "My ancestors camr over on the Mayflower, in search of more and greater restrictions on religious freedom than were permitted under the law in their time."

[Reverend_Smitty]

2. How dare these librul scientists publish this...

Everyone knows women didn't have breasts back in the 1600's...they began to develop once women entered the workforce and then they became an epidemic when MTV launched in 1981, I for one long for a day when I can look down at my own chest and not become offended by my breasts!!!

Ok done channeling my inner freeper!

[supernova]

3. That's really cool

Thank you.

I knew that women's attire around that time was low-cut but I didn't know it was considered virtuous to "pop free."

[judge_smales]

4. If this is true, then I say

It's time for a return to traditional values!!

[Champ]

6. haha

I knew someone was going to say something along the lines of that.

[cally]

7. I was wandering through a museum

in London (I forget which one) many years ago and I noticed a woman's portrait with her breasts exposed. She wore an elaborate gown that was cut to bare her breasts. I noticed a few more like this so I asked a docent. She told me it was the style at that time and that most museums painted lace fillers to cover the breasts in later years. Just like many museums added fig leafs to the nude Greek and Roman statutes. This museum had done restoration on these portraits and removed the later modifications. It's interesting how styles change.

[Loonman]

8. Elizabethan Girls Gone Wild!

Woo-hoo!

[Feanorcurufinwe]

9. Now I finally know what era to visit in my time machine. nt

[ForrestGump]

10. Darn. I KNEW I was born too late.

:-(

[supernova]

11. Hey, summer's coming

you could always go down to the beach and look at all the topless girls. :D

[ForrestGump]

12. Now I feel better

:D

Vive la monokini!

[Bamboo]

13. Photo for Historical and Sociological Purposes.