Forced to expose your breasts

[blad]

How many of us were forced to expose our breasts in public?

For me, the skins teams in the high school physical education classes were a constance source of having to expose my breasts in public view. It always seemed that I ended up on the skin team, likely for the pleasure of the physical ed teachers. For an hour at a time I had to play some sports activity with my bare breasts bouncing around for all to see including any girls on the track field at the same time. Extremely mortifying knowing everyone is staring at your boobs while trying to act like everything is normal. Of course the comments about my "breasts" and needing a bra were constant.  It may have been less embarrassing to have a sports bra on to at least cover them and reduce the visual bouncing display.

Swimming lessons was another situation when I had to show off my bare breasts to all, half of which were girls. They got to cover their breasts while I had to expose mine.

[FredL]

My first realization was at summer camp when I was 11. Shirts and skins. 

I recall a kid saying my tyts were bigger than his moms. Kids were grabbing them. During that summer I was attacked in the cabin at night by kids who gave me tytty twisters and a pink belly. They held me down, pulled my shirt off and left me bruised and red all over while mocking me with a rhyme that included tyts and my last name. Next day I threw a fit and called my parents on the phone demanding I go home from camp early. I was denied and told to tough it out. This was in 1973. I don't think that kind of thing would fly these days.

[Johndoe1]

PE in school was always a gauntlet. When playing football, I seemed to always get the ball and was on the bottom of a pile and hands would be felt on my breasts. Some pushing, some pulling, some squeezing.

[SideSet]

Oh, God, yes, I can sadly relate.  I was always on the skins team in PE.  My breasts looked like a girls' and would be jigging and bouncing.  Like a girl, I had wider areolae and puffy nipples, and with all the stimulation from my breasts jiggling and bouncing bare breasted in the cold air for all to see, my nipples would get hard just like women's do.  All the boys would be enjoying and some commenting on the "titty show," where is your bra, need to wear a bra, bigger boobs than...so and so's mom, or name a girl or name a teacher, your nips got hard, you must like it, going to poke someone's eye out.

And if it was a game that allowed any contact, I would get my breasts cupped, fondled, squeezed, my nipples touched, pulled, pinched.

[FredL]

I went to a couple different summer camps as a kid. I went to a sports camp for 3 summers and that's the place where they had shirts and skins. It's so devastating for a heavy kid, or a kid with boobs, or even a real skinny kid. Instant ridicule.

After that I went to a science camp for two summers. It was different. Instead of shirts and skins, you put either a red or black fishnet kind of thing over your regular shirt. How cool is that? Leave it to the science people to be thoughtful about kids and their bodies and how they feel.

[Dale Warnio]

I wish more were thoughtful. 

Sideset, what you experienced sounded physically and emotionally painful. Sorry. 

[SideSet]

It was traumatic.

I had heard so many times that you need to wear a bra, that I finally gave in and tried one on. It was my mother’s, and surprisingly enough, it fit me quite well.

On days when my nipples and breasts had been manhandled, my breast tissue would feel bruised and my nipples sore,  and as I jiggled inside my tops the rest of the day, everything felt like it was on fire.  As soon as I got home from school, I would immediately get on one of my mother’s bras out of the clothes hamper, put it on, and that would help a lot. She didn’t know, but she worked, so I was home alone in her bra.  When I wasn’t in pain, I would replace her bra before she got home, but on those hurting days, I just couldn’t bear to take it off, so would make sure I wore something heavy and loose enough to conceal it.

One time, the day after my breasts and nipples had gotten particularly rough treatment in PE, we went swimming at my aunt’s pool.  As we were finishing up, my aunt said she noticed my chest was red and looked like it must be sore.  She handed me a tube  of ointment that she said really helped her, but that she didn’t need anymore because my cousin was now a toddler.

It was all cryptic to me, but she clearly was trying to be nice, so I thanked her. She said to try it when I got home, but to be careful because it could be messy.

The tube said Lansinoh.  It said it was nipple cream and it mentioned mother and baby.  I tried it as soon as I got home.  Looking in the mirror, I could see that my nipples were especially red; I think the chlorine in the pool must’ve irritated my already sore, chapped, cracked nipples that had been so harshly abused the day before.  My aunt was right, the Lansinoh was very thick, but also gave immediate relief.  

 I regularly used it from then on. I don’t know if I could’ve made it through PE without it   

[Dale Warnio]

Sideset,  that was really nice of your aunt and I can see how it helped you deal with the pain of all the unwanted attention your nipples got.

Clearly your aunt noticed your female breasts and that you were having a problem with chapped nipples.  I guess she was being tactful well being helpful. 

Did she ever talk with you about it again?

If you used the nipple cream the rest the time you were in school, I’m guessing you ran out. What did you do to replace it?

[SideSet]

Dale, yes, she did talk with me again, and I was too inhibited to make the most of it.

She said when your nipples get a lot of attention, they can become tender and sore, but the Lansinoh will soothe and make them better able to handle the attention. She said to use daily and especially after a workout and before long no more redness or pain, even after a heavy workout. 

She said I could come to her anytime I had a question or needed help, but I never did.  A few times she asked how things were, but I was monosyllabic, and after a while, she did not ask any more. 

[Dale Warnio]

Workout. Heavy workout. Interesting description. 

I am guessing your unsolicited workouts continued. Did the cream help you make it through high school? 

[SideSet]

My aunt didn’t say it, but you could tell by the context and her expression that she thought was doing heavy petting, or whatever you might call it.  She also implied that it was the most natural thing, nothing wrong with it, to be expected,  she had been my age once. 

She said one phrase  that has stuck with me all these years.  Boys don’t understand tender nipples.  At the time she said it, I thought she was referring to me as a boy, but the more I replayed in my head the conversation afterwards,  the more I realized she thought I had been doing some heavy making out, a lot of it, with a lot more to come, and that it was to be expected and just fine.   

I know she was trying to show empathy and acceptance, but it has the opposite effect on me. It shut me down.   I might have opened up to her about being assaulted, but instead the assaults just continued.  I didn’t think of them as assaults then, but that’s exactly what they were. 

I used the Lansinoh a lot to soothe and protect my nipples.  Yes, I did run out, got a new tube at the drugstore, and although mortified, stood in the aisle that had maternity and baby products, and looked at and read everything relevant to breastfeeding. I even also bought these cooling nipple pads that had the medication right in them. I was so humiliated, but I had to take care of myself,  because I was participating in a lot of heavy workouts with a lot of boys who didn’t understand tinder nipples, as my aunt liked to put it,  except I was an involuntary participant.  

 

[Dale Warnio]

That was awful, so sorry, Sideset.  The school bus was hell for me, also. PE was a disaster, too. I think I understand why you didn’t say thing to your aunt.  It’s really hard to put yourself out there like that. 

At least, you learned about good breast health. That was a positive step you took to take care of yourself. And I’m sure it wasn’t easy. But I’m assuming it helped.

[SideSet]

 Yes, I did learn good breast health. One thing I read about nipples, and it was by women who were breast-feeding, they said that your nipples get really sore, and the trick is to soothe them  and then protect them for the next time you breast-feed to keep them from getting even more sore.

 So, put on the nipple cream right after breast-feeding. And be sure to put it on sometime before you breast-feed again.

 So, for me it was  having my nipples assaulted and not breast-feeding. So, on days when I had PE, I made sure to put on the Lansinoh before I left for school and I would do it again as soon as I got home from school.  That helped a lot.

 Also, from what I read about breast-feeding the trick is to keep your nipples moisturized, so soft and supple, and then as they get used over and over, they become tougher, but you still want them soft and supple. I found that after a while, my nipples got tougher, but I did try to keep them soft and supple.  So, eventually, as the abuse continued on my nipples, it did not hurt me anywhere near as much as when it started.

 Of course, this is all physical I’m talking about. The emotional is another story   

[42CSurprise!]

What you're describing is really trauma... something no one should have to contend with as kids.  There is little doubt that kids can be very cruel to one another, especially with anyone who is different from the crowd.  Kids who are overweight, or in your case, with breasts not found on most boys, you're going to be at least demeaned... and in your case assaulted.  I'm sorry you experienced that.  It is remarkable that we can now support one another.  We didn't make a conscious choice to have the bodies we now have with breasts that require our care... but here we are... making the best we can of all of it.

[p.r.1974]

I too am sorry for those that have been assaulted mentally, physically, and more. It becomes difficult to maintain my calm on this.  People get charged with a crime and go to jail for this as adults, if it is reported. But kids get away with this ()*&#*)&^T*)#A$.... And as adults it rarely gets reported, because some part of us feels we either deserve it, or want to put it behind us, and trials and the justice system move achingly slow. Then there is the social and relational cost of pressing charges......