Ever wonder why men have nipples? Seems strange, due to the fact that they serve no purpose to men. Of course, they are extremely important to women because they are used to breast feed, but why men?
Believe it or not, in the early forming stages of a developing embryo, no matter the sex, it follows a female blueprint. According to Live Science, “Only after about 60 days does the hormone testosterone kick in (for those of us with a Y chromosome), changing the genetic activity of cells in the genitals and brain”. So, by the time the embryo reaches 60 days and starts to develop its sex, the nipples are already there to stay.
But wouldn’t Darwin’s theory of evolution get rid of male nipples by now? Male nipples are vestigial, meaning they are genetically determined attributes that have lost function over time. Some evolutionists argue that males were once able to breast feed, and that overtime, the ability has deteriorated. Other evolutionists argue that males will actually be able to breast feed in the future, and that is why they have nipples now. So, males are actually going through an evolutionary process right now in their opinion. Either theory is a strange thing to picture.
However, it is problematic to label nipples as vestigial because they serve as sexual stimulation for both men and women. According to creation.com, “The presence of an abundance of nervous tissue is a major clue that an organ has a function.” In this purpose, the only difference between male and female nipples is that females have a larger erogenous zones. So although nipples provide sexual pleasure, there is no evidence as to why they exist yet.
Kristen Robertson
resources:
http://creation.com/is-the-human-male-nipple-vestigial
http://www.livescience.com/32467-why-do-men-have-nipples.html
That’s crazy to think about. Men breastfeeding babies? LOL. Reminds me of an episode of Family Guy. Link provided: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OkcucXIuVI
But in all seriousness, I think since all humans have chests to protect their heart and lungs and insides, it would look very odd if only males didn’t have nipples on their chests. Maybe its just the way we’re made regardless of evolution.
This is really an interesting blog. I’ve always wondered why men have nipples because they literally have no purpose on men except for the fact we would look weird without them. I always thought it was an evolution type thing but i could never really figure out what we used to use them for.
I’ve always wondered this! I knew that embryos all started off as female, but I didn’t realize that nipples grew so early on in the process. There has to be a biological explanation for it, some reason why it was useful in the past, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see if they disappear completely in many many years, or if they become useful. It would be so weird to see men without nipples one day.
This is a very interesting blog. I’ve never thought about why men have nipples. Its really a funny concept when you think about it. Do other males animals have nipples? or just male humans?
I’ve never really about it but nipples truly serve no purpose. I guess we would just look weird without them. It makes sense that we have them if you believe in evolution because apes have nipples but if you do not believe in evolution it may be a pretty confusing topic.
Why do you think men have nipples? I know from my view I believe men have nipples because of how you said men start off as women until our chromosomes change. But if you look at other animals that are male they do not have nipples. So then again that may not be the reason because if my dog max has nipples, then something is not right.
So, the idea that you said men have nipples because nipples because previously we were able to breast feed could be true. But why do male monkeys have nipples? Ok, you can say that we were developed from chimps. But if that was true from chimps then why are there still chimps. But let us just pretend that it was proven that we did develop from them, doesn’t evolution calls for a species to enhance itself to survive. Then how come we did not lose that trait of having nipples because they seem to not have any use for them either.
http://www-tc.pbs.org/wnet/nature/files//home/wnetwp/webroot/wnet/wp-content/blogs.dir/3/files/2008/10/gal21.jpg
Thus, I will conclude that both theories may be wrong and there may be another reason why we may have them. So far like you said there is no proven theory so “Why do males have nipples,” for right now we still do not know
It’s definitely an interesting concept that males either in the past or the present had nipples to breast feed. I agree with Genevieve when she says that since we are descendants of apes it makes sense that we also have nipples. The thought of males being able to breast feed isn’t a ridiculous idea but I don’t think the world will see that happening anytime even in the remote future.
This is a really entertaining blog. And no I have actually never wondered that in my head. But now I know why next time I sit down and begin to wonder why guys would have nipples if they have almost no purpose. But this is actually quite interesting due to the fact that now you answered the question I wanted the answer. And it would probably be insane if men were able to breast feed in the future. I am having such a hard time buying that it will actually happen.
I think the question of “why do men have nipples” might be extended into “why do male mammals have nipples?” Being that we are evolutionary descendants of apes, it makes sense that our males would have nipples just like their males do. In fact, many mammal fetuses look similar during the early stages of gestation. At conception, the zygote looks no different than that of a rat or a dog, only through time do we see the key differences. If nipples develop early enough in gestation, then we might be able to assume that male humans have nipples because the first male mammals had nipples. Perhaps the answer lies in an entirely different species than our own.