Classic Rant #357 (October 20, 2010): “I Love Boobies,” But Some School Districts Bust It Up

Boobs. Knockers. Rack. Bumpers ...

These are just some of the fun words we use to describe a woman's chest.

Mix this type of fun with breast cancer awareness, and what do you get?

Controversy.

Evidently, bracelets produced by Keep-A-Breast.org, which were designed to boost awareness of this deadly disease among younger children, have run afoul of a few school systems on Long Island, which have banned them due to their wording.

The bracelets evidently were designed for younger people, but the word "boobies" has put some school districts on edge.

There are worse words to use for that part of the female anatomy, and I don't have to go into them here.

As I have discussed before, we are a society that is obsessed with this part of the body, and that includes females as well as males. "Boobs" is sort of a pet name for this part of the body, and it has been part of the language for as long as I can remember.

Heck, how many times was "boobs" used on TV's "The Match Game" in the 1970s? It just wouldn't have been as fun for Charles Nelson Riley to answer a question with the word "breast" or the term "mammary gland."

But some people simply don't want their 10 year olds using that word.

There are other companies and organizations which use a lighter approach to dealing with a sensitive topic. I know that there is one company that designs women's clothing that uses the phrase "Ta Tas" in their name and on their clothing. And yes, they donate part of their proceeds to breast cancer research.

There is no male counterpart to this. No, "little willy" has really not made it into the language, although The Sweet rock band tried to do this in the 1970s with their hit record.

I guess I can understand, to a point, the horror of parents who don't want their little girls referring to this part of their anatomy in such a way.

But I think if you poke fun at something, you might raise the awareness levels of whoever wears these bracelets.

And don't we have worse things to worry about than the use of the word "boobies"?

I breast, err, bet we do.