One of the mysteries of men...

Why do men have nipples?

‘Males and females are not separate entities, shaped independently by natural selection. Both sexes are variants upon a single ground plan, elaborated in later embryology. Male mammals have nipples because females need them and the embryonic pathway to their development builds precursors in all mammalian fetuses, enlarging the breasts later in females but leaving them small (and without evident function) in males.’

~ taken from here.

I was pondering over this question today (way to go to spend my second day in my twenties), and I came across this "scientific" answer over googling.

Frankly speaking, I still don't get it. Well, OK... Us human beings develop milk tissues even when we're not born yet, that is, during the embryo stage. Apparently, this tissue grows from the arms, curving over to the chest and down to a part near the groin, somewhere towering above the thighs. To this extent, we know why we see female mammals, particularly four-legged mammals like dogs, or cats, or anything else you can think of, that they have a stretch of nipples over the bottom part of the body.

Humans, on the other hand, are different. Due to the chromosomes in our DNA (you know the drift, XY for males, and XX for females), we only get 2 nipples. Females, by oestrogen, develop these milk tissues during the puberty stage. And we all know what is the purpose of this. If you don't, ask your parents.

Men don't really need them. I mean, what use is there?

I remember my friend told me that she had this discussion with her friends over a "mamak" session, and someone even voiced out that it's merely "a decoration"! To a certain extent, I do agree with him. Come on, it's not like we're going to feed the young.

This is definitely out of the norm

What I read over the net as well was this (click me): Nipples are erogenous zones. (OKAY....)

I mean, so what if they are? It's not like the ladies would seduce us men on these. Puh-liz. The thought of it is already freaking me out.

Funny though. IF we hadn't had these, we'd be a bunch of freak shows: a chest without anything on it. Wouldn't that be weird as well? It's debatable.