Boobs

It cracks me up to hear a woman refer to her breasts as “boobs.” Somehow, that’s just one word that men and women invariably use differently.

Men stop using the word around the time we first touch one (or really, around the time we first touch one belonging to someone not related to them by birth or adoption). For us, boobs become breasts, or tits, almost exclusively at that point. Except in the absence of women. When men are in unisex, estrogen-free zones, we tend toward cruder appellations: rack, for example.

Women, on the other hand, seem almost to shy away from tits and breasts (and I don’t think I’ve ever heard a woman refer to her “rack”).

I chuckle when I hear “boobs” because it transports me to a time when boobs were… funny. Alluring. Exciting. Mysterious. But funny. Incomprehensible. Surprising.