[AnnieBL]

JulieTG - As usual, I like your thoughts. I would go a bit further - it seems to me that our society's attitudes towards men with breasts is undergoing a sea change. Gynecomastia has become so prevalent in at least teenaged boys and 40+ men, if not all men, that such males are now mainstream and thus in most cases not prime targets for remark let alone persecution. I think this is more due to a long period of general prosperity, over indulgence and bad diet than the undesirable tampering with food products that has undoubtedly taken place. Very recently I was looking at a collection of old school photographs from two boys-only schools in England that I attended in the 1950's, and the thing that now strikes me is the apparent total absence of obese or even overweight boys. One boy that I remember got a hard time at the first school for being 'fat' certainly does not look so in the photographs. In those days and in such schools one tended to be known either by your surname or a sometimes cruel nickname. At the second school one boy was generally known as 'Nipples' even though any enlargement always seemed to me very slight, and I can't remember anyone else with that problem.

Fast forward to the present day, when a substantial proportion of teenage boys are supposed to develop gynecomastia at least temporarily, and I am coming to the conclusion that most are not a bit abashed by it My step daughter's partner's 16 year old and distinctly pudgy younger son has a pair that make mine pale into insignificance, but they certainly don't seem to bother him: his problems at school don't seem to have seem to be due to them but rather to his parents warring over his education. Living by the sea here and on those rare occasions when it is warm enough for people to strip down, the beach becomes an exhibition ground of jiggling male boobs whose owners whether teens or middle aged seem totally unconcerned. The same applies on the lakes around my stepson's place two thousand miles west.

Of course there is always the risk of getting into a social situation where you will be perceived as a potential victim, but you don't need breasts to run into that sort of misfortune (although they might add fuel to the fire).