"Pulchra sunt enim ubera, quae paululum supereminent, et tument modice (...) quasi repressa, sed non depressa; leniter restricta, non fluitantia licenter."

Sermones in Canticum 31, PL 184, col.163

"Breasts are most pleasing when they are of moderate size and eminence (...) they should be bound but not flatened, restricted gently and not allowed to wobble too feely."

translation by Hugh Bredin in Umberto Eco's The Aesthetics of Thomas Aquina (1988)

"In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its phantasy on to the female figure which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness. Woman displayed as sexual object is the leitmotif of erotic spectacle: from pin-ups to striptease, from Ziegfeld to Busby Berkeley, she holds the look, plays to and signifies male desire."

Laura Mulvey

Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, 1975