Why do men have nipples?

Answer 1

because men still have the capabiltiy to produce milk...it may be weird but through the power of suggestion or with hormones it can be done... and has already been done...

most people might say its vestigial but that wouldnt be so if its still fully functional... anyway hope this helps..

ps: perhaps one day in the future the need will arise for men to use them (once again?)

Answer 2

All humans start off as female, which would account for all female traits to be present in the fetus's initial stages. However, once the male traits are expressed, almost all of the female traits disappear, with the exception of the nipples.

Answer 3

All human genes have the x-chromosome which is basically the female chromosome. The x-chromosome in males is very well depicted by the male having suppressed nipples. There are also other depictions as having no mustache nor beard, showing other she-male characteristics, having female voice, etc. On the other hand there are females who have male characteristics such as big clits, suppressed nipples, mustache and beard, male voice, etc. Generally, there are no perfect male or female as such if we examine them in a very detail level.

Answer 4

Men have nipples because they would look pretty silly without them (think about it, who else finds Action Man dolls strangely creepy? Just me?)

But if that answer is not enough to satisfy then keep reading. Other than providing a useful twistable device for women to extract the truth from a man or to get him to do what he is told, there is very little point to a man's nipples. Men could have them surgically removed and their function on this Earth would be pretty much unaltered (although most women would find them a little strange and probably not want anything to do with them).
But why are male nipples still nipples? To answer this we need to begin with evolution. For something to be selected for in a population it needs to offer some sort of advantage to an individual that enables them to pass their genes to the next generation (i.e. helps them to survive long enough to have babies and makes them attractive to the opposite sex). But as odd as nipple-less men would look, I'm sure they would still manage to find mates so what advantage other than appearance do male nipples give men?

In fact they give no advantage but importantly also give no disadvantage. For something to be selected against by evolution it needs to prevent someone from passing their genes on and nipples don't really get in the way of reproducing.

Lets think a bit more about men and women. You probably know that all of your genes come from your parents- half from your mother and half from your father. So everything about you is a combination of the traits found in your parents- eye colour, height, blood group etc. So why are males and females different? Shouldn't we be half girl and half boy?

In actual fact all humans are based on the same default genes- e.g. those which give us our upright skeleton, eyes in the front of our heads, same arrangement of internal organs etc. The differences between males and females can be thought of as modifications of this genetic default state. Certain traits that differ between the sexes effectively become uncoupled from the basic blueprint that makes a person.

The differing characteristics of men and women are down to certain genes being located on sex chromosomes that differ between the sexes- females have two X chromosomes, and males have an X and a Y. In addition, the expression of lots of genes will differ depending on whether they find themselves in a female (XX) or male (XY) genome. So the same gene can be found in a man and a woman but how it is switched on can be different.

So what does this have to do with male nipples? Well, this uncoupling of males and female traits that I just talked about occurs when it is important to the reproductive success of the sexes to possess different versions of the same trait (e.g. you've probably noticed by now that the male and female genitals are significantly different -both versions are vital for reproduction to occur). However, this uncoupling does not occur when either the same trait is required by both sexes or if a particular attribute is important to one sex but completely unimportant to the other.

This is the case with nipples. It goes without saying that they are pretty important for females. The fact that they aren't important to men means that this trait has never become separated between the sexes.
During the first few weeks of foetus development in the womb, the baby will be female and it isn't until about week 8 that the male Y chromosome kicks into action and starts to change the foetus to male. By this point, early versions of breasts have been formed in both male and female babies. Because it doesn't do a man any harm to have nipples, there is no reason why this would change.

So men have nipples became women do, and evolution just hasn't bothered getting rid of them.

Answer 5

From evolutionary point of view "we all evolved from same ancestors." It's possible that female nipple evolved further to deliver to the infant milk produced in the female mammary glands during lactation. Male nipple didn't evolve further due to lack of necessity.

Answer 6

This question has been asked 169 times! Did you think that you were more original than the other 168 people who asked the same stupid question? Can you NOT be more original than this?

Answer 7

because at conception we all start off female and eventually the genes for male and female take over and decide whether u have a hole or a pole

Answer 8

So they can become aroused during foreplay just like women.

Answer 9

So women can play with our's too!

Answer 10

go read the book