From Denmark’s topless mermaids to Pamela Anderson, and from the priestesses of Minoan Crete to today’s Amazons, the variations of the female breast are countless—breasts that have inspired, shocked, divided, and provoked debates about the limits of art, eroticism, and pornography. At a time when public opinion has once again split into camps regarding the permanent removal of a bare-breasted statue—deemed as encouraging sexism—the question remains: when is the breast a symbol of liberation and when of sexism? And how legitimate are the boundaries of eroticism and women’s emancipation tied to it?

The Naked Mermaid

It always took just one mermaid to make us reflect on femininity breaking taboos through a mythical creature: half woman, half sea monster, the topless mermaid has been linked not only to countless myths but also to Alexander the Great’s fabled voyage, adorned fishing boats’ prows, or simply served as decoration in exotic taverns. Likewise, a mermaid in faraway Denmark was enough in our own times to spark international debate over the ultimate taboo—still today—the female breast, and over the limits of provocation tied to its most erotic version.

“The erection of a statue representing the wet dreams of men about what a woman should look like cannot be acceptable to many women,” said journalist Sorin Gotfrensen, drawing support from followers in various countries who applauded her stance.

Is it porn? Peter Beck’s Great Mermaid, a massive 14-ton statue with very large, protruding breasts that, according to critics, are “directly linked to male fantasies and not to reality.”

Reports note that Denmark’s public monuments authority decided to take down Beck’s Great Mermaid—which had been built in response to complaints that Copenhagen’s official Little Mermaid had breasts that were too small—specifically because of the “sexist” nature of the work. Unlike the small bronze figure, the Great Mermaid’s oversized chest was said to be “directly linked to male fantasies and not to reality.” Beck responded that the breasts were proportional to the statue’s colossal size and not intended to provoke. Amusingly, just two years earlier, another topless mermaid statue installed in Puglia, Italy, had been dismissed by critics as “silicone-filled.”

According to a Guardian report at the time, many Italians defended that statue. Adolfo Marciano, a Fine Arts professor, praised it as “an homage to curvy women”—a phrase that today might be considered sexist. But Italy, after the history of Cicciolina the topless MP, seemed accustomed to such controversies about the limits of sexism and erotic expression in statues or women themselves—unlike Denmark’s open society, which had never faced such disputes.

It is, in fact, the first time that a statue’s removal has been debated directly on grounds of body shaming, sparking wider questions about how female eroticism is accepted versus condemned as pornographic.

Topless Madonnas

A young teenage girl, bent forward with her breast exposed in one of life’s expressive rites of passage—from childhood to adulthood—her hair tied back, colorful clothing highlighting her beauty and her alabaster breast. This is the famous topless adolescent of Santorini, star of a beautiful Akrotiri fresco, recently shown in the exhibition Cycladic Women, evidence once more of bare-breasted imagery tied to women’s empowerment and initiation rituals.

Minoan elegance – Topless women as emblematic figures of Theran and Minoan culture.

Minoan dynamism – The Snake Goddess of the 16th c. BC, precursor to Cretan Rhea, linked to Cybele and Artemis of Ephesus.

Not by chance, dynamic topless women are iconic figures of the Theran and Minoan world: most notably the Snake Goddess, precursor to Rhea, evoking Cybele and Artemis. Who can’t imagine Artemis running through the forest, firm breasts bared, evading petty mortals? In antiquity, bare-breasted goddesses symbolized not just freedom but superiority. Egyptian, Theran, and Minoan influences gave rise to Greek goddesses—from Artemis to Aphrodite—unafraid to bare their chests. Egyptian wall paintings show women with exposed breasts recalling Isis breastfeeding Osiris, a forerunner of the Christian Madonna Lactans.

The most beautiful. British research deemed the Venus de Milo’s breasts the ideal female form.

In Classical Athens too, breast-bearing goddesses and maidens embodied vitality, beauty, fertility, and love. The Caryatids clothed with flat chests are unimaginable. Helen of Troy’s beauty included her admired breasts, inspiring “breast-shaped” kraters at Roman banquets. To this day, Venus de Milo’s small yet shapely uncovered breasts remain archetypes of beauty. In antiquity, exposed breasts signified not only eroticism and fertility but also mourning and supplication—think of Hecuba or Clytemnestra in Homeric tragedies baring their breasts in desperate pleas.

Even Christian iconography preserved this: Leonardo da Vinci’s Madonna Litta shows the Virgin breastfeeding, echoing early catacomb frescoes of the lactating Madonna inspired by Luke’s verse: “Blessed the womb that bore you, and the breasts that nursed you.”

“In the beginning was the breast”

The phenomenon of the topless Madonna—the Virgo Lactans—became a dominant symbol of the early Renaissance. In The History of the Breast, Marilyn Yalom interprets these depictions as marking the shift from sacred to erotic representation. Such images became so venerated that churches even distributed small bottles of the Virgin’s “miraculous milk.” Yalom paraphrased scripture: “In the beginning was the breast.”

During the plague years, the lactating breast was a symbol of hope and health. But later, when King Charles VII’s mistress Agnès Sorel was painted with bared breasts in Madonna-like fashion, the erotic overrode the sacred. For Yalom, Sorel’s portrait marked the turning point: from holy to eroticized breasts, from the Madonna to Renaissance fashion for plunging necklines. Elite women even stopped breastfeeding, hiring wet nurses to separate the maternal breast from the erotic. Small breasts became fashionable, as large ones were associated with lower-class wet nurses.

The French Revolution

It took another century for the “political breast” to emerge—Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People features the bare-breasted Marianne, revolutionary symbol par excellence.

Of the Revolution – Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People, with Marianne’s exposed breast. As late as 1978, some countries refused to accept France’s 100-franc note bearing her image. Recently, Turkey’s Ministry of Education removed the painting from schoolbooks.

Marianne’s breasts expressed revolution, popular culture, and sexuality in one. The symbol endured into the 1970s, when feminists “burned bras” in defiance of repression. Whether seen as sexual invitation or eternal emblem of women’s freedom, the breast reflected society’s prejudices. Think Madonna in her iconic Gaultier cone bra—provocative, unapologetic, playful, and empowered.

At Saint Agatha’s Feast

In this same spirit of play, Sicilians named their festival pastries Saint Agatha’s breasts (cassatella di Sant’Agata, Sicilian minnuzzi di Sant’Àjita). Like the breast itself, the cakes evoke desire, discomfort, and symbolism in equal measure.

For those demanding the Great Mermaid’s removal, the counterargument is clear: as long as there is womanhood, there will be topless depictions. Accept them or reject them—the choice is personal.

The Sweet – In Catania, during Saint Agatha’s feast, locals bake cassatelle shaped like her breasts, a symbol as enduring as the female form itself.

The only true reason to remove Beck’s statue is not alleged sexism but its failure to capture the breast on its own terms—reducing it to a poor imitation of the unexpected beauty of topless mythical creatures like mermaids.