[OBSCENE, NSFW] Is breadmaking linked to [A] and [B]?
Edit note: [A] is “sex” and [B] is “reproduction”. These words are not permitted in question topics, as they are obscene.
So, I was making some savoury whole wheat bread with onions and sundried tomatoes, lightly brushed with olive oil and coarsely ground sea salt this evening (it’s baking right now), and I was shaking my head in dismay at the thought of all those people with breadmaking machines who lose out on the visceral pleasure of kneeding the dough. Kneeding is my favourite part of the whole breadmaking process. And this got me thinking about why I enjoy kneeding so much.
There are several clues that bread and sex are interlinked in the human psyche. For millenia there has been mysticism surrounding the making of bread, “the staff of life” being a traditional synonym for bread and reflecting not only an obvious phallic symbolism, but a feminine, reproductive reference to the gestation of life as well. Originally, no one knew what made bread rise—or fail to rise—but it’s clear they saw a link between a woman’s expanding belly fruitful with offspring and the rising of the dough to give us our daily bread. The specific action of kneeding may be linked to this.
We have all probably experienced an affectionate and indolent cat pleasurably kneeding our laps as we stroke its ears. This instinct to kneed is instictive in kittens, as it encourages the mother cat to produce milk while the kitten is suckling. It occurs to me to wonder whether humans may have this same kneeding instinct, and whether the kneeding of bread—with its sexual and maternal subtext—may be triggering my brain’s reward centre to produce a gush of dopamine.
What do you folks think? Are breadmaking and babymaking linked? Is making bread essentially an onanistic activity?
Possibly connected video:
http://www.noob.us/humor/conan-obrien-and-the-bread-professor/
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