A tweet about the female's anatomical muscle system went viral on Sunday, April 21. The tweet received almost 143,000 likes and 51,000 shares.
Several comments from the post ranged from "traumatizing" to a piece of "art."
Flower-Shaped Milk Ducts
The tweet showed an image of the female muscular system that depicted milk ducts. It was posted by a Twitter user named Artist formerly known as Byeonce.
The image was gotten from an iPad app called Anatomy & Physiology.
"Okay ... a bit scary at first," says a commenter, "but then they kind of look like flowers covering the muscle. I think it's pretty. Love it! "
Other users were intrigued, saying that the image needs to be normalized. Another user commented that the reason people are freaked out is because biology classes usually show a man's body.
I just realized I never saw a photo of a female muscle system. This is NOT what I imagined milk ducts to look like. pic.twitter.com/GBK6trgXF8 — Artist formerly known as Byeonce (@lemonadead) April 21, 2019
Inaccurate Representation
Although the image seemed to bother several people, the representation is not entirely accurate. The picture showed a 3D representation of milk ducts that resembles a flower-shaped image. Although the milk ducts' representation is correct, the portrayal of the muscular system is not.
The petal-like shapes are classified as the mammary glands in the app, but ScienceAlert says that it is technically misleading, as the whole breast classifies as the mammary gland.
The red blobs in the image are said to be the lobules and not the ducts. These lobules are alveoli tightly packed together to form lumps that connect to the nipple. In a real human breast, these lobules are not arranged in such a neat fashion.
This image is suited for women about to give birth or are lactating, according to Dr. Donald Matz, chairman of the anatomy department at Des Moines University.
"The location is accurate, as far as the anatomical location. It's accurate with the glands being swollen," says Matz.
However, the glands in the breasts are smaller and symmetrical when it comes to a non-lactating woman.
"It's not accurate because there's no tissue around it," Matz added. He also said that the breast is not normally classified with the muscular system."
A popular science page on Facebook also debunked the viral tweet. Insufferably Intolerant Science Nerd wrote that the viral image of the representation of the female's breast was based on an 1800s cadaver that was injected by wax and arranged in a flower-shaped fashion.
The standard model for a female breast was first based on anatomical dissections carried out on dead bodies by Sir Astley Cooper in 1840. The accuracy wasn't dealt with until 2005. Hence, a couple of publications and images online still depict the image as the muscular representation of the female breast.
Eric Rodriguez, the managing editor of InnerBody, wants people to not be afraid of the image. He said that there's nothing to be freaked out on. Rather, people should learn something from it, as it is part of the human body.
