Niddah 47: Young Women's Breasts; Status of the Aylonit

Our new Mishna returns to the concept of womanhood and what defines sexual maturity.  A woman is compared with a fig: a child up to age twelve and one day is like an unripened fig.  Between ages twelve and one day and thirteen, a girl is a ripening fig. Add the development of secondary sex characteristics from age thirteen on, a girl is like a ripe fig.  We are reminded that a minor and a young woman are both under their father's control.  He can own any options that she finds, nullify her vows, and take her earnings.  Once she is a woman, he can do none of these things any longer.

The rabbis have a terribly uncomfortable conversation about the development of breasts.  They question what indicates the development of breasts: is it a line beneath the breast? Is it the breast hanging over? Is it the darkening of the nipples?  Is it nipples that return to their shape slowly when pressed down by someone?

There are two disturbing features to this discussion.  The first is the permission that is given for fathers to examine and even touch their daughters' bodies.  This is the same daf that speaks about fathers' ownership of their daughters' income, found items and vows.  Would that not suggest that fathers own their daughters' bodies?  Secondly, this gives men permission to talk about, to discuss, and to stare at young women's developing breasts.  Disgusting.

Today's daf also examines the aylonit, sexual underdeveloped woman who cannot have children. It briefly looks at the saris, sexually underdeveloped men who have no secondary sex characteristics by the age of twenty.  Steinsaltz teaches that the root of aylonit is ayil, a male ram, who is thought of as masculine.  We learn that an aylonit cannot become a yevama, a childless widow who marries her brother-in-law, because the point of yibum is to have children who continue the family line (Devarim 25:6).  

The Gemara discusses the genetic origin of an aylonit.  An akara, barren woman, is different because her sexual and physical development are normal but she cannot have children for a different reason.  An aylonit is missing secondary sex characteristics, like pubic hair.  She might have more male hormones than usual or she may have only one X chromosome (Turner syndrome).  We learn in the Koren Talmud that 98% of fetuses with Turner syndrome spontaneously abort.   The rabbis ask many questions about the determination of the status of aylonit because it cannot be determined until adulthood, which affects a woman's status and functioning within society.