< Topless Sunbathing A Short Pictorial History:
Cultural Attitudes Towards Female Breasts
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Breasts come in all sizes, are often asymmetrical, and typically do not remain perky unassisted. Some women have observed that, for unknown reasons, the left breast is often larger and more pendulous, just as it is common for men to have one testicle that is larger or more descendant than the other.
Some women's figures mature rapidly, and young women have to quickly come to terms with their bodies and society's attitude about women with their physical traits. It can be a challenge in the face of media stereotypes for women to accept their bodies and their breasts without worrying what others might think.
Women's breasts come in every shape and size. No two are alike. The paradigm of the two cones, each perfectly round and perky, is for most women, a myth.
Click for larger image (61K)
Large breasted women can have a hard time finding flattering swimsuits that handle their figure. This woman avoids the problem altogether, sunning on a nude beach. Her breasts fall gracefully to either side. Enlarged image [61k].
Very few women's breasts, unless she is relatively young, small-busted, or childless, can pass the arbitrary and fanciful "pencil test" for sagging breasts, perpetrated upon women by Playboy magazine.

The "Normal" Breast

There is no such thing as "normal" breasts. Most women's breasts cannot pass the arbitrary and fanciful "pencil test" perpetrated upon women by Playboy magazine. It is normal (and quite common) for breasts to come in all sizes, to be asymmetrical, and to hang lower than without a brassiere.

You can't see advertising, television, videos, music or magazines without being overexposed to breasts. The fanciful, full-sized if not extraordinarily large breasts touted in men's magazines and advertising do not represent the typical women's breasts.

History of the Breast by Marilyn Yalom

352 pages, Ballantine Books; (March 31, 1998)

Unfortunately, the vast majority of girls and boys never learn that what they see in the media does not represent reality. Girls may grow up insecure about their bodies because they do not measure up to the media standard. Boys may learn unrealistic expectations about their future spouse's breasts.

Bra or No Bra, Breasts Sag

Female breast shape and size peaks by the age of 18 and it is all downhill thereafter. All women's breasts will eventually sag regardless of whether or not a woman always wears a bra. This natural sagging is due to the slackening of the supporting muscles, the diminshment of the womean's milk glands, and the general effects of gravity.

When women have children, sometimes their bust gets larger but much less perky, and women may become unnecessarily concerned about their perceived sexual attractiveness. However sagging is usually more pronounced in women with larger breasts.

According to statistics published in the Journal for Sex Research (vol. 24, pp. 177-183), almost 60% of women have the bra cup size of A or B (A-cup 15%, B-44%, C-28%, D-10%).

The Perfect Breast

Columnist Art Hoppe speculated that ":...what fuels the ardor of us men for breasts is our imagination. We’re on a continual journey to find the perfect breast.": (San Francisco Chronicle, July 21, 1999)


Some women's breasts are pear shaped, some round like oranges; some are pendulous and some stand up. And how perky a women's breasts are does not depend on their size. Within the last 12 years, the average bra size has increased from 34B to 36C, according to NPD, a market research firm that collects data for bra manufacturers. Some of that can be attributed to an increase in implant surgery. Other explanations include the hormonal effects of birth control pills and changes in U.S. diets.

Small or Large Breasts, Each Have Advantages

While some women with smaller breasts may look to women with larger busts with some envy, it is not uncommon for women with very large breasts to wish they could have smaller breasts.

Women with either very small or very large breasts find it difficult to find fashionable, attractive clothing, brassieres and swimsuits that fit.

Rapper and actress Queen Latifah underwent breast-reduction surgery during 2003, downsizing from a size E to a DD. Actress Drew Barrymore, 28, went under the knife at the age of 16 to give her figure a sleeker silhouette. Even Pamela Anderson, the quintessential rock 'n' roll groupie, downsized her considerable implant assets. Both women said they wanted to look "more natural." And many members of Hollywood's A list of actresses, such as Cameron Diaz, Reese Witherspoon and Gwyneth Paltrow, have remained decidedly "natural."

Sometimes both groups of women really just want the same thing, breast size proportionate to their body size.

According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, breast implants (augmentation) are the second most common plastic surgery procedure, with 249,641 performed in 2002 in the United States. Liposuction is the most common plastic surgery procedure. But since 1997, breast-reduction surgeries (mammoplasty) are up 162 percent, the largest increase of the top five surgical procedures. Breasts lifts (mastopexy) are also performed with increasing frequency. With 125,614 breast reductions performed in 2002, they were the fifth most common plastic surgery procedure.

With the slowly increasing acceptance of the naturalness of a woman's breasts, in some places Extraordinary Breasts.


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