Why have large breasts become "must haves"?

[Hullygully]

I know someone on here will know the sociological history.

Even in my generation we didn't want them, indeed tried to hide them. Now they are de rigeur (inc implants). What has wrought the change?

This comes from a thread about implants and the whys.

Large breasts cross the sexist divide.Men want to see them and women want to have them.It's a win win situation.Also it's a throwback to the times when the female with the largest breasts in a tribe was seen as the most fertile.

I don't think they are must haves. They are desirable for women who identify with particular social groups and want to appear to have a certain sort of character.

Other women desire smaller breasts and be very thin because they want to give the impression that they have a different sort of character (not to the point of anorexia - that is a different issue).

It is very sad that society thinks that a certain kind of woman will have a certain kind of body.

Because popular culture waves them in front of us so much these days that they have become the "default"? So women with average sized breasts think they are small, and with small breasts think they are tiny?

How many naked small (or average) breasts do you see, compared with how many large ones? I think it normalises large so we lose a sense of perspective.

Sorry if this comes out wrong but do very overweight people tend to want to have implants or (for those who are unhappy with their weight) does getting thinner become more of a want than large breasts?

I see a lot of fake breasts on very slim or average women and mostly for reasons of vanity (Certainly those in the public eye) and so think ClothesofSand is right - it comes hand in hand with a certain type of image.

The image that we would once have called "dolly bird"

But how come this image has come to dominate popular culture?

Are implants there to make breasts that are actually large?

Or is it more that most people, if they were to become as thin as fashion says they should be, would have rather small breasts?

Not many people are naturally a C cup when they are a size 8.

What kind of character is implied with big breasts?

Ancient fertility symbols the world over have always depicted women with large breast and hips. It seems obvious to me why women see it as an ideal. For me I grew up with a mother who had mahoosive boobs and a slim waist and hips.

She talked it up quite a bit and when I never grew that shape at all it made me feel shit. I wish I had larger breasts because in my head that's what a grown woman's body looks like. I had briefly toyed with the idea of getting breast implants but dh was practically begging me not to have surgery for something like that and eventually I got pregnant and I don't want my daughter to have my issues.

I will lie and tell her I love my body just as it is.

What I'm trying to say is - it's not about the breasts directly, it's about the fashion for extreme thinness and the effect of that on your breasts.

I think it's just fashion. Same as high heels, hemlines, tattoos, haircuts or anything else.... all it takes is for some celebrity to set the trend and people will try to emulate them. Boob fashion goes in cycles. Top-heavy Jordan's a body-shape icon for a lot of young women at the moment. It was flat-chested Twiggy in the sixties. Busty Marilyn and Jane Russell in the fifties. Flat-chested flappers in the twenties. Fifties girls would have stuffed socks down their bras. Eighties girls went for chicken fillets. Today they can have something more permanently inserted.

I saw something on QI the other night about the correlation of (female) hemlines and (male) hair-length with economic conditions. In times of plenty (sixties, noughties) hemlines rise and hair gets longer. In times of hardship (thirties, seventies) hemlines come down and hair gets shorter. Maybe there's a similar correlation between chest size and affluence?

Fertility symbols are usually of pregnant women though. They have hips, breasts and a massive belly. There isn't a universal cultural norm for people to want all women to look pregnant. Women with big breasts aren't more fertile. The main reason for naturally big breasts is breast feeding, and breast feeding mothers are often temporarily infertile.

I do worry about DD. My breasts are ludicrously large at the moment. I'm at the top of the healthy weight on the BMI. I could lose a stone and go down to a 34DD. But my mum has always been an A at most. Not that she cared - waltzing around looking like Twiggy in the 1960s. If DD inherits my mother's chest size with the expectation she will inherit mine, she may worry when she sees all these media images, but at least Gaga and half the female cast of glee have fairly small breasts.

I really believe large breasts are a natural thing for women to covet and have been longer than records probably exist.. So I don't see it as a feminist issue.

I see it as a moral issue that we allow surgeons to sell the perfect body to us. It is so prevalent it has become acceptable to men and women now.. and has unfortunately become so much a part of our society with advertising and celebrities that we no longer see it as strange. I think it's a feminist issue that women feel like they have to their labias cut away to look right as that is very faddish. I also think it's depressing that men are getting their cocks enlarged..

Why are the doctors who perform repeat surgeries on people who clearly have mental illnesses allowed to practice medicine?

Kitten, I would say large breasts are associated with women who are not in a professional role. The 'uniform' of a lot of women in professional role is a buttoned up shirt and jacket that disguises/minimises the breasts, but often with a skirt that reveals (preferably skinny) feminine legs. Large breasts are also associated in the minds of many people with women who are 'sexy' if young or 'mumsy' if older. I would say women with large breasts are seen as less serious, less intelligent, less sporty and outdoorsy but also less sensitive and less spiritual/artistic in that they lack that waif like look.

Clothesofsand, she probably will see your body and to an extent think of it as an ideal. Just try not to make a big deal about it and keep telling her she is beautiful..My mother was obsessed with her figure and how good she thought she looked..and kept throwing it in my face. She's not a very nice person tbf!

Of course it's related to prevaling conditions in society. I think in the last 10 - 15 years we've had a few things going on. The credit boom and the dramatic rise in the celebrity culture would be the most influential IMO. Because, not only did we get a minute, blow-by-blow examination of celeb lifestyles - far more than in the past - but they were now offered to us as a package that we could all afford courtesy of Mr Barclaycard. Plastic surgery used to be something only movie stars did... now 'you can have it too' and suddenly it's in reach.

I think the WAGs thing has been really significant - very rich, very bored young women, high profile solely because of their boyfriend/husband. All they can do is spend money and spend their time in salons and when they run out of handbags to buy, why not get the chest done? I'm continually distressed that 'marrying a footballer' is the sum total of some girls' aspirations.

Lets be clear here: The "must have" is large fake breasts.

Women don't want large natural breasts. Large natural breasts (by and large) don't do what the fake ones do and they don't look like the fake ones.

That's my experience anyway. As the owner of natural F cups, it's beyond me why anyone would want to be bigger than a C.

Fertility symbols definitely do not have flat stomachs to go with their large breasts, and the breasts are not round and perky.

Fertility symbols (all those that I have seen anyway) have large pendulous bosoms and round stomachs and fat-storing hips and generally look like they have been pregnant A LOT.

Ok, but why are wags and celebs the ones to aspire to? Literally, just because they are famous? Because of all those hello type mags glorifying their lives?

Why don't they see through that?

That may be the case for some people Cloth but I think it's unfair to assume most women feel that way. It's seems pretty patronizing. For me it really is that aesthetically it seems 'wrong' (not on other women..just on myself!)

I would never wanted to be seen as silly (it's why I don't often post in the feminism board.. everyone here knows what they are talking about and it can be a bit daunting to the lay feminist ) I would have been doing it for myself. Especially as my dh was horrified by the idea.

yy agree re fertility. I have lots of fertility goddessess (models) and they are huge and pendulous.

silly= large breasted

kittens, you are absolutely not being seen as silly. All views are valid and all contribute to a furtherance of understanding.

The fashion will disappear soon. Spacehopper chests will become 'so last year' eventually and there will be some new trend, probably kicked off by another celeb. I dunno... bum implants or some international inspiration like bound feet, big holes through the ears or stretched necks. In the Far East it's quite popular to get asian-shaped eyes surgically changed to look more European. Maybe we'll get something in reverse?

That's a relief! x-post