"In recent years, as people’s weight has ballooned, breasts (mostly made up of fat) have only gotten larger, and commensurately bra cup sizes, too. K-cups now exist. Brandishing a tiny bosom may be a reaction to that trend." - edythe from Bookmarklet

"...the persistent strain of A-cup pride running through our culture is unmistakable. Facebook groups like Flat Chested and Proud of It! and Flat Chested Girls United exist, and their members trade bon mots as profound as “im flat as a tack :)” — which garner male support like “you are blessed.” For all their entourage to see, more than 2,300 people joined another Facebook group to declare “flat chested girls are prettier!!” " - edythe

"Small-breasted women have also begun to express their anger on the Internet when they suspect one of their brethren has decided to artificially augment what nature has given her. This year, pictures of a bikini-clad Kate Hudson — along with Keira Knightley a symbol of modest-breasted seductiveness to the A-cup population — surfaced showing what looked like modest implants. Afterward, Jen Udan, who works in Internet marketing in Austin, Tex., felt as if she had been slapped in the face. “I don’t need to look up to you, Kate Hudson,” Ms. Udan, 25, wrote in a blog post entitled “Diary of a Mad, Small-Breasted Woman.” " - edythe

"Diary of a Mad, Small-Breasted Woman" is a great blog title. :) - edythe

i did not know there was a AAA cup. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, a K cup. - edythe

bravo NYT for not making a reference to the IBTC. - tiffany

K?!?! Holy Crap! That is SEVEN letters bigger than my DDs! Somebody's chiropractor is making BANK! - Lisa L. Seifert | FHG™ from Android

ha, lisa. :) - edythe

Major pfft. What, ever. Another chance for bony chicks to be proud of their boniness. If you're flat-chested, fine. "Brandishing a tiny bosom..." How does one do that, exactly, short of corseting? It's not exactly like most of us have a choice unless we try to artificially augment or reduce. - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

agreed @ tiffany - Tamara

AAA can't possibly be a "cup". Why even bother with a bra at that point?? Oh, I think I see now. They want to "make" some breasts, sort of. But I thought they were proud of flatness! - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

absolute modesty? - edythe

This comment sums up how I feel about this pretty well: "This article is basically making large breasted women feel the same way that small breasted women feel when they read articles about how big breast[s] are better. I think that is is wonderful that small breasted women are proud of their bodies, they should be. All women should be. I don't, however, think that it is good to boost yourself up by putting others down. All the comments about large breasts being saggy , or unattractive or making you look low class are the same as saying that a small busted woman looks like a child, or that men don't like small breasts. There is nothing wrong with anyones breasts, be they big or small, saggy or perky. I'm sick of all the focus on our bodies being some sense of our worth. Be happy with your body and keep it healthy, do not decide if you are better or worse than someone else because of it. why not focus instead on our accomplishments in life, things that we actually worked for instead of the genes we were born with." - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

kamilah, i hear you. i have heard the trials and tribulations of women with D cups and above. As always, those who aren't "average" tend to lose out.* - edythe

kamilah, whoa, haven't finished the article yet and gotten to the quotes that are slams against larger breasts. that's terrible. why would the reporter use those? - edythe

I'm a 32DDD (or F), but I'm not suffering in any way. I'm fine! (Just a little uncomfortable bouncing around unharnessed. Sorry for TMI.) They are what they are. Some start suffering probably up in the I-K range - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

* like lefties, for instance. - edythe

i don't like the tripling of the letters: DDD, AAA. it makes it seem silly. - edythe

I do have a friend who wore an A when we were in college, IIRC. At the risk of TMI, there is some floppiness that benefits from being held steady by a bra even at that size. And Kamila: love the comment you copied over. - Elaine is trying to write

Even flat chested women have nipples which they need to cover in public. A bra of some sort is usually required for office wear. Why not a pretty one? Braless is great when you are at home but frowned upon at work. - m9m, Crone of FriendFeed

neither end has it rosy, but it sounds like larger-breasted women have it tougher. still, i've had my own moments of gruesome self-abasement in the presence of women with breasts larger than my own. I remember this time in an elevator... with a guy i liked... and his gorgeous buxom girlfriend, in from NJ. Suddenly i felt... i felt shriveled up and asexual and lifeless. - edythe

"At the other extreme are the au-naturels who would just as soon go braless if it wasn’t for this little thing called the office and the awkwardness of erect nipples in cold conference rooms. Exquisitely designed soft bras with no underwire appeal to this camp for gorgeous details and “nipple discretion,” as it’s called in the industry, said Susannah Hornsby, an expert bra-fitter at Journelle, a boutique in New York. " - edythe

Ah, ok, forgot about getting nipply. I guess the bra would mostly be little pads to hold that part down. The harnessing part would be a bit less important, in many cases. - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

*snort* @ "K-Cups now exist." Yes, so do P-cups. Still doesn't stop just about everyone from stopping at DD(D) in the stores. - Anika

I am waiting for the one-cup bra. I only need the right one. - m9m, Crone of FriendFeed

They also like to start at higher numbers for DD & DDD. They assume that if they're that big, you're overweight all over. Usually I see 36, not 34 and almost never 32 except at nice department stores like Nordstrom. - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

m9m, you should look up what Creative Woman (Wizard of Bras) have. They're local to me, but they have a great selection of one-cup bras in the store. - Anika

i just can't believe there aren;t more options available to larger-breasted women. surely any business person could see that there is a market waiting to be tapped. a friend told me about how much she liked really lacy, lingerie-type bras but that she had never found one in her size. Sure that I could prove her wrong, i set out on an intense Internet search. Well, she was right. :| - edythe

Since I had Joelito, I went up in size, and almost all the bras I see are frumpy. I swear that none of the cute bras are made above a B cup. - Michelle M

edythe - I always wonder about that, too. The same is true for plus-size clothes. There's a huge market that few seem to cater to. - Katy S

Pretty is not going to happen unless you shell money. Affordable bras in my size (aka, what I usually wear): http://www.lindasonline.com/40l-bra.... Pretty bras in my size: http://www.herroom.com/40L,bra.... Note the lacy ones are over $60. Last year, these same bras were closer to $90. That's good news. My bras used to cost $60, now they're down to ~$35. YAY! - Anika

Thanks Cecily, we have one a few miles from us, but I've never checked them out. Sometimes I find a few diamonds in the rough at Ross, but everything I have been buying there has been tearing up lately. - Michelle M

Also note, that alterations to take a bra from a 36DD to a 32DD are pretty cheap and quick. A few days, if that and ~$3 - $8 DOL. - Anika

huh. alterations. great idea. now i know why i saw all those bra-related notions at the sewing store... - edythe

Yeah, never considered alterations... I need to think about that for other articles of clothing, as well. I could have a more tailored look. - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

Yes, I've had to alter some of my bras to reduce the band size. Those bra notions are also used for bikini tops. - Anika

but there's the market. great-looking bras for women who are DD and up at affordable prices. - edythe

Wow, that Linda's site is pretty awesome. They have almost all of us covered ^_^ - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

there needs to be more than a site or two. - edythe

Cecily, I'm with you. Meg, they really say that somewhere? I was dumbfounded when one of the commenters claimed that her breasts shrank when she lost weight. You might change a bit (especially the band circumference and maybe by a cup), but not too dramatically. You're not going from multi Ds to an A without reductions. I don't see how that's possible. - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

There's lots of other sites, edythe. I only posted the ones that I have bought from and liked. Others have ridiculous shipping policies or have messed up my order and took too long (more than 3 weeks) to fix it. But no matter your size, you can not beat getting fitted at a specialty store. NOT department store. - Anika

wait, kamilah must have been talking about there being slams in the comments? i reread the article and i don't see any quotes that are demeaning to women with larger breasts. - edythe

I originally did get fitted at a specialty store, but Nordstrom gave me the same measurement, so I would trust a decent department store as well (versus like, JCPenney's or Macy's). edythe, I didn't say anything about slams. Are you mixing me up with someone else here? - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

i can tell you from personal experience that changes in breasts' size and perkiness can be dramatically affected by weight loss. - edythe

yeah, kamilah, i think i must have misread something much earlier on. sorry about that. - edythe

edythe, you really think DDD to A is possible? I feel like there's only so much control a woman has over that because breasts have a lot of glandular material. There's some fat, but you can only lose so much of it. It seems like it would take extraordinary circumstances for them to get much smaller on their own. - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

Kamilah - I think edythe was referencing the quotation you copied that mentioned others in the comments doing that. - Katy S

Ah okay, probably, Katy. thanks - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

kamilah, i don;t know about a change *that* huge--but i can imagine scenarios where the cup size could change two to three sizes. - edythe

it is true that breast tissue is largely fat. **edit: Perhaps not. A simple google search indicates that there are a lot of different answers to what breasts are "mainly" made up of. Now i have no idea anymore. [off to mayo clinic] - edythe

i'd guess it varies from woman to woman. but i know that as i've grown older, i've gained weight -- about 30 lbs -- and grew two cup sizes. - tiffany

Yeah, here's what the link I found says (from NIH): "The breasts of younger women are primarily composed of glandular tissue with only a small percentage being fat. Thus they are firmer than in older counterparts. As women age, especially with the loss of estrogen at menopause, the lobes involute (shrivel) and are replaced by fat. The breasts become softer and lose their support." http://mammary.nih.gov/reviews... - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

ah. thanks, kamilah. - edythe

I think I started at a C once I was fully-grown, but I might have been measured incorrectly. I'm thinking that I was actually closer to a D at first, so I've also gone up a couple of cups, but it just seems like it would be hard for them to shrink down much again now that they're here. - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

from MedicineNet: "(The word "mammary" comes from "mamma," the Greek and Latin word for the breast, which derives from the cry "mama" uttered by infants and young children, sometimes meaning "I want to feed at the breast.")" Had no idea the word mamma was greek for breast. - edythe

University of Rochester, Strong Health.com: "The breast consists of a mixture of: * Fat * Milk glands - lobules that secrete milk during pregnancy and breastfeeding * Mammary ducts – canals that carry milk from the lobules to the nipple openings * Fibrous connective tissue * Nerves * Blood vessels * Lymph vessels – delicate vessels that collect lymph fluid from tissues and drain it back into the bloodstream * Small amounts of muscle tissue: In the nipple to allow it to become erect in response to sexual stimulation or breastfeeding; Around the lobules to help squeeze milk into the ducts; Key muscles support the breasts from behind and underneath. " - edythe

and: "Breast size and shape is unique to each woman and is determined by heredity and body size. However, breast tissue changes throughout a woman’s lifetime depending on hormonal changes. * Breasts develop at puberty as hormones stimulate the system to form and enlarge lobules and ducts. Full development can occur any time between the ages of 12 and 19. * A woman’s monthly menstrual cycle causes breast granularity to change. Swelling and tenderness of both breasts may occur during the second half of the menstrual cycle. Cysts may grow and then shrink. * During pregnancy, the lobules multiply and begin to produce milk. * When a baby is born, milk is released into the ducts for breastfeeding (lactation). * During menopause the number of lobules decreases and those remaining shrink. A larger proportion of the breast is made up of fat so breast density decreases." - edythe

that reporter should have done a bit more homework. - edythe

After reading the article a few times, I have to say that I can really relate, but on the flip. Most of my friends tease me. They say really mean things about my chest. Or act like it's offensive that I participate in sports because of it. Things like this: “Women who wear A-cup bras do not experience pain from running or dancing, they can sleep on their stomachs, and best of all, sagging is minimal compared to larger women.” <--This simply isn't true, at least for me. - Anika

I think part of the reason some small chested women (I'm an AA) so fiercely identify that way, and make negative remarks about large chests, are that society/media/whatever is so focused on large chests. Most people think I'm still a teenager and I think most of it is my body shape. It's kind of offensive that small chests are associated so strongly with being young. Being on either extreme has it's drawbacks. I just wish it was easier to find AA or "almost A" bras but it's less hassle to live with a bra that doesn't fit. It's probably also a little stubbornness to not want to be quite as small as I am. - <3Heather<3

Having been a long distance runner in my younger days, I can say without any doubt that women with smaller athletic chests can be very very attractive. (Especially as the years, and gravity, begin to take their toll.) - Mark J Severely Inert

Every woman is different and trying to divide us by breast size (or any physical feature) is just ridiculous. I've been a D cup since I was 12 whether I weighed 120 or 365. I just don't gain or lose weight there. They were never perky, even at 12, and never will be. Life goes on... - Lix

Wifey gets all of hers at Lane Bryant. She's lost a lot of weight in the last couple of months since her surgeries and subsequent complications (55 lbs and counting). We went a couple of weeks ago. She tried her old size and it didn't fit any more. The lady measured her again and found that she'd gone down 2 sizes. Wifey (and I) weren't too happy about this. She said something to the effect of "I waited a long time for these. Now they're going away!" She said she was in the IBTC through high school and most of college then BAM! - DB Botts - Just DB Botts