Top 10 Big Breast Myths
October 3rd, 2006
Almost a year ago to this day, Sara Churchill and her staff at Hiddenfeet embarked on a small quest to learn more about how modern people perceive large breasted women. 500 men and 500 women were asked to view a large color picture with three different women. Each woman was fully clothed and of ample chest size with the first being 16 years old, the second 28 years old, and the third 45 years old.
The survey participants were asked to speak out loud the “First thing that comes to mind when viewing the three women” - without stating the obvious, that the women were large chested.
All survey participants live in the greater Pacific Northwest area which does impact the results. A revised survey with additional geographic areas is planned for late 2008.
- 200 of the participants were under twenty years of age
- 200 of the participants were between twenty and thirty years of age
- 200 of the participants were between thirty and forty years of age
- 200 of the participants were between forty and fifty years of age
- 200 of the participants were between fifty and sixty years of age
Hiddenfeet will publish the survey photo of the three women once we gain the rights to the images.
10. The Girls Might be Pregnant
While Hiddenfeet was shocked at first to hear responses from men and women who assumed that the three pictures of large chested women were pregnant, it does make perfect sense. Girls are getting pregnant at very early ages and teenage pregnancy is still quite common throughout the world. A small baby boom is underway in the Pacific Northwest where these survey participants live, thus the amount of large chested pregnant women in public view is quite high.
9. The Girls are Lesbians
Another somewhat shocking response. Mostly spoken aloud by young male participants, it was later learned that these men were making the assumption based on their knowledge, that women in the porn industry with large, usually fake, breasts engage in lesbian activities of a sexual nature.
8. The Girls have Fun Shopping for Clothing
This response was spoken by many of our female survey participants. Many women of all ages are fascinated with clothing and felt that the voluptuous girls in the picture would enjoy a wardrobe that showed off their curvy figures. Unfortunately this is somewhat of a large chested myth. Women with large breasts don’t always have an easy time finding shirts, tops, and bras that flatter their shape and are comfortable to wear.
7. The Girls Can’t Participate in Sports or Athletics
“Ouch!” said some of the male and female survey participants. “That would hurt to run with those!” Words of compassion? Or words of misunderstanding? While it is true that women with large breasts can have a difficult time with athletics, it hardly implies that it is impossible. Modern sports bra technology is doing wonders for large chested women. Breast shape and bounce is far easier to tame today verses years past. If you are a parent of a young girl with large breasts, encourage sports and athletics as a part of a healthly lifestyle. Don’t let her chest be a focus of something that “holds her back.” Stay positive and encouraging throughout her teenage years.
6. The Girls Must Get all the Men
Large breasts = easy socializing with the opposite sex? Not always the case according to Sara Churchill and Lisa Elton. Women surveyed mistakenly assumed that all men desire large breasts. While there is little doubt that breasts are a huge attraction for many men, the preference for female physical features can vary a great deal amongst heterosexual men. As mentioned at the end of this article, cultural upbringing and sociological conditions all have an impact on the male psyche.
Also of interest to Hiddenfeet were the comments from the girls surveyed that mentioned how they assumed the voluptuous girls in the picture had rich husbands or boyfriends. Getting a mate of great material wealth was deemed easier for them. Obviously this is far from the truth but an interesting stereotype that Hiddenfeet didn’t expect to encounter.
5. The Girls Love the Attention
While the three girls pictured in the survery were indeed happy and smiling, nothing in their expressions or how they were dressed implied a desire for undue attention because of their large breasts. Hiddenfeet heard this response almost entirely from the women surveyed. Jealousy perhaps? The size of their breasts is of great concern to young girls today. When their fanatical ideals of how they should look don’t measure up, phobias like this one often develop. Again, it is important for parents to instill a strong sense of individuality and self-worth into young women regardless of how their chests develop.
4. The Girls are Dumb and Air-Headed
Similar to the responses given for Myth #5, the women surveyed - and a few men - often assumed that the three girls were of lower intellect. It is outrageous to believe that people would falsely correlate breast size and intelligence, but these were our findings. The survey participants who thought large chested girls were airheads probably know deep down that such a stereotype is false. It was however the “First thing that comes to mind when viewing the three women” and just goes to show how powerful these subconscious stereotypes can become.
3. The Girls Must be Easy or Sluts
As damaging as Myth #4 is to a young girl, imagine our shock when we constantly heard this #3 Myth response from our survey participants. Both sexes whom we surveyed falsely thought that girls with large breasts engaged in excessive amounts of sexual activity. We have received a few emails from parents who mention the sexual name calling their daughters get on schoolyard playgrounds. It seems from this survey that adults don’t grow out of this childish behavior. Parents need to teach children firmly that this type of ridicule will not be tollerated.
2. The Girls Must be in the Porn Industry
Sad but true. Big breasts are now synonymous with pornography. There is no denying that this is the belief of millions of people. Even if large breasts are considered sexually attractive (nothing wrong with this), the belief that they are pornographic is a dangerous one. The word pornography originates from the Greek word pornographos. It means “writing about prostitutes.” When we told the survey participants that one of the girls in the photo was 16 years old, their response didn’t change. To them, it was still the “First thing that comes to mind when viewing the three women.”
1. The Girls have Fake Breasts
This is one of the penalties we reap for the way people treat their bodies. Plastic surgery, the reshaping of body tissues for reconstructive or cosmetic purposes, dates back to antiquity. Derived from the Greek plastikos and the Latin plasticere, both meaning to mold, the surgery was employed in instances of battle wounds or animal attacks. Egyptians performed plastic surgery as early as 3400 B.C. In India, sometime between the sixth century B.C. and the sixth century A.D. that the skill evolved into a more cosmetic variation.
The first recorded surgical attempt to enlarge the breast was in 1895. It was an attempt to transplant a lipoma from the back of an actress to her breasts. In 1963, Dow Corning Corporation developed the first silicone gel breast implant. Inflatable saline implants and others containing a combination of gel and saline came into use in the 1970s.
Our point?
Breast implants and cosmetic surgery have been with the world for a very long time. It is not surprising to see this survey response as our number one answer. In the minds of many, large breasts can’t be real, they must be fake.
These are ten of the many phobias and myths that Hiddenfeet is going to tackle over the years. If you haven’t already, please visit the ABOUT and FAQ pages of our website to gain an even greater understanding about who we are and why Hiddenfeet is important to the world.
© Sara Churchill, Lisa Elton, Nichole Lane - 2005
#1-3 are interesting. They go hand in hand.
If someone thinks a girl is a porn star (#2) because of her chest size, they will unconsciously form the opinion that the girl in question has fake breasts (#1) and is a slut (#3). Large chested women in the porn industry are almost always surgically enhanced.
My daughter is turning 13 -a teenager already! - where does the time go?- next month and she currently shows no signs of developing large breasts. My wife and her mother are large, it runs in their family, so we are preparing ourselves for a tough road ahead.
Sara, this is a great website! Thank you for the articles.
Tom C.
This survey shows exactly how people in my town react to girls who develop early. Does not surprise me at all. The Barbie Doll image of a plastic bimbo is as American apple pie. Interesting to note that Barbie is “plastic” and large chested. Same as the number one response for this survey.
This is soooo America. Any young girl who develops differently is always going to face trouble with her peers. And of course children are easily influenced by their peers so these girls will assume that something is wrong with their bodies.
But like this survey shows, parents are the ones pushing these values and beliefs on children. If a girl grows up seeing her mother lash out against chesty women, its likely this child will act the same towards her classmates at school.
Art of a busty woman
At my school we debate often about the size of a womans chest and how it brings about hidden emotions and feelings in people.
If the link does not work, here is a sample of it:
“I am further surprised that nobody complained about Mr. Flores’ drawings from last Thursday and Friday which displayed women with just the same size of breast but “thicker” everywhere else. He proved a very powerful point. A woman that finds another woman offensive because her breasts are too large is just as shallow as a guy that finds the main reason they are attractive is that they are that large. I personally believe it is an attempt to suppress feelings of inadequacy with the anger of finding it offensive and they do the one thing they think will stop it, complaining. It makes me think what kind of response he would have gotten if he continued using the same body shape he had been using last week for this article.”
My younger sister (15) is large and is always told she can’t play sports because of her size. I often wonder if the teachers and other students who say this are just fearful that she will be embarrassed with her breasts bouncing in the public eye. They baby her too much and I don’t want her getting withdrawn from sports.
Though I don’t live at home anymore (college) I still email and phone her and push her to continue sports (softball and track). So what if other people stare at her and feel uncomfortable. That is THEIR problem. Not my sister’s.
Great website Sara!
“4. The Girls are Dumb and Air-Headed”
When I was younger and my breast size was bigger than my classmates, I always wondered how it effected my scores on papers that I would write.
It really did seem that male teachers were afraid to give me a really good grade for fear that they would be showing bias towards my voluptuous body. Nor did I ever get a really poor grade on tests either. Always B’s. Always. Even when my work was noticeably better or worse than my classmates.
Education and tolerance has to start with us. Adults need to be the ones setting the proper examples. I have zero tolerance for parents who laugh and make fun of children. People forget what it is like to be young.
“Even if large breasts are considered sexually attractive (nothing wrong with this), the belief that they are pornographic is a dangerous one.”
I wanted to thank you for putting this into words. For my whole life, I’ve been seeing these two things equated, and it made me extremely uncomfortable with my own sexuality for a long time. The message I kept getting was that liking big breasts makes you a pervert or a bad person.
Sorry for taking this a bit off-topic - I know you were talking about how WOMEN are perceived, and I am also frustrated by the automatic sexualization of large-breasted women regardless of context - after all, why should a physical feature like that cause someone to be regarded as less safe, less serious, etc.? But I wanted to say something about this because I appreciate you taking the time to acknowledge that there’s nothing wrong with the attraction in itself - something that often seems missing in discussions like these. Even people who rightly argue against the vilification of large breasts often seem quick to vilify male attraction to them.
A girl at my school always has her boobs poked by the boys there. They joke and say ARE THEY REAL? as if that gives them an excuse to touch her. She never fights back and she does get touched. I can tell her feelings are hurt and does not want the attention but she puts up with it in the hopes that it will go away.
I told my teachers but they say they can’t do anything if they don’t see it happen.
I spend time with her in the halls between class and we are good friends now. The boys only pick on her when she is alone.
Mii Jii
Anyone touches my daughters’ breasts, Both they and the teacher who does nothing will be in Jail.
Here is another reason women fear breasts. Role models like Jessica Simpson.
Jessica told Heat magazine: “I have amazing boobs. They’re just perfect.”
Jessica admits she hasn’t always been a fan of her boobs. As a schoolgirl she tried to hide her busty chest.
“At school, my boobs were bigger than all my friends and I was afraid to show them. Now, I feel they make my outfits look better. They’re like an accessory.”
I am all for being proud of your chest, but when the people talking about breasts are as stupid as the fat inside them, well……
The rest are worse, but I liked “8. The Girls have Fun Shopping for Clothing”. They should borrow my body for a day and see how they fare shopping for clothes!
Men and women ALWAYS think large breasts must be fake.
Guys like to make this comment because it starts up a conversation about a girls chest and gets people talking about boobs.
Women say large breasts are fake because they want to mock girls who get more attention from men.
Vicious circle for large chested women.
I too remember growing up thinking there was something wrong with my body. If you don’t wear the right clothes, shop at the right stores, or hang out with the right crowd you got ridiculed and made fun of. For a girl like me with large breasts it was even harder. Even if I was not being made fun of, or compared with my small breasted friends, I was often self conscience of my….how should I put this?…different body image. I was an early bloomer and other girls in school did not fully develop their breasts until later in their teenage years.
I was always told that small breasts won’t sag as easily as large breasts. This was my biggest fear! My breasts were going to get ugly I thought.
Girls with smaller breasts would tell me that smaller breasts looked better with clothing off and that boys would not like my body when I got older. I was told by the popular girls that small breasts are sexier and I needed to get a reduction. When I told these girls that my parents could not afford a reduction, the rumor spread around school that my family was poor and cheap. So I was the poor trashy girl that boys would not like and girls would not hang out with.
I never wanted any pity from parents or students but it would have been comforting to read a website like this when I was younger. Knowing that I was not alone could have made my school years easier.
God Bless You Sara!
-Janessa-
I began to develop these 38DD behemoths early, and when I was around 10 years old other kids began to comment on them… You see, until a girl I sort of knew asked me if I was “having them pumped” (apparently a rumour that was going around, and bewildered me) I’d been almost totally oblivious to the fact that I had them at all. From then on I developed a horrible dislike for my breasts that has gotten increasingly worse over the last 8 years. I’ve strapped them down, tried to hide them, even picked at the skin on them (kind of like self-mutilation, I guess… I have OCD) and I haven’t been involved with any guys because I am so shy. I used to swim all the time and now I find it hard to wear a bathing suit in public. I have always been terrified of surgery, especially when it’s otherwise avoidable, and so the breast reduction route never seems to be an option.
But now I don’t care; I’ve had a lot of traumatic stuff (not all breast-related) occur over the last 8 or so years and I’m ready to let go of my inhibitions/not care about the social stigma of having large breasts. It’s still hard to find clothes or avoid unwanted attention but I’m not going to take it out on myself any longer. I hope other women come to this conclusion as well.
This survey is totally true!
Even when I was 7 months pregnant women in the mall made comments to me. I had c cups at ten years old and kept growing. My Mom tried to hide me in turtlencks which just made it worse. At thirty years old and 2 pregnancies I’m huge. I’m waitressing now and find that alot of people, mostly women, assume I’m stupid or sluty. And I’ve had this reaction from all sorts of people my whole life, teachers, doctors, customer service people, peers, other moms, etc. And if I wear a shirt that is baggy people think I’m heavier. Even a nurse at a plastic surgoeon’s office when I went for a reduction consultation said to me,” 34J? You can’t be a 34. I’ll write down 38.” She didn’t measure my rib cage or see me without a shirt on!
What can us busty girls do? We can’t change those idiotic shallow people. So I try to just live my life, but sometimes someone’s comment with make me depressed for days. ( you know PMS hormonal days) Thank God for this site, I feel like I’m no longer alone.
I’ve never thought any of those things the whole time, except for 6, but that’s mostly due to a lack of confidence in myself.
Ok i’m guilty. I will admit it. I believed #5 and #6 in the past…but there is a girl in my history class that is very pretty and has big boobs but her friends say she never goes on dates with any of the guys. The dudes at my school ignore her. She does well in class and never hangs out after school with anyone so that might be part of it. At first I thought that she MUST have a boyfriend but I guess not.
I can say with certainty that I have never thought any of the above when I first meet a large-chested girl. Of course, breast size has never been a factor in how I view women. You can’t tell a woman’s personality from her bra size.
Depending on the source, the word Voluptuous is often defined with the following:
1. suggesting or expressing sensual pleasure or gratification
2. sexually attractive because of a full, shapely figure
3. arising from sensual gratification
I know that I was taught the meaning of the word and was teased because of it at a young age.
Girls without breasts are “adorable” and those with larger breasts are “sluts” says the View on ABC. Granted, the women are joking around, but it does slip out and show yet another example of how large breasts are viewed by other women.
Reminds me of this farside picture.
I have a friend in math class who gets teased by the other girls. She transfered here from a different school. I think she is DD but she has not told me. Girls say she is a slut and nobody sits next to her in class. They say her boobs are fake. Our teacher is giving the mean girls detention for calling her names.
Swimming was always a tough one for me. Bathing suits never flatter my shape but the ones that I have found that flatten my top a bit still don’t prevent the comments I get from women thinking my chest is fake. When I was growing up it was always the girls and what they said that was the worst. :(
I gave up swimming in public. My husband and I love the sport so we decided to build an indoor lap pool. It really wasn’t that expensive and we had our pool built with one of these:
http://www.endlesspools.com
My boobs create drag and I loose my top every now and then - but now I don’t care since nobody can see me. Endless pools are very relaxing and great exercise. I listen to my radio when I swim and both my dogs watch me from the edge. I am much leaner now that I swim three or four times a week.
People think large breasted women are sluts because too many women, most of the time with BREAST IMPLANTS, purposefully wear clothes that shove their big breasts in everyone’s face. The breast implant crowd is very eager to make sure everyone gets a good look at their big, fake breasts. I’d call this stupid and slutty behavior. Dressing in low cut, skin tight tops only serves one purpose, to get attention. I suspect this isn’t attention from men but mainly lording it over naturally smaller breasted women.
I believe women are more obsessed with breasts than men are. The media and movie stars do not help either. Do we really need women like Pamela Anderson? I don’t see men entering beauty pageants or overly sexualizing their body parts in public. Women do this to themselves due to social programing, which then generates billions of dollars for the breast implant companies and doctors.
Perhaps the stereotype goes around that big breasted women are stupid and are sluts because the ones with big breasts that stick out in people’s mind are porn stars who get fake ones through surgery (meaning that they technically aren’t big breasted women because they naturally grew smaller ones) and are generally believed to have not developed their intellect in favor of showing off their bodies, although that’s not necessarily true either. It’s such a shame that naturally well-endowed women suffer from these labels when they’re just innocent bystanders who have nothing to do with this.
“Women are more obsessed with breasts than men are.”
I have to admit that Attavanti is right. I started developing at an early age and was obsessive to the point of driving my parents crazy when it came to boobs.
How big would they grow? Would they each be the same size? Would they have blue veins? Would they swell on my period? Would they bounce and make me look silly? Would my bras dig into my back and shoulders? Would the other girls at school talk behind my back?
I have two older brothers. Neither took notice of my boobs, dated any girls with big boobs - and there were lots at my school - talked about my boobs, or looked at girlie magazines with big boobs. I would sneak through their rooms being a curious kid but found nothing more than a stash of SI swimsuit issues. Needless to say, my boobs made me crazy during my teen years but were largely ignored by all the men that I knew. Teachers didn’t notice or care, and parents never mentioned it to my parents. Most of it was just in my head. Senseless worrying that got me no where. :(
My daughter has been called pregnant (Stereotype #10) because of her big breasts by other kids at her elementary school. Just like I did, Faith grew two cup sizes this year in the sixth grade. It is frustrating but we have to remember that ALL children have something about them that makes them different. My husband has freckles and still gets teased by his work buddies. It’s a part of life. It shouldn’t be, but it is. I teach my daughter that there are far more troublesome things that she could be worrying about.
She is starting to view her breasts as beautiful and not something that is just in the way all the time. These days the trick is teaching her to avoid the boys who are starting to notice her because of her breasts. She is still far from the right age to start dating but I know exactly how her social life will go.
I went through it all myself!
I did not know that the fist breast implant was made that long ago. 1963. We are getting close to a 50 year anniversary! Though lets hope people do not celebrate. The damage breast implants do to a girls is gross.
#8 is so true. People think that when I get in a bikini or bra that things are so exciting! No way! I am always worried about exposing myself. My mum fitted me many years ago and it has helped me through the years.