Breast size is both subjective and relative.
First comes letterphobia: we think that B is small, DD is huge. I remember seeing a bra-fitting video where the girl wails: "F ?!? I don´t want to be an F !" The bra-fitter answers something like "no one needs to know". (What she should have said is that cup size is relative to band size; and that means a 28F cup is smaller than a 38C cup. But we know that already.) I also thought of the Don’t believe the stereotypes – G cup is a size like any other campaign. This means that the letter alone doesn´t determine whether you are small or big-chested.
Does the rest of the body determine that ? I recently realised that the same breasts can look big or small on different people (I know: duh. But I seriously didn´t give this a thought before). Height, weight, hip, waist and shoulder size and the general bone structure all influence the perceived breast size. So if your narrow shoulders make your breasts relatively big, does this suddenly make you big-chested ? Or not ?
I think it mostly comes down to our mental image of ourselves. We give ourselves labels, that come from a more or less realistic perception of ourselves. Or other people´s perception of us (have you ever had anyone tell you that you are petite, when all this time you thought you were average ? Did it actually made you thin you were petite, at least for a little while ?). Or our comparison of ourselves to others (comparing your chest do a pack of models, or 60s pinups
I was quite small chested and wore sizes like 80B which meant at least half of my breasts was outside the small cups, and so I felt boobless. I used to read the "how to maximise your chest through clothes" part of fashion magazines, and stick to the advice as much as I could. When I fitted myself for the first time, I was so surprised that I had boobage. But before that during my pregnancy I got from 65D to 65F and suddenly had a hard time changing my mental image of myself into bigger-chested. Now I´m a 60DD and I think of myself as medium chested, depending on mood and the fashion magazines I´ve been looking at. Even in my 65F moments I never really let go of my 65D image of myself, because that was what I had identified with.
I am not saying that I am objectively medium chested or that others see me as such. I just feel medium chested. In the same way I feel tall-ish, even though I´m not. I grew up in a country where most girls came up to my chin when wearing heels, so I guess I labeled myself tall then and there. And that didn´t change after moving to a place where I´m suddenly slightly on the small side. So fashion advice telling me to lengthen my legs by wearing heels leaves me cold.
Back to breasts: I don´t see mine as too small or too big for me because I think they fit in well with the rest of me. When I buy clothes I don´t think in terms of minimising or maximising my bust: as long as I feel that the piece in question flatters I get it. I think this is the most important: feeling good in your boobs and celebrating your body shape. And of course, wearing snug bands with adequately big cups.
Do you feel small, medium or big chested ? What or who influenced that label ? Any tips, apart from getting fitted, for ladies to get comfortable with their boobs ?
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