Please accept my apologies for the inflammatory commentary, I was in a less than good mood and wasn’t thinking about what I wrote. I hold to my preferences, but agree that I went over the top with my descriptions.
Thank you for that.
Exactly. I know that you have to pay a lot to get a proper-fitting, high-quality bra; I’m just not willing to shell out for them. I live in a socialist country; you’d think I could get some kind of bra subsidy…
I should have had my tongue cut out years ago so that I couldn’t comment on any woman’s boobs, ever. I should have had my eyes cut out years ago so that I couldn’t look at any woman’s boobs, ever. I feel so guilty; even back in my hippie days, when women didn’t wear bras and gloried in wearing loose fitting, low cut tops, when they bothered to wear any at all, would greet any man who looked at their boobs with the words, "What the hell are you staring at, asshole?"I made the mistake of saying to a couple of women, “Only what you are putting on display.” I was lucky to escape with my life. Men look at womens breasts; men like to look at womens breasts; some women, or so I’m told, even like to have men look at their breasts. I only regret that I never met any. I’m glad I’m old now so I can say, breasts, schmest, who gives a good goddam?
Can you use the double sided tapes more than once, or are they a one-time thing?
I usually use bobby pins… 1-3 per shirt, depending on shirt, bra, moon cycle, etc.
Big boobs are bad for looking professional… big boobs get in the way of exercise… and big boobs get in the way of cutting up dead animals.
Unfortunately I have them (but not as big as others here). Heck, my friend commented that even wearing his bulky winter jacket, he could still notice I had boobs (and pretty ones, according to him). I showed him a picture of me wearing a plain dark t-shirt… He zoomed and commented on my rack. Sigh
Boobs are good for 2 things: Sex or breasfeeding. None of those are things I do all the time (sigh on the sex and no kids)…
Actually, as I understand it, breast size is in no way correlated to the amount of milk a mammary gland will produce. Chimps and the other apes all successfully feed their young with no breasts at all.
It’s nice to see another woman with a healthy body image. Yay for boobies of all sizes!
But I feel like I need to address some of these statements, because I see it a lot, although I do realize you are generalizing.
Almost all of those statements are true for me as well.
At almost 40 and 2 kids later, my breasts, considering their size, are pretty damn perky. No stretch marks, and they certainly aren’t anywhere near my waistband! 
I wouldn’t say I have *major *back problems, but it is true I often have a sore upper neck/shoulder/upper back. I can now run with no problems thanks to the aforementioned Enell sports bra however. Love that thing.
My boobs are and have always been actual boobs. They are certainly a little fleshier now that I’ve added a few extra pounds, but they are by no means just excess fat above my waist.
Actually it’s something of the opposite for me. My boobs have not grown as much as the rest of me has, especially my waist, so they actually look much smaller now than they ever have in my life. Like I said, I’ve sort of grown into them.
Anyway, at the end of the day, really, they’re just boobs… just a body part, and just a little part of what makes me me. But I still think they are fun to look at and play with.
I was not referring to size of boobs, I was just saying that breasts, in general, IMHO, are only good in two occasions: during sex or during breastfeeding. Size being irrelevant in that sentence, that’s why it was a separate paragraph from the other part.
Sorry if I was not clear.
C’mon…they HAVE to have breasts. Even men have breasts. Are you just monkeying around?
Actually I realized I had misread you right after the edit window closed. My bad.
The tape is one-use, although you can cut them in half if you don’t need the whole strip, so that gets you a little extra use.
If you get properly fitted for a bra and learn how to pick flattering clothing (a skill I’m still working on, myself), you can look quite professional regardless of breast size.
For exercise, I’ll second Psy’s recommendation of the Enell Sports Bra - those things are supportive as hell.
The Enell Bra might help with cutting up dead animals, too, although I’m not speaking from experience.
It does and I am.
I have properly fitted bras (professionally, at a place that specializes in that), and I, too, can have my straps falling off my shoulders while still getting enough support. That doesn’t mean I find the bra comfortable, though. I don’t like having something tight around my chest. I take my bra off when I get home because I don’t like the feeling of being “bound.” It’s the same feeling that makes me also take off my shoes whenever possible.
Assuming you have something to work with. I have known several women who were literally as flat as a 9 year old boy and no amount of bra was going to do anything unless it had falsies in it.
I can guarantee you mine don’t contribute to the Big O. My high school boyfriend and I used to play a game where he’d touch my breast or nipple while I had my eyes closed and I’d try to say “when” when he’d touched it. I failed miserably all of the time. He was usually poking fairly hard by the time I actually felt it enough for it to register. I have virtually zero sensation in my breasts and never have.
Just wanted to say, I’m right there with ya. I think mine became an actual A cup after I used the Patch for awhile (the Patch has pretty large doses of estrogen), but all the same, I’ve always been flatter than almost everyone else, and I’ve been very conscious of that. I cover that self-consciousness up by wearing push-up bras that make me look like something between an A and a B. I think it makes shirts look nicer on me. But yeah, surgery is a definite no, I would never even consider it.
To the OP’s question “is there some rule…?” about whether a woman likes her breasts or thinks they’re too big, too small, too wall-eyed, or whatever.
There is a popular aesthetic which we see all the time in ads, department stores, on TV. Depart too far from that and some women feel like failures.
As far as boobs, it’s all about proportion. I’ve bitched about mine, considered surgery, chickened out (elective surgery is really not my thing, “elective” meaning I’m conscious enough to not consent), and spent hundreds of dollars on bras. I have bound them with Ace bandages for a dance audition (so I wouldn’t have to end up being the one who sang “Dance 10, looks 3,” otherwise known as “Tits and Ass.”) Gave up on the guitar because I couldn’t find a comfortable position. Wasted lots of money on belts to show off my 22-inch waist, which failed because I looked unbalanced with my 38-inch top. The 28-inch hips were not a problem. Being really shortwaisted didn’t help at all.
This is not to say there haven’t been compensations. In evening wear and on the beach, I rock. I once came out of a dressing room in a bikini and had two other women telling me that was what a bikini was supposed to look like. Too bad I don’t spend most of my life on the beach or at black tie galas. (Or naked.)
And despite looking good in the right swimsuit, finding them is almost as much of a hassle (and as expensive) as finding bras. Shopping for swimsuits is a nightmare. In the aforementioned bikini the top was a 10 and the bottom was a 6, but you can’t always buy them that way, and the ones you can buy that way don’t always work. A typical swimwear shopping trip goes like this: I go to a store that has suits sized by bra size (i.e., they have a good idea that somebody who wears a 32G is not huge overall), find my size, and if I’m lucky, there are maybe two in that size. Let’s hope they’re in a color I like.
Office garb tends to look one of two ways: too sexy, or (oddly), frumpy. I have figured it out, but I won’t say it was intuitive. For instance, turtlenecks are out. I spent practically my whole career in short skirts with long jackets. This is because I think I have great legs–maybe not, but I think I do–and people who are looking at my legs are distracted from looking elsewhere.
I don’t even feel like I can legitimately complain, because I was a late developer and I begged fortune for breasts. I even considered the Mark Eden Bust Developer. This was back when I was 16 and not only flatchested but concave. Okay, but enough is enough.
Speaking as a 36-38 C woman, I can only offer my perspective.
Why do men love breasts? Not being a man, I can’t say for sure, but I mean, what’s NOT to love? They are soft, warm, pliable, and, usually, highly responsive areas, good for quite a few moans. (myself, I CAN orgasm from nipple stimulation alone, if it is prolonged enough, and it definately plays a major role in my sex life regardless, as in it accelerates and intensifies things tremendously…I love a breast man:D)
Funny, I recently watched Notting Hill and Julia Roberts was asking Hugh Grant, “What IS it about breasts?” (that men get so excited about) “I mean, they’re JUST breasts! They make milk, your mother has them…” (um, well, my DAD had a penis and balls, too, what’s your point?
:D) He couldn’t explain.
As a woman, I love male nipples and when a man responds positively to my attentions. So on that level, I understand the attraction.
I developed early, and when I was younger (12 to 14 or so) I hated my breasts. I think at first it was just that it was a change to get used to and signaled an end to the freedom I’d had as an undeveloped child.
But also because I realized very soon that they seemed to turn many boys and men into instant idiots. I was uncomfortable with the attention, being NOT otherwise sexually mature or interested. I sought to minimize them by wearing baggy or binding clothes.
I was envious of my friends with tiny, pert little titties, not only because they could hide them more easily, but they could go braless and run and not bounce or get sweaty underneath and wear certain fashions I admired without spilling over and not be leered at (as much, anyway :rolleyes:)
I also think a lot depends on the current fashion. Girls tend to be influenced by whatever “look” is currently in style, and seek to emulate that. My grandmother, born in 1902, told me she and her girlfriends bound their breasts (and she was naturally pretty small anyway) because that was the look when they were in their teens and 20s and the cool fashions of the day were designed for thin, flat-chested women. (she also warned me that doing so too much permanently damages the tissues and causes sagging, just a heads up:))
While I think men of all eras have appreciated breasts in all their variety overall, women seem to have a much more critical and trendy view of themselves and what is and is not “beautiful”.
Personally, I find breasts of all types and sizes beautiful, though I can understand why a woman with breasts large enough to cause back pain or which sagged a great deal due to rapid weight loss would seek to minimize them. Or why a woman with VERY small/no breasts might want to enlarge a bit. But in between those extremes, WHY??? Kate Moss or Angelina Jolie, it’s all good, imo. Both stunningly beautiful, sexy women. 
A few years ago, Drew Barrymore was very harshly criticized, it seemed mostly by women, for her appearance at the Golden Globe Awards. She presented wearing a lovely, vintage, very modest dress but obviously braless, and HER “golden globes” were the talk of the town briefly.
I thought she/they looked lovely (mine are about her size and type, so looked perfectly normal to me). But the comments I read and heard seemed to be broken down into 2 camps for the most part: women who felt she looked terrible and was in immediate need of plastic surgery (breast lift or reduction) and men who felt, basically, HUBBA HUBBA!
I found this stupid little controversy bitterly ironic, given that less well-endowed actresses regularly parade themselves in near nudity, in dresses cut down to their pubic hair, chest bones sticking out, and most say, “Beautiful!” Yet Drew was considered somehow indecent and disgusting by many because she had larger breasts and displayed them proudly, fully covered but in their natural state, without shame.
I have made peace with my titties. I love them, both how they look and feel to ME and how they look and feel to others. I have had them appreciated. I have nourished 2 children with them. I have aquired the judgement and skill to conceal or reveal them at will and to my best advantage in any given situation; if I prefer to be treated as a professional and looked in the eye, I dress appropriately and I usually am. If I want to be flirty or send a sexual invitation, I easily can.
Yes, women admire mens’ packages, too, and I think most men know how to dress for an occasion as well. 
Oh, not disputing the Enell Bra, at least for exercise… I just bought two of them not a month ago, and I love them. Not feeling chest pain when I’m running is a plus, I tell you…
But they ARE more expensive than other bras… I want to eventually buy a few more, as right now I only have one for training and one for running. Maybe one day I’ll have one for chopping the animals up. 
I think the main problem with office/professional clothes is the time, expense, and emotional toll that it takes to get it perfect. I have to look like a professional sometimes, but I’m not getting paid the part. I hope to get properly fitted by a grumpy old lady, but my latest fitting was at Soma (which was good, the bras I got from that store in the size they said fit me well, no digging)… And unlike psy, the only sewing I can do decently is animal tissues, which I cannot wear as clothes.
Breast-talkers of the world, listen up, and take Jerry Seinfeld’s advice:
“Looking at cleavage is like looking at the sun, you don’t stare at it. It’s too risky. You get a sense of it and then you look away.” 
Exactly. I would never comment on a man’s trouser tackle, but I can’t even begin to count the times my boobs have been the subject of public conversation.
I am a 36 triple D, so yes, it’s obvious that I have been blessed by the Hooter Fairy. But it’s just not polite for random strangers to comment…or touch, thankyouverymuch (yes, this has happened on more than one occasion).
Hear Hear!
The big, and I mean BIG ones are fine to look at but when I saw one up close and personal, the first thing out of my mouth was, “What the hell do you want me to do with that!?” Average is just fine for me.
And about the boob issue…44 year old female here, with average size C’s. But all through college they were what I called A+ or B-'s. I would love to go back to that. Less hassel all around. I never even wore a bra back then, and boy am I paying for that now.
Hubby likes em really big too, but I don’t care. He can look at all tha gianormous ones he wants to, as long as he keeps his hands to himself. I am happy to be a fairly average size. I have lost the battle with gravity, however, and not even arms above my head will get them back to where they belong. And, I can no longer do a headstand.
Used to be:
(Y)
Now:
UU