The Saga of the Bodacious Ta-Ta's

Ever since I graduated from college last year with a Bachelors degree in sociology, I have formulated some theories of my own about current American society. My main hypothesis: most individuals in current American society have been driven insane from all the rules and expectations that is placed upon individuals. Women in particular have faced pressure trying to live up to the tired, white male patriarchal standard of beauty that is currently in vogue. In order to be considered beautiful, a woman must be preferably white, young, tall, blond, blue-eyed, thin and large breasted. Very large breasted. If a woman does not have some of these attributes, she is considered an ugly spinster who is unworthy of notice.

Because of this standard of beauty, women have a tendency to be spiteful towards women who have large breasts and I should know because I have large breasts. I have had breasts since I was nine years old and I will be thirty-seven years old this month. It always amazes me because I neither thin or young but ever since I could remember, women have looked at me with envy and sometimes hatred because of my breast size and I am not exaggerating. There have been times I have walked down the street and noticed women placing their arms across their chests as if to ward off the evilness of my large breasts. Crazy.

The film, Busting Out, discusses this madness with an eloquence that is both funny and sad. The narrator and filmmaker, Francine Strickwerda lost her mother to breast cancer as a child, was the first in her class to develop breasts and she has been haunted by “the boobs of doom”ever since. This film tells the story of how breasts are portrayed in our society and how men and women think of them. In American society, people are taught that breasts are for sexual pleasure, whereas in other cultures, the breast is not important. Many stereotypes about having large breasts exist such as being considered “easy” or “dumb.” These stereotypes are completely ridiculous because I know several small chested promiscuous women and there is no known link between intelligence and breast size because graduated from Roosevelt University with a 3.8 grade point average, large breasts and all.

Decades ago in China, mothers would bind the bottom of their daughters heels and toes so their feet would be only 3 inches long because that men had a fetish for small feet and pleasing men is everything, even at the risk of being crippled for life. In American society, lingerie is marketed towards little girls as young as three years old. Bratz dolls with skimpy clothes, large heads and large breasts is outselling old fashioned Barbie dolls. These images tell little girls that their only role in life is to be be a beautiful object whose only job is to please men.

This obsession with breasts have put American women in a catch-22 situation: those with large breasts have to deal with the stereotypes and women without large breasts resort to drastic measures such a surgical breast enhancement in order to feel “normal.” It seems to me that women are damned if they have them, damned if they do not.
This movie was very interesting, not just because I am a woman with large breasts but because it showcases how juvenile and archaic American society is when it comes to its obsession with women's breasts. The thing I found most funny was the radio show hosted by Tom Leykis, who proclaimed Fridays as “Flash Fridays” and women are encouraged to flash any and all their breasts. Any woman so desperate for attention that she will put her naked breasts outside a car window needs to be locked up for insanity, not indecent exposure.

Overall, I feel that current society's obsession with womens' breasts is ridiculous. Breasts are used to sell anything and everything including cars, cigarettes and many other things. They are seen as objects that men can fondle and suckle and have no other use. Forget about the newborn babies; it is all about men's pleasure. Until women and men understand the ways they participate in their own oppression, womens' body parts will continue to be sectioned off like chicken and sexism will continue to exist.