Has breast augmentation led to increasing bra sizes, or have larger breasts led to more interest in breast augmentation? The world may never know.
Breast Augmentation and Padding of the Average Bra Size
There seems to be some kind of relationship between the increasing relationship between breast augmentation and the increasingly size of the average bra size. What came first,
the popularity of breast augmentation surgeries or something else? You be the judge.
Current Breast Sizes
According to some research, over 40% of American women have size “B” breasts, with nearly 30% filling in size “C”s. A not-so-close third place goes to the “A”s with 15%, followed by the lucky 10% full-figured enough to boast of wearing size “D”s. (The remaining few fit into size “AA” or smaller or “DD” or larger.)
Timing of the Padding
This breast-enlargement phenomenon appears to have a global impact. Between the years 1996 and 2011, the most common American breast size has increased from 34B to 36C. In the UK, a shorter time period yielded similar swing, with the average size changing from 36B to 36C in only 2 years (1997-1999). In Asia, the change was more drastic, with a difference of 2 cup sizes, 34A to 34C, between the years of 1980 and 2000.
Possible Reasons for the Padding
Among the possible reasons cited for these blossoming bra sizes are issues regarding weight gain, sizing changes or errors, and environmental estrogen.
1. Weight gain
The epidemic of obesity seems to affect every aspect of societal norms. Because the average weight of humans has been on the rise, increasing bra sizes seem to make good sense. After all, when a person gains weight, her bra size may change, and overweight women have larger breasts than their counterparts of more moderate weights.
2. Sizing changes
Clothing companies have often played with numbers to alter sizing in order to appeal to customers; for instance, since a women who’s a “true” size 10 would be excited to think she’s really a size 6, some clothing companies deflate their sizing in order to attempt to flatter consumers into buying their brands., Then, there’s the disparity between what a particular size means in one brand, versus another. Just as smaller overall sizes are attractive to modern woman, so are larger bra sizes. So perhaps the “C” cups of the 1990s were larger than the “C” cups of today.
3. Sizing errors
In 1995, Oprah Winfrey sounded the alarm: Women were wearing the incorrect bra sizes! Her popularizing research about this issue, along with instructions on how to find a proper bra size, seems to correspond with the years of change. Particularly since most incorrectly sized bras have too small of a cup size, it could be possible that Oprah does have that much influence.
4. Environmental estrogen
This somewhat frightening reality has led to girls’ maturing and “becoming women” at earlier ages, so it seems entirely plausible that this environmental factor could be contributing to larger breast size, overall. The overly high estrogen levels in water have even led to fish populations of overwhelming ratios of many females to very few males.
Have these issues led to the increase in the average bra size, or has the availability and popularity of breast augmentation? It’s anyone’s guess.
