It was a good read, but "conspicuously absent" might have been a better title. I followed blogger who had a reduction done a year or two ago and ended very happy with it.
I have to say I still get a little freaked out by bra sizing for some reason. I'm not in necessary-reduction territory (and I go without a bra way more than I probably should) but I've worn an H as my biggest cup size, though at a 40 band size that would be much bigger overall. I don't know why this gives me a weird feeling, but I simultaneously want to say "H isn't that big!" and also "5 pounds of fat, OMG!" Neither is a particularly useful response, I guess.
I go without a bra...I've worn an H as my biggest cup size
I'm not questioning your life choices, but I am wondering how many small creatures you've inadvertently killed.
H is only 8 inches or something. I guess that is kind of a lot. But it was something like a 28H when I was thinner, so not that huge in absolute terms. And I am not about to go measure my breasts for science or anything like that. It's just the same old debate about how bra sizes are supposed to make you think that DD is big and then you get measured and the G fits perfectly and you feel like a loser or whatever. (Possibly that is not how prior bra-fitting threads went, but unless other people comment, it's just going to be my sad self-disclosures.)
What? That's not relevant. What are you talking about, Sifu?
H is only 8 inches or something.
So if you see a dude buying H cups at the dickbra store you know what's up.
3: not that I wear a bra (the regular, non-dickbra kind) but that is certainly my impression of how these things turn out as well.
Cup sizes are relative to band size. A 32H and a 40H are not at all alike.
The thing I don't understand about bra sizes is why really small band-sizes seem much more common in conversation on the internet than on racks. Buying a bra, the easily found sizes are 32-38 A-D (maybe B-D). But whenever we talk about bras, half the women piping up are like Thorn, with what sound like unusually small band sizes. I suppose it's perfectly possible that the population is just very badly served by the available bra sizes, but it seems odd.
Maybe going to graduate and or professional school shrinks band size.
Are you saying my barrel chest makes me look dumb?
I find the size of my ribcage to be far harder to fit than my breasts. Maybe I should have stayed in grad school longer.
So if you see a dude buying H cups at the dickbra store you know what's up.
insufficiently enormous testicles.
8 - Something to do with the huge amount of women wearing the wrong sized bra?
I lecture my girls (not a euphemism) about bras and bra-sizing, and have bought them several (they generally buy their own clothes now) to show my seriousness.
"Now I'm going to the counter to pay. See how blank my expression is. This is my bra-buying face."
10: Large band size here, too, even after 7 years of graduate school.
I think one lesson is that large band/smaller cup and small band/larger cup, while they may require different bra sizes, look surprisingly similar in person.
Wow, 14 made me laugh out loud a lot.
I suppose it's perfectly possible that the population is just very badly served by the available bra sizes, but it seems odd.
I think it is the case, and that it is a historical anachronism. Like tampons were unchanged for decades, and then suddenly they exploded in options. One by one, products get exploded when some company finally observes that they never, say, consulted with women when designing X, or that it's been 30 years and the shape of women has become more internetty.
It just seems so weird that ribcages should have shrunk over time.
No, I'm just saying perhaps women have never been well-served by bra sizings, and the industry is overdue ...for a makeover!
women have never been well-served by bra sizings
This is why women were burning bras in the 60s.
So sub-32 is what we are calling small band size?
This is why women were burning bras in the 60s.
Emily Haines has a song about that.
23: It's certainly the smallest that I generally see in stores. Given that women's ribcages are often about the same size as their waists, it is kind of big, when I stop and think about it.
Fortunately, me and my broad back never have a problem.
Maybe the women with smaller rig cages are all trying to keep KR happy.
I don't think women's rib cages are usually the same size as their waist.
Women's wrists are smaller than their eyes. I learned that on the internet.
27: Quite a lot of women are hour-glasses, but I feel like I see small-waisted women with very narrow ribcages, as opposed to being more cone-shaped. I'm picturing two of my friends, both who also have narrow shoulders, so maybe it goes hand and hand with that.
18.2: Yoga pants seller lululemon had up until very recently a woman CEO. Is the size distribution of their stuff any better?
Also, I hope 28 is an Aristotle joke-- he wrote that women had fewer teeth than men, and his claim to fame is empricism.
I suppose it's perfectly possible that the population is just very badly served by the available bra sizes, but it seems odd.
Wait... are you suggesting that the fashion industry might not satisfy its actual customers' demands? I'm sure there are lots of plus-sized women who would love to disagree with you!
I think Aristotle might claim fame for a few different things.
Does this top make my ribcage look big?
I've read that it has to do with changes in bra fabric. It used to be you measured under your bust and added 4-5 inches, which would mean a 32 would actually be a 28" ribcage. Now fabric is supposedly stretchier and you're supposed to just take the measurement as is. So before a woman with 28" ribcage and 32" breasts would be a 32A, but now she'd be a 28D. Except, according to some blogs, if you're bony, you have to add inches, but not if you're "well padded." Which I guess makes sense? Like, if you have a lot of fat, wrapping the tape around your torso vs cinching it around your ribcage would give different measurements? But then, if that were the case, there really wouldn't be so many 26s and 28s, because most women with 26" ribcages are also quite bony. I am confused. Anyways, bra sizing is a hot mess. Most bras that fit have to be ordered off the internet, except sizing isn't standard and no one knows what size they are, even if they get sized professionally. I blame a conspiracy by shipping companies.
7: Could you please tell my mom this?
There are more options in stores now. If I had to guess I'd say it's due to competition with the Internet. When I was a teenager it seemed like most of the bras were 32A-40D, and so I had to wear the wrong size, and now there's a wider range of sizes.
Nursing bras suck.
And haha, pregnancy. My poor boobs.
Like tampons were unchanged for decades, and then suddenly they exploded in options.
The tampons I use suddenly started claiming on the box that they are anti-gravity. "Now with anti-gravity leak prevention!" This upsets me greatly. Something that is anti-gravity should be much cooler, more high-tech, and more futuristic than a stupid braided string.
You should definitely be able to float around with an anti-gravity tampon in.
tampons were unchanged for decades, and then suddenly they exploded
Um, ew.
7: Yes! Didn't mean to imply otherwise, just meant that there's a lot of cognitive dissonance involved when everything gets measured in cup sizes. Also, I have a sinus infection again and am basically an idiot at the moment, so I'm sure I wasn't clear.
I missed that comment earlier because, like a good gentleman, I was only looking at this thread in my peripheral vision.
40: Right?! Though I guess then everyone would know you were on your period and, like, OMG, how embarrassing.
Nursing bras suck.
I do not understand why nursing bras - especially nursing bras past a certain size - have to have everything be stretchy. Okay, comfort, sure, but surely the band AND the cup AND the straps don't all have to be stretchy. Also, the whole 'underwires-will-clog-your-ducts' thing is bullshit. Just get an underwire that fits.
Yeah, I gave up entirely on nursing bras -- I just wore underwires with stretchy cups, and pulled the cup fabric aside. Might not work for everyone, but it worked fine for me.
44: you could just wear really heavy shoes, cf. HG Wells, "The Trouble with Pyecraft", about a very fat man who concocts a magical potion designed to make him lose weight, and, while staying very fat, becomes lighter than air.
I guess sometimes it pays to remember the difference between weight and mass.
Nursing bras suck.
Unfair competition!
Moby in 14 made me really happy. Almost spit out the coffee happy.
45: I guess they just gave up on sizing them properly and figured stretch would work? Or they're expecting that you'll be significantly different sizes during the day? But they do not work. Stretchy is not supportive. Properly fitted underwire bras work much better.
I guess sometimes it pays to remember the difference between weight and mass.
A point made by the narrator.
"Of course. What you wanted, Pyecraft, was a Cure for Fatness. But you always called it Weight."
(Also a good name for a junk food franchise: World of Piecraft.)
46: I bought a few of those stretchy Wacoal comfort "we made it so you don't need an underwire!" bras and yanked. They worked fine, but one does not quite . . . admire one's line in the pictures in which one is wearing them.
(Once things had sorted themselves, say when O was 2.5? I dropped serious coin on all new bras. That was fun.)