In Sydney Sweeney, America has rediscovered that women can have boobs. So much has been made of her low-cut dress and now-infamous Hooters outfit that people are insisting she “brought boobs back” and killed wokeness, and they were so buzzed-about this week that they’re now being used to spread malware. Sweeney’s boobs are big—big enough that, in high school, she reportedly dreamed of getting a breast reduction. But here’s the thing: They’re not that big!
At the Oscars last night, Sweeney wore a plunging Marilyn Monroe–inspired gown, and, by the looks of it, no bra. That is to say, her boobs are small enough to be held in place beneath a plunging halter top with some professional-grade boob tape, which is not a thing most people with truly large breasts can say. Sweeney’s boobs are big in the way that Monroe is curvy—yes, in context. But also … no.
When it comes to the average breast size, the figure that’s thrown around for American women is 34DD, which is a little bit larger than what people speculate Sweeney’s size to be. That number seems to come from a decade-old survey by lingerie retailer Intimacy, so it’s also hardly a scientific fact. But think about the boobs that you know in real life, and think about the boobs that you tend to see on the screen. Or even the boobs that tend to get attention as boobs in Hollywood—shown off in low-cut dresses, centered in SNL skits, and generally fawned over. Like, really think about all of them! Sure, small and medium boobs abound. But are Sweeney’s really at the top end of the size spectrum here—or is it just that she’s a tiny blond white woman? And how would everyone feel here if the boobs weren’t perky?
I’m not saying that we should start aggressively objectifying more boobs, which is why I’m avoiding nominating new candidates for “owners of large boobs everyone should freak out over.” (If anything, I think the Sweeneys-and-boobier of the world should be able to wear a boob-showing dress and not have it become a whole news cycle.) Just that we should remember that the universe of boobs extends well beyond the “Hollywood-large” range of D-cups.
This matters beyond how we talk about stars. 34DDs might not be anything so out of the ordinary in terms of the bodies of regular women, but when it comes to finding clothing and generally fitting into the world, a 34DD can be pushing it, and life with bigger boobs than that can be all the more challenging. It can be tough to find bras that size and above in stores (though the selection, especially online, has improved in recent years). Dresses, especially for formal occasions like weddings, are tough to buy directly off the rack without significant altering or strategizing around stretchiness of fabrics. Sports bras with ample support just cost more.
Further, boobs come in more shapes than “round.” Seventeen magazine once cataloged eight variations, including “tear drop,” “pendulous,” and “east west.” If you want to understand this viscerally—and perhaps feel a little bit more normal about your own boobs—you only need to look at Laura Dodsworth’s project to photograph 100 of them, published in 2015 in the book Bare Reality. Boobs can be long, asymmetrical, or saggy, and they can change shape after having kids or after various kinds of surgery. One teenager that Dodsworth documented had a breast reduction that took her from a 34GG to a comparatively small 34DD. “It was hard work carrying all that around,” she said of her old boobs. She also noted that “breasts were all most people saw when they looked at me.”
It doesn’t help that people can be really weird about even modestly big boobs. “When I was in high school, I used to feel uncomfortable about how big my boobs were,” Sweeney told Glamour UK. Notice that she didn’t say her boobs felt uncomfortable. Sweeney’s boobs weren’t the problem—other people were. “I went through that process of covering my body up,” Sweeney explained, going on to say that she hoped to empower young women with her boobs. The idea that you can empower women by showing off your beauty-standard-adherent body is pretty tired. But given the general freakout over Sweeney’s rack, perhaps we can use all the boob representation we can get—to make boobs, generally, a little more normal.
