Breast Envy

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About

"Breast Envy" is a term commonly meant to describe a woman's jealousy towards another about her breast size. In various forms of media, such as films, comics, cartoons, fan arts, manga, anime, as well as in meme culture, breast envy is often portrayed as a woman being breastmogged by another one, with the first staring, glaring, or making an unpleasant expression towards the latter. The phenomenon was arguably documented as early as 1957 and became increasingly popular in meme culture throughout the 2000s.

Origin

The earliest and most popular example of "breast envy" was caught in photography on April 12th, 1957, showcasing Italian actress Sophia Loren glancing at Jayne Mansfield's breasts with a side eye and a displeased look on her face (shown, below). The photograph was distributed world-wide and became an international sensation.^[1] In 2014, Loren stated that she was indeed looking at Mansfield's breasts, describing it as she was "afraid that they would blow and spill over the table".^[2]

Notable Parodies

Photos replicating or parodying the original shot with Loren and Mansfield featured various other models or actresses decades later. In 1992, Anna Nicole Smith and Sky Nellor replicated the photograph (shown below, left).^[3] Another one featured German model Heidi Klum, taken in 2002 (shown below, right).^[4]

In February 2016, American actresses Julie Bowen and Sofia Vergara referenced it in the TV show Modern Family (shown below, left).^[5] In 2021, the photo was recreated once again by Sydney Sweeney and Maude Apatow (shown below, right).^[6]

Spread

Breast envy scenes are a trope and cliché that can be seen in television and films, as well as various other media. Website TV Tropes nicknamed the trope "A-Cup Angst".^[7] Breast Envy gags are also a recurring in anime and manga, with the victim of breast envy often being a girl with a small breast size.^[8] On November 22nd, 2017, YouTube channel ULOOK2 uploaded various Internet images of women being breastmogged, titled "Times Girls Felt Their Breast Envy Was Being Triggered!".^[9] The video received over 107,500 views and 319 likes in 5 years

On August 18th, 2020, YouTuber dannphan uploaded a video titled "Breast Envy is Real" in which she talked about the subject as well as referencing Uzaki-chan, which was trending on Twitter at the time due to her large breasts.^[10] The video received over 270,000 views and 19,000 likes in 2 years.

On December 8th, 2022, NatsumiAnime upload a compilation of breast envy in various anime series. The video received over 1,080,000 views and 21,000 likes in 5 months.^[11]

On January 26th, 2013, Reddit community r/BreastEnvy was created, and its users routinely post breastmogging images where a woman with large breasts is pictured next to another (or multiple ones) with significantly smaller ones. The subreddit gained over 368,000 members in 10 years.^[12] On June 19th, 2015, an image showcasing a statuette of Tinker Bell glaring at the breasts of a Jessica Rabbit statuette titled "Disney Envy" was posted on r/funny by Adnando (shown below, left).^[13] The post received over 4,900 points in 7 years. On February 16th, 2020, 9GAG user placeebo shared a photo titled "Breast envy is best envy", showing a woman in a MAGA tank top being given envious looks by a Bernie Sanders supporter (shown below, right). The post received over 665 upvotes in 2 years.^[14]

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On March 18th, 2016, multiple Demotivational Posters that captioned breastmoggings were featured in a thread on eBaum's World titled "BOOB ENVY IS A VERY REAL THING!" (shown, below).^[15]