Many works are set in a culture where the common assumption is that "Buxom Is Better". This standard of female beauty can be a challenge for women with smaller breasts, and while some wear the "ironing board" title with pride, others are plagued by problems of low self-esteem as a result of their... un-bustiness.
This can be for a variety of reasons, but the most common anxieties are that she'll look less sexy to a Love Interest, be mistaken for a child or a man, or be treated as underdeveloped and immature because of her small chest.
In fiction, you frequently see this with teenage and preteen girls, disappointed that they're not as "mature" as their older sisters, relatives, parents, or more-developed peers. This may be shown by the character being remarked on that they don't wear a bra yet, or being teased for wearing a camisole, undershirt, or nothing yet—basically, for not wearing a bra.
This is often before ultimately learning the lesson to love their body no matter what final shape it takes. It can easily become Hilarious in Hindsight if the character or the actress portraying her grows up and becomes quite big-breasted as an adult.
Things commonly done by this type of small chested woman:
- Wearing loose clothing so that it's harder to guess the size of her chest.
- Trying to make herself appear more busty than she really is, possibly by using a push-up bra or Fake Boobs.
- Getting offended (and sometimes violent) when other people comment on the smallness of her breasts.
- Jealously staring at another girl's huge breasts at the beach, at the pool, or in the changing room.
While the trope is named after one of the smallest standard bra cup sizesnote , for an Alliterative Name, the interesting thing is that a lady doesn't have to be "flat" or even remarkably small-chested in order to suffer from this anxiety. It's a state of mind that depends on what beauty ideal or peer group the character is comparing herself to, so even a girl or woman who fills a C-cup may feel inadequate in the presence of another who's an E-cup. Messages from the media, lack of self-esteem, or even just happening to associate with women who are bustier than average (sometimes the result of being the token average person in a World of Buxom) can give a female character a distorted image of what counts as "small".
Subtrope of Appearance Angst. Contrast Petite Pride for women who are small-breasted and proud. For "assets" on the other side of the spectrum, compare Big-Breast Pride and D-Cup Distress. See also Baby Don't Got Back, for the similar reaction to another body part. For the Spear Counterparts, see Muscle Angst and Teeny Weenie.
Anime Fanspeak refers to this type of character as a "Pettanko" (roughly, "completely flat").
Example subpages:
Other examples:
- In Real Life this is common enough among Japanese girls that weekly or monthly shojo manga publications more likely than not include breast enlargement ads, or at least diet ads that promise to not take anything off the rack. Aside from the usual before-after photos, exciting exclamations and shiny products, there are specific ad mangas: 8 to 12 pages of A-Cup Angst and Buxom Beauty Standard played straight enough to put a ruler to shame with no other content.
- Ad for Chasteberry E: Meet Miss Pettanko. Her life sucks. The boys don't even know she exists. She attempts to ask her crush out, he awkwardly evades. She knows the solution is to develop breasts. Cue desperate attempts, and finally success when a friend tips her off about the product. 3 months later she has gone from zero to cup E or so, attracts the Male Gaze wherever she goes, and is happily together with her crush.
- Compared to most other superheroines, Stephanie Brown is pretty flat; when she first appeared as Spoiler, she pulled a Samus Is a Girl on Tim thanks to her chest being so flat that she looked male. When she scolds Damien to stop looking at her chest when she's yelling at him, he simply responds with "What chest?"note and causes her to angrily storm off. According to Barbara, Steph's 'good side' is her backside, indicating she's got a better butt than she does a chest.
- Be Prepared has nine-going-on-ten year old Vera (the youngest in her age group) made to feel shame by the older girls in her tent, the Sashas, when she's changing clothes and they snottily point out she doesn't wear a bra yet.
- In Blue Beetle, Paco's younger sister.
Paco's mom: Doesn't [Mariposa] look good in Soledad's things? If Soledad had boobs, this is what she'd look like.
Soledad: Mother! - In Danger Girl, Silicon Valerie suffers from frequent bouts of insecurity because she is nowhere near as well-endowed as her teammates.
- Ninjette's cheerily drunken confession to Empowered as to the reason she was in the employ of various thugs rather than a member of the Superhomeys summed this trope up (and unlike many artists, when Adam Warren invokes lack of the Most Common Superpower he does not use half-measures).
Ninjette: I can't be a goody-goody heroine 'cause I don't have a nice, big rack! *urrp* Can't be a good girl without a good set, right?
- Sophie Bangs in Alan Moore's Promethea is described by one of the past Prometheas as "flat-chested and neurotic," with the implication that that's what the typical candidate for Promethea-hood is like.
- When Henry Bendix first recruits Jenny Sparks into (The Authority's predecessor) Stormwatch, she agrees on the condition that she doesn't have to wear spandex, saying "I don't have the chest for it." Most artist renditions since have been faithful to this concept. This did not hamper her sex life in the slightest, though living 80 years as an attractive 20-year-old who loves to party surely helped her there. Swift (being a typical Tibetan) was pretty flat-chested during Warren Ellis' run/ending on Stormwatch, but when the artists for The Authority drew her, she was given a much more substantial rack that got handwaved into being a "20-grand boob job."
- Udda Von Schteppenslammer from Tank Vixens has "itty bitty mousie titties" and the members of the 101st battalion are well-endowed.
- Yelena Rossini from Transmetropolitan is just a bit touchy on the subject, which makes a certain amount of sense when you consider that she spends most of her time in close proximity to Channon. At one point she mentions that in order to borrow one of Channon's outfits, she'd need to be "shot in the back with a couple of cruise missiles first".
- W.I.T.C.H.:
- Wilhelmina "Will" Vandom, the teenaged leader of the interdimensional Guardians, is quite explicit about it. She frets about her scrawny appearance, and prefers to be in her older, more busty Guardian body. As most of the art seems to show her arching her back
◊ and sticking out her chest
◊ in Guardian form, you can guess why. Actually if you look at the second picture there, she's clearly staring down at her enhanced breasts with excitement in the middle image!
- Taranee and Hay Lin to some degree, implied by their Guardian forms being just as large-breasted as Will's and them liking it. She too shows she likes her Guardian form. This is driven home in one episode: Cornelia's mother embarrasses her in front of the others by jokingly implying she stuffs her bra after seeing Hay Lin transformed and buxom, believing it's a Halloween costume with false breasts. Hay Lin suddenly looks angry and humiliated, and puffs up her chest some more to (over)compensate.
- Subverted with Cornelia: while petite (and, in the cartoon, the first one to notice the breast enhancement of the Guardian forms), she's perfectly OK with her body. In the comic this is shown by her Guardian form being merely an Older Alter Ego, in contrast to Will, Taranee and Hay Lin having larger breasts (and Irma being slimmer).
- Wilhelmina "Will" Vandom, the teenaged leader of the interdimensional Guardians, is quite explicit about it. She frets about her scrawny appearance, and prefers to be in her older, more busty Guardian body. As most of the art seems to show her arching her back
- Vanessa, a teenage supporting character in Wonder Woman (1987), tended to bemoan her lack of breasts and was stated on one occasion to stuff her shirt.
- X-Men: Jubilee sometimes took this role back then, but she has gotten bigger as she grew up. In Generation X, which focused on the younger and less well-known of Xavier's students, her modest figure was used to contrast her against the model-esque Monet St. Croix. Sometimes Kitty Pryde takes this role, too. But much like Swift above, when Jubilee transitioned into the New Warriors relaunch, she lost her mutant powers, but gained two cup sizes in the bargain. (Granted, she was 13-14 for most of her comic history.) Entertainingly lampshaded
◊ in Uncanny X-Men #268 — Jubilee is listening in to a conversation between Wolverine and the more commonly-endowed Psylocke and Black Widow. She glances up at the two women in their skintight costumes, peers down her vest to see how she matches up, and then drops her head in her hands with a frustrated expression.
- Assumptions: Though impossible for ponies to have breast sizes, the equivalent occurs where Rainbow Dash is rather sensitive about her "lack of curves." Along with her tomcoltish nature, this leads to very unflattering assumptions.
- Played for Drama in A Dance on the Mats. Rainbow Dash is insecure about her lack of curves, and doesn't bring her friends to her spars with Anon out of fear they'll take his attention away from her.
- Between Friends: Before removing her bra, Star warns Marco that she is not "like Jackie". While she says she's not worried, Marco nonetheless assures her that she's perfect just the way she is.
- Between the Lines (MrQuestionMark): From Chapter 42
, Suzushina Yuriko, as referenced multiple times in the chapter, with stuttering and such:
I-I've been watching my weight! I-I have! A-And my lack of breasts means there is no excess fat there so shut the hell up!
Why the hell do you have an obsession with everything south of my hips and north of my solar plexus?! Do you think it's funny to mock something that I don't have?!" - Danganronpa 2: Re:Captured: A running joke in the story is that Mahiru is sensitive about her smaller chest size and body shape compared to more full-bodied girls like Sonia, Akane, and Chiaki.
- Date A Re:Live: Mana Takamiya is very annoyed by the small size of her chest (78 cm), and every time a Spirit shows up, she overreacts to how noticeable larger they are compared to her. Especially once Kotori Itsuka's body gets an Overnight Age-Up from how her Inversion happened (and Kotori’s the got the smallest breasts of the Sephira Spirits), and the revelation she's Half-Spirit yet her Spirit half hasn't amended this issue, especially when her mom( Rinne Sonogami) mentions she might never grow any bigger. No longer a worry as of the Shido Countdown arc, where she wakes up on her birthday to discover she had a huge growth spurt that's caused her breasts to become 91 cm, her joy at the revelation is clear.
- During Chapter 2 of Despair's Last Resort, Shizuka Matsuki tries to claim she doesn't have this. She fails to be convincing.
- Despair to Future Arcs: It’s clear that Hiyoko had a complex surrounding her small chest before her growth spurt. While initially believed that she stole Junko’s chest, and implanted it on herself in an attempt to become more busty once she became a Remnant of Despair, it is eventually revealed by Mikan to be subverted. In reality, Mikan implanted Junko's breast tissue onto Hiyoko against her will as retaliation towards her, alongside Fuyuhiko, Ibuki, Mahiru and Nagito, for wanting to steal Junko's recently repaired body for themselves.
- The Dragon and the Bow: When Stoick explains that the helmet he gives Hiccup was his mother's breast-plate, all Merida can feel is self-conscious by the comparison.
- Evangelion 303: Inverted. In chapter 15, Asuka teases Kelly about her -Kelly's- chest being too big to play rugby properly.
- Fate/Harem Antics:
- Rin Tohsaka gets annoyed by certain characters' large chests, especially her own Servant Archer/Francis Drake. She gets really pissed off when Drake brags that she already had big boobs at age 13.
- Illya is upset because she is already 18 but flat chested since her body's growth was halted. She has a mini rant that this is probably the reason why Shirou hasn't noticed her.
- "Girls Exclusive": This Hunter × Hunter smut fanfic details Gon and Killua being turned into girls by a rainbow-haired girl's Nen ability. As girls, Gon is gifted with a busty appearance while Killua is flat-chested, at first he isn't really bothered by it, but upon Gon commenting on the difference in their sizes and some experimentation, Killua gets pretty jealous and laments his small size, to even his own surprise.
- The Great Temporal Step-Sibling War!: Most of the Kids From the Future bring back pictures of their mothers on their scrolls. Ruby and Weiss are very happy to see that they grow up to develop some curves.
- A source of angst for Mini Mandy of Grim Tales from Down Below once she's revived as a undead because her body cannot age due to her undead nature.
- In Heart and Soul
Tracey Davis is ecstatic over her new developments in the summer after fourth year.
Tracey: Do you have any idea idea how long I've been waiting for these? I was afraid I'd never get them! And then this last term was the absolute worst because we spent so much time hanging around Susan - she's so lucky, I totally hate her. - Here Comes the New Boss: Upon meeting Aisha for the first time, Taylor is mildly annoyed that a girl two years younger than herself is visibly more developed — and flaunting it.
- Hetalia: Axis Powers:
- Austria's gender-bend is portrayed this way in fanon. Austria and Liechtenstein are seen mourning about it in a webcomic on Pixiv. Also, one artist also on Pixiv drew her, Prussia, and Germany: with Germany at the big size (G Cup), Prussia at the middle size (E cup), and Austria as the small size (B cup). This is because Word of God said he applied A-Cup Angst to Liechtenstein because he saw that women in Switzerland and Austria ranked lower in breast size.
- Japan's gender-bend also gets this treatment, especially since the canon sketches of her don't exactly emphasize her assets the way sketches of many other Nyotalia nations do. In one Pixiv fanart
◊, she's shown weeping about having no chest compared to the extremely well-endowed Greece's.
- In the Invader Zim Jungle AU, Gaz is utterly flat-chested, and very sensitive about it.
- In I've Got Your Back, Pearl is deeply insecure about her flat chest, as it serves as a constant reminder of an incident in her youth where she received a nasty web of Achey Scars across her back. It halted her puberty, and even all these years later, her body still remains misshapen.
- In Left Beyond, Cendrillon Jospin is flat-chested and feels self-conscious about it when put in a form-fitting homemade spacesuit. She considers "adding padding to help the crowdfunding campaign" that will get her into space, but ends up not doing it. Her noticeably bustier cousin Nicolette takes her place for some of the photoshoots.
- Lincoln Loud: The Savviest Spider-Man: Lynn won't admit it, but as Luan points out, deep down she's insecure that she hasn't developed a large chest like her sisters have.
- Naru-Hina Chronicles:
- Sakura does not take it well when Sai says that her chest is small in comparison to Hinata's.
- When Arekusu sees Lee interacting with Miho for the first time, she concludes that Miho is Lee's "big-breasted girlfriend". This makes her sad as she thinks she can't compete with that. However, Miho makes it clear to Arekusu that Lee is more like a little brother to her.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide: One of Asuka's internal monologues has her reveal that she sometimes pads her plugsuit to try and appear more developed. She's also somewhat envious of Misato's body, especially if she thinks Shinji is looking.
- The New Adventures of Invader Zim: The non-canon spinoff New Adventures: Mature Edition (which ages up the characters from the 11-12 range they are in the main story to at least 18) establishes that Gaz is almost completely flat-chested, to the point that she keeps getting mistaken for a boy. Though rather than angst, this just pisses her off.
- Patchwork (FFVII): When Aerith meets Tifa, she notes that the younger girl has a bust that Aerith didn't have even while she was breastfeeding. Part of it is also the fact that Tifa is there so Sephiroth can show her the local mountains so she can act as a guide on them, which will have them out in the wilderness for three days, which does not make Aerith happy in the slightest.
- Kim Possible in Phantom Of Middleton
gets really defensive when Bonnie offers her some of her own tops, and then mentioning they might be a little loose on her.
- Pokémon Reset Bloodlines: Implied for Lana. Her first reaction to meeting a girl named Iolani, who is rather tall and curvaceous is uttering the words "I am envious". A later sidestory has her telling her classmate Velvet Lono, who has a similar frame, that her breasts are "large and enviable".
- In Orange Rose Gathering, a fanfic that fuses elements of the above Reset Bloodlines and the fanfic Infinity Train: Blossomverse, Chloe react this way from seeing the many half-sisters of Ash, who are taller and more buxom than her despite being around the same age.
- Pride in Her Chest, a fanfic of The Loud House, has Lynn Jr. worrying about how she hasn't grown breasts yet and getting advice from her older sister Lori.
- RWBY: Aqua's Mission:
- Ruby is shown to have insecurities about her body image, feeling that she isn’t as attractive when comparing herself to the older girls around her, like her half-sister and adoptive mother.
- Weiss is annoyed when Ruby mentions that they have similar figures considering Weiss is two years older than Ruby. It doesn’t help Weiss when she finds that Ruby’s sports bra is bigger than her own.
- In two Saki 4koma strips, (found here
and here
), it is said that the real reason Teru hates Saki is because she's angry about her making fun of her small breasts.
- In another Saki strip, found here
, Kyouko becomes jealous when Kasumi uses her enormous breasts to flip over her tiles. Saki tries the same thing, but with no success.
- In another Saki strip, found here
- In Security!
, Taylor Hebert is a bit insecure about her figure. Self-insert protagonist Mike Allen tries to give her a bit of self-confidence using vague future predictions.
- Superman: House of El:
- Their first time together, Lana actually apologizes to Clark that her breasts aren't as big as Kara's. Clark makes it clear that while he may like big boobs, he loves Lana. All of her.
- Defied by Alex Danvers, who admits to sometimes wishing she had boobs like Kara. . . then thinks about how much back pain would be involved in being that busty, and decides she's happy with what she has. Of course, Kara has never had to worry about back pain.
- Tales of Faith: Cress falls under this. She would usually beat up any guy in a fit of rage should she hear them state about her chest in earshot. When it comes her comparing her chest to other females, however, Cress becomes greatly embarrassed about her small size, despite being one of the eldest females in the party.
- Their Hero Academia: Rise of the New Generation: Chihiro Kaminari is just as flat as her mother Kyoka Jiro had been back in My Hero Academia, and she's just as unhappy about it.
- In Total Drama fanfic series Unbreakable Red Silken Thread While far from flat chested, Heather is somewhat self-conscious about her boob size. Her friendships with Lindsay and Jasmine don't exactly help with this, though it becomes even more apparent after Gwen shows up with some rather generous "development" since they last spoke.
- In Total Drama Legacy, Katherine often decries her small breasts. For instance, this is a Confession Cam she does after she's forced to put on Izzy's outfit for a challenge.
- A source of angst for Mob in the Mob Psycho 100 gender swap fanfics Shigeko Kageyama AKA Mob
and Everyone Loves Mob
.
- Momoko in Wedding Peach Abridged. She inevitably is compared to her mother by her own father.
- In Voyages of the Wild Sea Horse, Nabiki Tendo and Ukyo Kuonji are often shown to feel insecure about their breast size compared to the voluptuousness of Shampoo (who likes to taunt them about it) and Ranma's female form.
- In the somewhat NSFW X-Men fanfic "What Happens In Vegas"
, a few days after Kitty Pryde, Piotr Rasputin and Rachel Summers have a drunken threesome, Kitty admits to her own insecurities regarding her figure. She laments to Piotr that Rachel's body would be at home on the cover of Maxim alongside Evangelista and Mary Jane Watson, while Kitty herself has what she describes as a dancer's body; "In other words, I look like two tangerines on an ironing board."
- Xenophilia features another variant of this trope with, again, Dash. When she and her human lover are discussing her previous bad luck with males, she mentions a stallion who used her for a one-night stand and then left saying he wanted a mare with "more jiggle in her rump". Pettanko mares have flat rumps but the result is the same, with all the angst and feeling ugly that would imply.
- Yet again, with a little extra help has Ghost announce an intro for fighters during the Chunin Exams. This comes up:
Ghost: Let's get this started before we get any more distracted! Hyuuga Hinata a.k.a. the only Konoha kunoichi that has hit puberty so far...
Sakura and Ino: [look at Hinata then themselves and proceed to sulk in the corner]
- Are You Being Served?: Mr. Lucas remarks one of the mannequins at Grace Brothers has small breasts when trying to flirt with Miss Brahms.
- Breakfast on Pluto: Heroine Kitten Braden, although she prefers to call herself a "svelte gamine", as she indignantly informs the peep show customer who complains about her lack of endowment. Although in Kitten's case, this is only to be expected, since she's a trans woman and not on any sort of hormone therapy.
- Crooklyn: Troy has a mild case of envy of other's figures, including when Clinton calls her an "evil flat-chested wench." This is emphasized again when Song gifts her a training bra before commenting, "Oh, you're not going need that for a long time."
- In Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988), one of the town residents, Patty, is this. She uses a variant of bra stuffing (falsies) to make herself seem otherwise, and keeps her small breasts a secret from the entire town... until The Reveal at the picnic!
- Freaky Friday (1976): While getting ready for the day, Annabel examines her chest and even tries puffing it out, only for it not to make much difference. While she seems let down by her modest bust, she doesn't dwell on it.
- Gidget: In the first movie, Sandra Dee is doing some sort of exercise to help pump her chest out.
- In the medieval comedy Gladiatrix, the heroine's newly acquired French husband is disappointed over her lack of breasts. When she magically acquires breasts during the course of the movie, she's able to return home and tell her husband to carry out numerous household tasks.
- Junior High School features the song "Itty Bitty Tittie Committee".
- Just the Way You Are: Susan's ballerina friend Lisa tells her that she used to stuff her shirt with Kleenex before each date and hope the boy didn't try to cop a feel.
- Look Whos Talking Now: A flashback has a young Mollie yelling at her mother "I'll never have breasts!". Adult Mollie, played by Kirstie Alley, did get them.
- Mr. Nice Guy: Miki is upset from losing her luggage. When Lakeisha offers to give her some clothing, she says there might be a problem with size because Miki is smaller than her. Miki's grasp of English is poor, but she understands the word "small" and thinks Lakeisha is mocking her small breasts.
- In My Girl 2, Vada asks her stepmother Shelly when she got breasts.
Shelly: I was a very late developer, they used to call me "Shelly Two Backs". All my friends had real bras, not like the training ones I had.
- Naked Killer. Sister Cindy is telling Kitty, whom she's training as an assassin, that a woman's greatest weapon is their own body. As she explains this Cindy is running her hands over her 36D breasts, causing Kitty (who's less well endowed) to ask, "What if she doesn't have tits?" She's not happy with the reply that she doesn't need to have any to lure a man.
- In Now and Then, Teeny stuffs her top with pudding-filled balloons, as they have a similar consistency to human breasts. As an adult, she proudly tells her friends that she is a "36D, and worth every penny!" On the other hand, tomboy Roberta is shown binding her breasts with masking tape while lamenting "No matter what I do, they just keep getting bigger!"
- Singles: One segment of the film (with the title card "The Hourglass Syndrome") has Janet Livermore (Bridget Fonda) become insecure about her breast size after seeing all the posters of busty models in her boyfriend Cliff Poncier (Matt Dillon)'s room. However, a plastic surgeon (Bill Pullman) talks her out of getting breast augmentation.
- Sixteen Candles: Samantha "Sam" Baker. According to his little brother, she's "only eating carrots to increase the size of her breasts." Sam later says about her bridesmaid dress: "I don't have one-tenth of the bod to fill the stupid bust up."
- Slipstream (1989). A beautiful girl is griping about the ennui in her Gilded Cage life to the adventurer hero.
Owens: You're bored with this? (cups her lacy bra)
Amanda: [pouting] Too small.
Owens: Bore me to death! - Special Female Force: During the Designated Girl Fight between one of the protagonists and the Dark Action Girl, they both strip down to tank tops in the middle of the fight, and the heroine takes note of how much the villainess is lacking in the chest area, which noticeably pisses her off.
- In the 1982 comedy They Call Me Bruce?, the title character goes to a massage parlour. As he's waiting in a hot tub, a beautiful masseuse enters and slips off her robe. Bruce exclaims that she is a "10", which she is quite pleased about until Bruce clarifies: "You are 10 where you should be 36." The woman looks embarrassed and sinks into the tub to hide her chest area.
- The To Do List: The main character often laments her lack of large breasts. At one point, she tries to get her crush's attention by swimming in a pool while wearing a bikini. The top falls off, but she does not realize it at first, so the entire pool gets an eye full. Her crush turns away in embarrassment her Jerkass boss starts making fun of her, and the kids in the pool steal her top to join in on the mockery. After that, she has no recourse but to just walk away from the situation, completely topless while shouting at children and horrified mothers in impotent rage.
- Wanda the Wicked Warden (one of the sequels to Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS): The main character checks into a mental health hospital. The nurses begin undressing her and start mocking her small breasts.
- There's a mean-spirited joke that plays off this trope in Real Life:
"I just heard a joke so funny it'll knock you flat! (looking at chest) Oh, I see you've already heard it."
- A woman is looking at herself in the mirror, sighing about her breasts being too small. Her husband overhears and says he has a solution. "What's that?" "Rub 'em with toilet paper!" "Toilet paper? How will that help?!" "Well, look at what it did to your ass..."
- Queens of Comedy: There was a form of this joke where Sommore (who admits she's blessed with a C cup and a flat stomach but lacks the weight on her behind) tells of a flat-chested and stomached woman with a generous posterior asking her about how she can make her "titties grow without silicone" and Sommore recommended toilet paper.
- Angel
- In "Spin the Bottle", a mistaken spell has all of the characters reverting to their teenage minds, but realizing they are in their adult bodies:
Cordelia: (looks down at her chest) I've filled out!
Fred: (looks down at hers) And I'm... apparently not gonna. - Gunn plays on Fred's potential for this trope when he breaks up with her to protect her in "Double or Nothing".
- In "Spin the Bottle", a mistaken spell has all of the characters reverting to their teenage minds, but realizing they are in their adult bodies:
- Come Back, Mister: In the third episode; Gin-Tak is not happy to be reincarnated as a woman, furthermore if his new body doesn't have big enough assets.
Young-Soo: You have something that I don't have.You have two of them.
Gin-Tak: (looking down at his chest) What's the use ? Why couldn't they make it just a little bit bigger ? (looking above him, addressing gods) Why are you guys so stingy ? - In a later episode of The Cosby Show, youngest child Rudy enters puberty but she's upset that she hasn't developed as some other girls in her grade. Hilarious in Hindsight because Keshia Knight Pulliam has become quite curvy as an adult.
- In the Colombian telenovela Decisiones extremas Lali from "Tren delantero"
(Front Train) is bullied for not being as well endowed as other girls, driving her to begging her dad to get her breast implants.
- Degrassi: The Next Generation
- Manny has this despite being at least a D cup.
- In season 12, Maya has this and buys a push-up bra and later buys bra inserts in order to impress a band she is auditioning for. She uses them wrong and they end up falling out during the audition.
- Mary Jo Shively from Designing Women falls prey to this on occasion although she is simultaneously fascinated by Suzanne's large cup size. In one episode she receives an unexpected inheritance and contemplates getting breast implants.
- “Charlene’s Tail” in Dinosaurs is a reptile version of this. In the dinosaurs’ world, having a long tail is the same thing as big breasts, and Charlene is unhappy that hers hasn’t grown yet and the other girls are picking on her for it. She even orders a prosthetic tail to disguise it. It does grow out shortly after for real.
- In "A Reunion ...", the second-season premiere of Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, June laments that all the stress she's endured since coming to New York has probably cost her a cup size.
- In the Taiwanese Series Drunken to Love You, Xiao Ru gets in a size argument with her boss. Later, she wears a bustier to a club, inciting her husband to cover her with his jacket...backwards.
- Eun Bi from Flower Boy Ramyun Shop gets upset when Chi Soo justifies touching her chest as it's not much different from his.
- The George Lopez Show: Angie's 34B bust size is a very sore spot for her. So naturally, Benny makes fun of it as often as possible. Even George does in a few episodes..
- The Heirs: Eun-sang, a Korean woman, finds herself on the Santa Monica Pier. She looks down and sees several busty white women in bikinis. She then looks down her own shirt, frustrated.
Eun-sang: Is it because we eat different food?
- iCarly: Carly's "flat-chestedness" during early (in Season 1) and middle (season 2 or 3) puberty has been humorously referenced in a few episodes.
- In "iSaw Him First":
Carly: What's that supposed to mean?
Sam: Why don't you ask your new helping bra!?
Carly: (gasps) That's it! I'm out of here!
(Carly walks out, walks back in)
Carly: This is my house.
(Sam walks out)
Carly: (defensively) There's nothing wrong with a little help. - And in "iFight Shelby Marx":
- In "iSaw Him First":
- iCarly (2021): When Carly is reminiscing about her old web show in "iStart Over", she rediscovers George, the bra that told ghost stories. She sighs and says "I never did grow into you."
- When Sophie (rather inappropriately) lifts her top to show Paul her rash on In Treatment, and then taunts him for being scared of her "titties", she then immediately disparages them as underdeveloped due to her years of gymnastics training.
- It's All Relative: Liz is clearly not pleased when she finds out Bobby's ex-girlfriend Sheri has a bigger chest than she does, especially when Sheri quietly rubs it on her face by taking off her shirt in front of Liz, who can't help but recoil at seeing Sheri in just a bra.
- For the first few seasons of Life Goes On (1989), the introduction featured the family's teenage daughter Becca gazing at herself in the mirror and whining, "Come on, where are you guys already?"
- Apparently, Lizzie McGuire, Kate ditched Lizzie and Miranda as friends once she "developed", only adding to Lizzie's insecurity regarding her size. Many episodes made reference to bras, Lizzie's lack of curves, etc., which seemed unlikely towards the end of the show when Hilary Duff got older and obviously well-endowed.
- An episode of Mahou Sentai Magiranger has Kai and Houka swapping bodies. As they're feeling their new bodeis, Kai!Houka says "a little something" when feeling their chest. Houka!Kai doesn't appreciate that at all.
- A running gag in Married... with Children is Marcy being mistaken for an adolescent boy due to her flat chest and short hair.
- Modern Family
- In "Two Monkeys and a Panda", Haley makes fun of her younger sister Alex for a lack of a chest after Alex complains about Haley wearing Alex's sweater without asking. Haley replies it was the first time the top half got any exercise. This became Hilarious in Hindsight in later seasons, as it quickly became clear that while Haley was retaining her petite figure, Alex was becoming very curvy.
- In "The Future Dunphys", Lily puts orange slices down the top of her shirt and asks when she'll get real boobs.
- In "iSpy", one of Haley's photo in her exhibit is a recreation of the famous snapshot of Sophia Loren side-eying Jayne Mansfield's cleavage (which became synonymous with breast envy jokes), but replaces it with Claire enviously looking at Gloria's cleavage.
- Nip/Tuck: Well, yes, there are several characters who have gotten breast implants on the show due to not liking their old ones, but it didn't happen as often as you might think for a show that focused on plastic surgery. Primarily because it's such a common procedure for the two main characters, and more bizarre cases were usually the subject of the week.
- In One Day at a Time (1975): Julie, embarrassed that her younger sister Barbara is more endowed than she is, resorts to stuffing her bra with tissues.
- This, along with her short stature, is one of Claudia's main insecurities in Party of Five.
- An episode of Popular involves the character Sam wearing an inflatable bra to a dance due to feeling insecure about the size of her breasts.
- Done as a joke in the Sam & Cat episode "Twinfection".
Cat: When I say Aybra Kadaybra...Sam: I thought you wanted me to stop making fun of your A-bra.Cat: [covers her breasts]
- In the Nerds sketches on Saturday Night Live Lisa Loopner (Gilda Radner) is extremely insecure about her flat chest, and Todd Dilamuca (Bill Murray) doesn't help teasing her about it:
Todd: You might want to put some calamine lotion on those mosquito bites on your chest.
- An episode of Smart Guy involves TJ's sister, Yvette, wanting to have a breast augmentation done as she isn't happy with her size. When TJ complains about getting bullied for his big ears, she quips, "Well, at least you have something that sticks out!"
- In That '70s Show, when Eric and Laurie are trying to roast each other in "Jackie Moves On":
Eric: You stuffed in high school.Laurie: So did you!
- From an episode of Three's Company:
Jack: Do we have any more money?Janet: I'm sorry, Jack, I'm flat.Jack: Never mind that. Do you have any money?
- Yamada Naoko in the live-action Japanese dorama Trick is constantly teased about her flat chest by all the male characters and is quite bitter about it.
- In the True Life episode, "I Hate My Small Breasts", they had a woman who was an A-cup but worked as a go-go dancer and pole dancer. Of course, this led to her wanting to get breast implants.
- WXII traffic reporter Jennie Stencel learns that she's been wearing the wrong size bra
.
- Dialog from the Veronica Mars episode "Meet John Smith", where Veronica is trying to change her flat tire:
Troy: Flat?
Veronica: As God made me. - An odd example appears in Victorious. In one episode, Trina mentions she wants some minor cosmetic surgery. While it's not stated what procedure she wanted, she looks down at her chest as she says this, implying she thinks her breasts are too small. The odd part is that the show has also made several comments about how busty Trina is.
- We Are Who We Are: Caitlin is unhappy at having small breasts, asking Fraser hopefully if he thinks they're growing and later feels herself while she's looking in the mirror forlornly. It's possible she notices and desires it more because her best friend is quite busty. Or, given that Caitlin later is questioning her gender identity, it could be anxiety.
- The Wilds: It's downplayed by being an offhand remark, but Fatin expresses her desire for D-cups at one point.
- Grace in Will & Grace is insecure about her bust size which isn't helped by the fact that she works with the much bustier Karen. In one episode a guy from high school contacts Grace after a photograph of her appears in the newspaper. She's excited until the others point out the picture makes her look more endowed than she actually is. Out of insecurity she buys a water-filled bra that then starts leaking everywhere. After admitting what she did the guy dismisses her as shallow and says he doesn't care about looks...but then he turns around and starts hitting on Karen.
- In My Wife Is a Demon Queen, Dorona starts feeling self-conscious about her chest size upon seeing Isabella's ample bust, which causes her to stare at Aisi's smaller chest in an attempt to feel better. This is turn causes Aisi to feel self-conscious about the size of her chest.
- Erutis from Demon Diary is quite flat-chested, and complains about it in an Omake which also includes a picture of her with an arrow pointing to her chest and the label "no bosom" (and one pointing at her legs: "stubby legs"). She says that this is the reason she was mistaken for a guy at first by many readers. The peculiar thing is that her chest doesn't really look all that flat; she's easily a B-cup. She just wears a baggy top.
- In 2017, Earth-chan
was invented, a Moe Anthropomorphism of the Earth, who keeps complaining that people are calling her flat. The whole thing started as a jab at Flat-Earthers.
- "I Must Increase My Bust", by Lords of Acid:
There I found out that I'm not alone
Suffering from this flat chested syndrome - Shakira:
- In Objection (Tango), she oscillates between this trope and Petite Pride:
Next to her cheap silicone, I look minimal
That's why in front of your eyes, I'm invisible
But you've got to know small things also count - This is a recurring theme in her lyrics - from "Whenever, Wherever":
Lucky that my breasts are small and humble
so you don't confuse them with mountains - In Objection (Tango), she oscillates between this trope and Petite Pride:
- Push the Roll with Ross Bryant: In "The Obverse of the Mirror", it's noted that Anna St. Claire is more androgynous than is considered conventionally attractive in the late 1800s, which has negatively impacted her marriage prospects.
- nWo Girl April Hunter said that growing up, she was teased for her barely visible bust. Then after she was all grown up, Hunter was teased by the likes of Alere Little Feather for the exact opposite reason.
- Alere Little Feather herself tends to accuse anyone with breasts larger than her own of having "fakes". That's as a face too. As a heel she tends to make these accusations while also padding her own singlet to make her boobs look bigger (it's a legit skill taught in beauty school!).
- HBIC switched her second sport from body building to cheer leading in Ultimate Pro Wrestling because she didn't like how the combination of developed chest muscles, low body fat and regulated water intake necessary to win body building contests made her breasts look.
- Queen Aminata is vocal in her scorn other women's lack of tit..."talents", and silent but still obvious in her scorn of her lacking "talents".
- Psycho Beach Party Parodied when the female lead laments her figure to the audience while topless ("It's like I have the body of a boy!")... when the actor is a boy.
- A Chorus Line
- "Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen" has lines like this.
"Tits! Where are my tits?"
"Honey, you're too young to wear a bra - you've got nothing to hold it up!"
"Having to go through high school without growing tits"! - Val gets a song all about this ("Dance: Ten, Looks: Three"). She never grew the womanly attributes necessary for Broadway success, so she went to a plastic surgeon. It did wonders for her career. ("Didn't hurt my sex life either.") One dancer says she wishes she had one breast just like her. Val's advice, "Have 'em all done!" (In the film adaptation, she advises, "Well, go out and buy them!")
Flat and sassy,
I would get the strays and losers.
Beggars really can't be choosers.
That ain't it, kid. That ain't it, kid.
Fixed the chassis; "How do you do!"
Life turned into an endless medley
Of "Gee it had to be you!"
- "Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen" has lines like this.
- Raised in Funny Girl as part of a litany of attractiveness tropes women are subjected to in showbiz ("If A Girl Isn't Pretty"):
When a girl's incidentals
Are no bigger than two lentils
Then to me it doesn't spell success! - In Fangirls, this is 14-year old Brianna's biggest insecurity. During the "What If This is It?" number, she describes herself as "flat as a pancake" and declares she is "too old to not have tits".
- In Lend Me A Soprano, a Gender Flip adaptation of Lend Me a Tenor, Mrs. Wylie's assistant Jo has to wear high heels and a padded bra to pass as the more buxom Elena Firenzi. Earlier Elena gives Jo some pointers on how to project her singing voice:
Elena: Throw out your chest.
Jo(looks at her chest): Don't expect much.
- Sara Smith from Bliss Stage First and Final Act:
Sara: I'm TRYING to make my breasts look bigger... I figure that people won't take me seriously because I look like a girl, not a woman...
- Kyoko from Crescendo (JP) generally holds this attitude about herself. Granted, she's not small-chested at all, so it just ties into her other body issues.
- Toko Fukawa from Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. She'll occasionally bring up her small cup size as one of the many things she accuses the others of looking down on her for. Her Split Personality, Genocide Jack, is more about Petite Pride and snarking at the more well-endowed Asahina whenever she can.
- In a hidden changing room scene in Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, Himiko Yumeno is embarrassed that all three of her classmates present have significantly larger breasts than her, but Tenko, who clearly has a crush on her, reassures her that "they're nicely shaped".
- Erect!: Downplayed with Noelia, who doesn't have a small chest, but envies her sister's larger assets because she thinks Riel gets more attention thanks to them.
- Saber of Fate/stay night, once she starts to develop feelings for Shirou, shows discomfort over the fact that she doesn't have a better figure. During her date with Shirou at the pool in Fate/hollow ataraxia, Lancer makes the mistake of saying that a bikini is for more mature women- At which point Saber proceeds to kick his sorry ass all over the pool.
- Tsukasa from Fragment's Note acts like this often to reinforce his girly image, especially when arguing with Kazuha. Ayame, however, possesses this genuinely.
- Galaxy Angel II: On Nano-Nano's route, when she and Kazuya are having their beach date, she begins to get self-conscious upon noticing Kazuya staring at a couple of women with large chests. She then uses her Voluntary Shapeshifting ability to turn herself into a buxom blonde woman.
- Grisaia Series:
- In The Fruit of Grisaia Michiru is rather self-conscious about her modest breast size, though that is mostly because she always compares herself to her more well endowed peers at Mihama Academy.
- During one of the The Eden of Grisaia ero sidestories, the Chiara episode develops her relationship with Yuuji a bit. She has a weird habit of asking him to touch her butt and only her butt as her only way of flirting with him. Apparently, she doesn't like to think about her bust thanks to her boss being JB, who has the largest bust in the story.
- If My Heart Had Wings: Occasionally, Kotori shows nervousness that Aoi won't be as attracted to her because of her modest chest, even though she's normally pretty confident about her looks. Though considering she has Amane and Ageha to compare herself to, it's probably no wonder.
- In her own H-scene, Ayu of Kanon starts apologizing because her chest isn't as big as Nayuki's. She's not an A-cup at all and has a slightly bigger bust size than Shiori; you just can't tell most of the time since she wears a baggy coat.
- In Little Busters! Kud gets angry when Haruka starts talking about how to get a bigger chest with Kurugaya.
- Majikoi! Love Me Seriously!:
- Kazuko, aka Wanko starts to express this in her route, but the protagonist Yamato assures her that she's just fine the way she is.
- Similarly in S, Chris admits to Yamato after they start dating that she feels her chest is inadequate. She's at least a little better off than Wanko, and similarly Yamato tells her that she's fine.
- There's an optional CG where Yamato can spy on his teacher and two classmates named Chika and Mayo in a hot spring. His teacher and Chika are fine, but Mayo's expression hints some severe disappointment that she doesn't even come close to measuring up to the other two.
- Hinami from Nukitashi thinks her flat chest is the reason she isn't asked out and tries out different methods to grow it to the island standard.
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice: Princess Rayfa is strongly implied to be very insecure about her body, not helped by the fact the actress playing her in The Plumed Punisher show is quite a bit older and more well-endowed than the real one. She claims to drink lots of milk. It's not played entirely for laughs either, as Ga'ran decides to bring it up for very little reason and essentially body-shame her own daughter in front of the whole country in the finale just to add on to how horrible of a "parent" she is.
- School Days:
- Setsuna Kiyoura. It doesn't help that both her best friend (and half sister, in the games) Sekai Saionji and her love rival Kotonoha Katsura are much better endowed.
- Otome Katou has this issue due to being one of the smaller bust female characters, especially when compared to Kotonoha or her own younger sister.
- Senren * Banka: When the girls are taking a bath, Murasame becomes incredibly jealous of the assets of the other girls, especially Lena.
- Kazuna in The Shell. Reiji jokes that while her belly may be big due to pregnancy, her chest is as flat as ever.
- Song of Memories has Satsuki and Fuuka, who both are shown as having this. Satsuki is only a bit below average, but lives in a World of Buxom. Fuuka, on the other hand, not only has abnormally large boobs like the rest of the female cast, but is actually bigger than one of the people she's comparing herself to. Usually.
- Mayumi and Sage in Tick! Tack! both have pretty severe depression over their busts, though Mayumi tries to console herself by thinking of those with a fetish for bodies like hers.
- Tsukihime
- Akiha Tohno, the Tsundere Ojou, is well aware of her small assets, but that doesn't really prompt out until the more intimate scenes in her route of the game ("'I have small breasts, so I was scared you might not like them.' Akiha is blushing so hard that even her ears are turning red..."). Fanon took this aspect of her personality and ran with it.
- The sorta-sequel Kagetsu Tohya features one possible path where Shiki walks in on her changing and, for some reason, is compelled to comment that her chest is "steep as a cliffside". Unsurprisingly given the nature of the characters involved, this leads to a Bad End.
- Becomes an Ascended Meme in Carnival Phantasm when Shiki comments on how Akiha has grown in every parts except her breasts, even being regressed into a 4-years old mentally didn't stop her to turn red and presumably beat the shit out of Shiki.
- When They Cry:
- Rika Furude of Higurashi: When They Cry berates herself for this, despite being twelve years old. Rika's technically centuries old. The constant time loop that she goes through keeps reverting her physical body back to a younger time point, and she never reaches puberty. Near the end of the series, she resolves to grow up to have huge breasts, which is a lot more poignant than funny, given the context. In the anime adaptation, there's a short bit at the end of episode 5 of season 2 where Rika grabs Mion's boobs and declares "I won't lose!" And in one of the OVA episodes, she has a dream where she's a grown up Magical Girl. The first thing she does when she wakes up is feel her chest and make a sad expression.
- This is Played for Drama in Umineko: When They Cry. Word of God has stated that the very well-endowed Shannon actually has Fake Boobs. In the manga it's revealed that Sayo Yasuda, Shannon's true identity, never actually grew breasts at all, which is heavily implied to be because she was designated male at birth but Raised as the Opposite Gender due to her sexual organs being badly damaged. Since Battler (who Sayo is in love with) has often made his Buxom Beauty Standard clear, and both Shannon and Beatrice (another one of Sayo's personas) are both well-endowed, it's clear that Sayo is very insecure about this.
- Nayuta Kagura, in Yumina the Ethereal, to the point where she lies about her body measurements and to a lesser degree, Kirara Kurokawa, in which mentioning how small she is tends to elicit threats of violence from her.
- Zero Escape:
- June from Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors implies to be angsty about her breast size in a conversation with Junpei at the cargo hold. Apparently, she's not too happy that boys tend to prefer well-endowed women like Lotus.
- Phi from Virtue's Last Reward takes offense when Sigma makes an offhand remark about her unimpressive breast size, adamantly insisting that she's a C-cup. Absolutely nobody buys it.
Sigma: If you're a C-cup, I'm packing twelve inches!
- In Zero Time Dilemma, Phi now claims to be a D-cup after Sigma snarks that she's the only member of their team who can fit into an air vent. Sigma brings up the C-cup conversation from before, to which Phi responds that it's been 45 years since the last game, so she's bound to have gone up a size. Sigma again isn't buying it. First of all, they're 45 years in the past. Second, they used Mental Time Travel, and Phi spent/will spend those 45 years as a Human Popsicle, so she's physically the same age now as she was/will be in the future, give or take a few months.
- Helluva Boss: While I.M.P.'s melee expert Millie usually doesn't bring much attention to it (and her husband Moxxie certainly doesn't mind), she does imply a bit of envy for those of a curvier chest, as indicated after she loses it at C.H.E.R.U.B.'s Keenie, after C.H.E.R.U.B. once again interfered with their assassination contract. Along with calling Keenie out for her hypocritical nature and derision towards Imps, she finishes up her trio of insults with "tit-having."
- hololive
- Rushia Uruha has this as a Berserk Button anytime someone cracks jokes about this, screaming "NOT PETTAN!" and that she's "boing boing." It doesn't help she's surrounded by other bustier girls like Choco, Noel or Coco.
- Kanata Amane is also a frequent sufferer of jokes about her small chest, often insisting that she's larger than she looks or that she has Jiggle Physics. Some commentary by her artist, Oshio, reveals that, in fact, her model doesn't even have any animation on her chest at all. Oshio also takes issue whenever someone tries to draw Kanata with larger breasts, at one point jokingly threatening to burn down Hololive's office when it appeared they'd given her an upgrade.
- From the Indonesian side, we have Ollie Kureiji who continuously expresses her displeasure on her lack of assets, especially when compared to the Impossible Hourglass Figure of Moona and Reine.
- Mikeneko does not have a very large bust, insisting that she's "boing-boing"
- VShojo
- Nazuna Amemiya, a former member, is portrayed with not much endowment. She's bitter about it, insisting that she is "not pettan".
- Henya the Genius does not have a large bust either. One of her toggles has her shoving watermelons down her swimsuit.
- Story Booth: Jessica from I Was Made Fun Of For Being A Late Bloomer
suffers from this when everyone at her school starts developing early and begins teasing her over her flat chest. By the end of the video, she learns to accept her body for what it is and is less self-conscious about being small.
- Shortly played with in this episode
of Captain Disillusion, in which Lauren, the actress who plays Holly, said "What? It could've been!" in response to doubt that the boobs of the actor who'd played Mickey Mouse in an earlier episode didn't seem to be anywhere near hers. In real life, she has actually jocularly tweeted that the Captain himself had bigger boobs than she did.
- In the videos she uploads on YouTube, Tess Masazza - creator of the Italian webseries Insopportabilmente donna - seems to have a bit of a complex for her small breasts. The only moment when we see her happy during her period is when she realizes that as a side-effect they have spontaneously inflated (and she immediately starts shooting selfies in her bathroom).
- Foxy from Zorak's let's play of Pokémon Quartz after a certain trainer told her to take off her pants and jacket and then losing:
Roker(sic) Travis: All the small things...
Foxy: Hey, I’m not that old, I know I’ll fill out later. - Minnie in Tittie Tussle is flat-chested and aspires to have a bigger bussom with the Tittie Totem's power.
- 6teen
- Despite not being flat-chested, Jen is this (especially around her sister, who is much more buxom).
- Conversely, Caitlin is flat-chested, and is revealed to pad her bra.
- American Dad!: This is one of the reasons that Hayley is such a bitch, as she's apparently bitter about not "filling out" the way she wanted. The episode "1600 Candles" had a flashback to her early teens when she angrily screams at her parents "This is as big as they're gonna get?!".
- As Told by Ginger:
- An episode revolves around Courtney Gripling taking a high-school French class. She wants to get closer with an older boy who she has a crush on but doesn't want to look too young, and her breasts make this obvious (she is 12 years old at the time). She stuffs her breasts to make herself look older.
- Another episode has her stuff her bikini top for a pool party. Ginger knows that some other kids are planning to steal her top, and the fact that Courtney stuffs is treated as at least as humiliating as the possibility that she could wind up flashing everybody what she does have.
- Braceface: Title character Sharon Spitz is constantly and excessively insecure about her chest, being completely flat-chested. So much so in fact that she tried on one episode to increase her breast size with a pneumatic pump.
- Cow and Chicken: Done in a metaphorical way in the episode "Horn Envy". In this case, Cow is bitter about her horns not being big enough to get the attention of the boy she likes, but the whole thing plays out as if she was a human girl who's unhappy with her cup size. It's made particularly obvious when one of Cow's friends encourages her to wear a bra padded with toilet paper over her head to give the illusion of bigger horns.
- King of the Hill: In "Naked Ambition", Connie is revealed to be jealous of Luanne, to the point where, having apparently caught Bobby and Joseph trying to peep at her, she's disappointed to learn that Joseph was trying to see Luanne instead.
Why would anyone look at me when they could look at her?
- The Nutshack: Implied for Chita. In "Got Surgery", it's revealed that she has breast implants, and a flashback shows that she had a small chest.
- In the Pepper Ann episode "In Support Of", the 12-year-old eponymous main character becomes self-conscious about her lack of breast development after misinterpreting her gym teacher telling her students to get "support" to mean a bra rather than a spotter for the trampoline.
- Subtly done in Phineas and Ferb. Candace goes to Jeremy's pool party, but when she sees him there, he's chatting with a blonde, busty, curvy girl who's wearing the same swimsuit as her. When Stacy tries to calm her down after she freaks out, Candace responds with "She wears [the swimsuit] better!".
- A throwaway line hints that Angelica is this on Rugrats: All Grown Up!. Apparently, she's a little bitter that her bra-stuffing campaign didn't turn out the guys like she wanted. Considering she practically has no breasts even when she stuffs her bra, one wonders if her chest is concave without it.
- South Park: Parodied (what else?) in the episode "Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society" when the underaged Wendy gets jealous of the male attention Bebe's receiving due to her early breast development. Wendy goes as far to get implants, but unfortunately for her, the boys get over their preteen obsession at the end of the episode and she's laughed at.

