Cup Size in Stories

[ElectricBlue]

200ml? What are you drinking, EB? A short black?

I must confess, I have much larger heart starter coffees in the morning,

 

[KeithD]

My coffee maker claims I'm having four and a half cups, but I can get it into my coffee mug in three goes, so I have three cups. I only have it four times a week, though.

 

[YDB95]

For the most part, I refer directly to cup sizes if it's relevant to the story. In my "D Cup Blues" series, the title refers to a character who struggles to come to terms with being well-endowed, so in that case it's fairly central to the story. I can only think of one other story offhand where I've mentioned a character's cup size.

 

[tenyari]

Bra sizes in fiction are shorthand for ample or wanting and a signal to the fetishist the author is courting.

If you aren't that audience

Honestly even when I -AM- catering to that fetish I'd prefer to be descriptive than to put in a number.

If I write something very full of ample juicy natural and swaying description, I am going to assume the reader has a much better mental picture to get excited over than if I write "38.739^2n-1 D boobs". Unless like... they're into math-porn.

 

[TruthwithaTwist]

I find this discussion fascinating. I never realized that using what I thought was a standard descriptor of breast size was so controversial ! Thanks to all for your thoughts & input!

 

[TruthwithaTwist]

Bra sizes in fiction are shorthand for ample or wanting and a signal to the fetishist the author is courting.

I feel like this is a bit much, TBH. I’m not courting fetishists by saying my wife has 38c breasts. Nor is it shorthand. Up until today, I viewed it as a different way of describing part of the female body. It‘s not something I use regularly & I’ll consider avoiding in the future.

 

[AlinaX]

For the most part, I refer directly to cup sizes if it's relevant to the story. In my "D Cup Blues" series, the title refers to a character who struggles to come to terms with being well-endowed, so in that case it's fairly central to the story. I can only think of one other story offhand where I've mentioned a character's cup size.

Is she wishing her breasts were only a D cup?

 

[YDB95]

Is she wishing her breasts were only a D cup?

Only one way to find out.
https://literotica.com/s/d-cup-blues

 

[Filipinawife]

32b

 

[tenyari]

I feel like this is a bit much, TBH. I’m not courting fetishists by saying my wife has 38c breasts. Nor is it shorthand. Up until today, I viewed it as a different way of describing part of the female body.

I don't know about other posters here, but I will use 'fetish' without intending anything negative.

Erotica is basically themed for things we're "into" and the ideal ways to describe that would be fetishes or kinks.

I don't see '38D' as negative. Just lacking in emotional impact and description.

If I write a guy by typing "he was 5'10", 178lbs, 37 years old, brown eyed, short black hair, and tanned" it reads like a police report or driver's license, not a character description. '38D' is that for one aspect of a female description. Too mechanical, lacking in feeling.

 

[hot hugo]

32b

Firm and very sexy…

 

[Handley_Page]

So, I’ve now received a few negative comments about using “cup size” to describe women’s breasts in stories. (Yes, all anonymous!!!) They claim that nobody would describe womens breasts like that (or using inches for men.)

I beg to differ. I know my wife is a 38C. She used to be a 34A before kids. I knew the bra sizes of past girlfriends, too. I sometimes used them to give imagery of size in my stories. What are other authors’ thoughts?

Do these readers want me to use fruit comparisons? Tangerines? Grapefruits? Glass size! Champagne glass? Gallon jugs? Sports metaphors? Softballs? Badminton shuttlecock?

I jest … but am curious for thoughts.

Anything more than a handful is a waste

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I don't write a lot of erotica, but what I have written has been exclusively from a male first-person perspective.

With erotica, I write for two people only: myself and my MMC. If the guy is someone who is into breasts, the narrative will likely be more descriptive of a woman's mammary attributes than if the guy is attracted more by legs, asses, or other features. A perv character who drools over a woman's breasts is going to express that fixation in the narrative. Not doing so would be disingenuous to that character.

The advantage of writing C/FF stories is that physical descriptions can be seriously redacted or eliminated entirely. If a reader wants details, they can Google a picture of the celebrity. I did have the MMC once comment on Michelle Pfeiffer teasingly being referred to as a "Rip Curl Girl" when she was younger because she had been as "flat as a surfboard".

 

[Bazzle]

This gets discussed every few months here, but TLDR: it depends on your target audience. Some people like that kind of thing, some don't, it's up to you how far you want to cater to that portion of the audience. I tend to click out of stories that mention cup size early on because from experience those tend not to be the kinds of stories that interest me, but there are zillions of readers who feel differently.

One thing to consider is that while you may know exactly what a 38C looks like, not all readers do, and some only think they know. Measurements like "DD" may have connotations in erotica that don't match what they mean in real life, so the picture you conjure in a reader's head may not always be the one you were aiming for.

I've just written a story where the women has 36C, bra size, its a true story, and she is quite proud of them.
When they flump out against her skin as the bra cup is removed, the size earlier on in the story helps?

But I dont think giving "Top Trumps" type measurements in the opening sentence is great. I will give you that.

I try to think about where this information might appear. They rummage around in the knicker drawer and pull out their lacy size 12 knickers?

You can portray the stats in different ways?

As my girls tend to put on weight, they tend to complain about their sizes to each other, helping the reader envisage?

But the short of it is. Maybe cup size could be measured by cup, pint, jug, needing a crane...

B

 

[MajorRewrite]

We may have Playboy to thank for the common use of measurements. They provided a set of measurements like 36D-24-36 in the data for their centerfold models.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I beg to differ. I know my wife is a 38C. She used to be a 34A before kids. I knew the bra sizes of past girlfriends, too. I sometimes used them to give imagery of size in my stories. What are other authors’ thoughts?

I'm a woman who's done more than a little bra shopping. And a fair amount of cosying up to other women and their breasts...

Yes, I understand bra sizes, but it's a very flat unemotional way to describe a figure. You're basically saying your wife used to be slim and flat-chested and now she's fatter with small-to-medium tits. I'm sure she's lovely, but it's hardly an erotic description!

Mention a slim, lithe lass needing only a flimsy bra to cover up adorable nipples, or a woman benefitting from pregnancy by acquiring bigger breasts that fill your hands perfectly... that's starting to be interesting.

Also you may understand bra sizes but many authors don't. A D cup isn't big, unless you're somewhere like Japan. Where's the GG cups? (on my chest, actually, and no, they're not huge, just a bit above average). K, L or M - that's large breasts that you'd notice, but even people writing stories about big breasts don't get into those letters.

Several American brands start using triple letters after DD so get through the alphabet slower than European brands which only use letters and double letters. Add non-recognition of metric vs inch band sizes, and whatever that Australian number comes from, and you're going to confuse a large chunk of readers by using bra sizes. Don't get me started on sizes varying between bra brands...

 

[Bazzle]

I'm a woman who's done more than a little bra shopping. And a fair amount of cosying up to other women and their breasts...

Yes, I understand bra sizes, but it's a very flat unemotional way to describe a figure. You're basically saying your wife used to be slim and flat-chested and now she's fatter with small-to-medium tits. I'm sure she's lovely, but it's hardly an erotic description!

Mention a slim, lithe lass needing only a flimsy bra to cover up adorable nipples, or a woman benefitting from pregnancy by acquiring bigger breasts that fill your hands perfectly... that's starting to be interesting.

Also you may understand bra sizes but many authors don't. A D cup isn't big, unless you're somewhere like Japan. Where's the GG cups? (on my chest, actually, and no, they're not huge, just a bit above average). K, L or M - that's large breasts that you'd notice, but even people writing stories about big breasts don't get into those letters.

Several American brands start using triple letters after DD so get through the alphabet slower than European brands which only use letters and double letters. Add non-recognition of metric vs inch band sizes, and whatever that Australian number comes from, and you're going to confuse a large chunk of readers by using bra sizes. Don't get me started on sizes varying between bra brands...

Yes, even in clothing sizing- a size 12 in the UK is different in different shops, and is nothing to do with the US measurements? Size 0 anyone?

In a novel they are either going to say small or large chested if they say anything at all?

In erotica you might describe the areola as a large purple dinner plate with a cherry on top if you wanted to avoid saying they had 36DD chest?

 

[MajorRewrite]

A D cup isn't big, unless you're somewhere like Japan.

Even the word “big” is open to individual interpretation! Breasts that fit a 34D look big to me.

Referring back to my comment about Playboy using measurements, most Playmates were in the 34C to 36D range.

 

[Bazzle]

In another story I am currently avoiding writing, again without describing the size of the breast I have written

"Abigail replied and then smiled as she watched as Leanne then stuffed the cigarette pack inside the bottom of her bra. Abigail was used to seeing her do that. As Leanne used her bra to carry most things around like money, keys, pens and even paper, it saved her taking a bag as her cups are so large, she is known on a night out to have a couple of vodka miniatures and a condom or two squished against her large soft breasts."

Descriptive enough? No need for the actual size?

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Celeb breasts from 1960s to now, with sizes

The Sun newspaper always had a topless teenager on Page Three, until about ten years ago, who usually had C or D breasts - but most women continue growing after 16 and certainly put weight on. So while I generally couldn't recommend them as a newspaper, this is their specialist subject! Lovely photo of Halle Berry, a 34DD apparently.

Figures have changed over the last 50 years, as well as bras changing in structure - with the invention of Lycra bras could be snugger in the band and cups could enhance rather than squash larger breasts.

 

[AlinaX]

Cup sizes can be useful, though.

She picked up her groceries and fled, her heart pounding, her thoughts in a whirl. Her mother, at home and in the kitchen, started whining about how long Rachel had taken, but fell silent and stared in shock at Rachel's breasts.

Rachel retreated and fled to her room. She stripped out of her T-shirt and stared at her reflection in the mirror. There was no denying it. Her breasts had grown. Her B cups had turned into a pair of very perky DDs. How, she had no idea, but...

 

[SimonDoom]

I had a reader recently leave me a critical comment for mentioning in my story that the main character had a C cup. I don't usually do that, and I suppose in that particular story it wasn't necessary. It all depends on the story. Some people have a fetishy, kinky interest in bra sizes, and there's nothing wrong, IMO, if you want to write your story to appeal to that interest. But if that's NOT the point of the story, then it's usually not necessary, and it may come across in some cases as juvenile. I think it's usually better to describe bodies in a more suggestive way that gives the reader room to fill in the details in their minds in a way that appeals to them.

 

[tnhardon]

So, I’ve now received a few negative comments about using “cup size” to describe women’s breasts in stories. (Yes, all anonymous!!!) They claim that nobody would describe womens breasts like that (or using inches for men.)

I beg to differ. I know my wife is a 38C. She used to be a 34A before kids. I knew the bra sizes of past girlfriends, too. I sometimes used them to give imagery of size in my stories. What are other authors’ thoughts?

Do these readers want me to use fruit comparisons? Tangerines? Grapefruits? Glass size! Champagne glass? Gallon jugs? Sports metaphors? Softballs? Badminton shuttlecock?

I jest … but am curious for thoughts.

Personally, I like measurements over comparing them to something that could vary in size (like fruit or other objects). Like you, I’ve known what size bra my significant others have had. I do think it can be less sensual to just list a bra size, rather than describing them. But, I have an easier job imagining them with a bra size.

 

[32aa]

I do both.

"She smiled nervously and watched as I burned the image of each of her A-cup morsels into my brain for future reference.

Two half-apple swells of soft feminine flesh adorned her smooth chest."

 

[John_Vandermeer]

While we are at it, other relevant aspects other than size that people care and write about? Spherical? Conical? That sounds very geometric I know, but you get the idea. I know I've written about a sloping valley between them. Rather than a deep and narrow canyon, say.