Social History of Breast Size

Easy to forget that there've been times when small breasts, even flat chests were considered more desirable. Should one blame Hugh Hefner or a secret cabal of plastic surgeons?

A short look at the prehistory and history of the female breast.

The details remain sketchy, but evolution can give us a plausible account, says Bobbi Lowe, a biologist at the University of Michigan. At some point it all goes back to fertility. Women who could pack on fat reserves were more fertile, and men who chose them had more offspring. Men with a taste for fat reserves and their fat-loving genes proliferated. Faced with this, women who could create obvious, showy pockets of fat also left more offspring because they attracted more devotion from males. They began to put fat on the buttocks, hips and breasts.

Which breast is best? The timing matters