So what's the deal with Britney Spears's breasts?

November 15, 2006 5:46 AM

So what's the deal with Britney Spears's breasts?

If you will look in this pictorial history of Britney Spears' breasts, you can see that their size has changed quite a bit over the years. Now an initial increase I can understand (although is it possible for a 17-year-old's breasts to naturally increase that much in size in only six months?) What doesn't make sense is how they later seem to decrease and then increase repeatedly (also shown in this Flash movie). Is this possible through artful use of padding and pressing? How big are her breasts, really?

posted by rwatson to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (23 answers total)

Uh, nothing in that pictorial history strikes me as particularly suspicious. Padding and taping could definitely explain size changes.
posted by robinpME at 5:56 AM on November 15, 2006

(although is it possible for a 17-year-old's breasts to naturally increase that much in size in only six months?)

I haven't looked at the link because I'm at work, but anecdotally, I went from a B cup to an E cup around the age of 18. I put on a little weight, maybe 10lb or so, but it did seem quite a disproportionate increase. (I've since lost the weight, and remain a DD)
posted by corvine at 5:56 AM on November 15, 2006

It is possible. The initial increase isn't the curious thing in my opinion. The increase-decrease-increase-decrease cycle is odd.

Yeah, what IS up with that?
posted by necessitas at 6:11 AM on November 15, 2006

didn't she have two kids? ... that could change things, too ... in any case, there was a video linked to on metafilter where she talked inanities with her soon to be ex and judging from the t shirt and how it looked, i'm inclined to believe that she's got a pretty good figure ... it was an obviously casual moment, no fakery involved
posted by pyramid termite at 6:13 AM on November 15, 2006

what i mean is that two pregnancies could easily account for the increase/decrease cycle
posted by pyramid termite at 6:14 AM on November 15, 2006

Gain weight, gain breasts (I gained 50 lbs when I quit smoking, and got 2 cup sizes with it.) Tone harder, lose breasts. (Look at gymnasts.) I imagine when she's on tour, she has smaller breasts because she's working out every single day, and when she's in studio on a more relaxed schedule, she has larger breasts.

(And the link included there failed to show any of the new pics, where one of her breasts is larger than the other- possibly due to uneven breastfeeding. Sometimes one breast works better than the other, so the other dries up and shrinks while the other stays swollen.)
posted by headspace at 6:18 AM on November 15, 2006

Pyramid termite, the pregnancies started in 2004, where that boob chronicle takes place in 1998-2002.

AwfulPlasticSurgery.com theorizes swelling from surgery and switching implant sizes in and out explain the size changes.
posted by Anonymous at 6:19 AM on November 15, 2006

Response by poster: Her first child was not born until 14 September 2005, according to Wikipedia. This is well after all of the photos on the first page linked.
posted by rwatson at 6:19 AM on November 15, 2006

Padded tops obviously. I don't see any conspiracy.
posted by JJ86 at 6:39 AM on November 15, 2006

Very few of those photos can't be explained by costume choices - and possibly (probably) one boob job at the beginning of the series couple with some weight gain/loss. The one that's the most difficult to reconcile is the one from Crossroads - but it doesn't seem all that unlikely to me that they just digitally edited any scenes in the movie where her boobs are as visible as that one. Of course, I haven't seen the movie, so maybe that's all the scenes, in which case, it's less likely.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:17 AM on November 15, 2006

Some of the photos (such as the one for the Rolling Stone cover or the one above it) can easily be done due to poses or angles. In the Rolling Stone one, she is simply squishing her breasts together; in the other, both of her arms are raised, which would stretch out the breast (and thus make them look smaller). The others can be attributed to puberty (especially between the first and second), weight gain/loss, exercise, and padding used for the outfits and/or poses and movement.

The only one that stands out is the one for "Crossroads," where her breasts seem really small. Other scenes from the movie (SFW) show her of an equally smaller size.

I've put too much into this response.
posted by itchie at 7:35 AM on November 15, 2006

Be wary of using professional photos as reference. Especially as they appear in print. Everything gets retouched.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:02 AM on November 15, 2006

So, what's the deal with rwatson's package? What doesn't make sense is how is seems to increase and decrease repeatedly. How big is his junk, really?
posted by DawnSimulator at 8:42 AM on November 15, 2006

why that depends on how hard you rub ...
posted by pyramid termite at 8:44 AM on November 15, 2006

Response by poster: I only wish my package could increase in volume as much as Britney's has.
posted by rwatson at 8:48 AM on November 15, 2006

Do you think it's possible, just possible that she's had some kind of plastic surgery? Not very likely I know, but I thought I'd put it out there...
posted by ob at 9:04 AM on November 15, 2006

As I understand it, she had implants put it when she was pretty young (like maybe 16). I heard she later got them taken out in her early 20's. I think I also heard that she got them in again shortly thereafter, but better proportioned to her body, more natural etc. Could be wrong on that last time though. Even though the latest pics aren't on those pages, I hear she breastfed Sean Preston and is feeding Jayden James as well, which would account for their current full state. However, I've also heard that you can't breastfeed with fake breasts and I don't know if that's true or she got them taken out a second time (or if there were even put back in a second time). I am confident about the original enlargement and subsequent removal though.

This is all hearsay based on my unhealthy obsession with celebrity gossip.
posted by ml98tu at 9:08 AM on November 15, 2006

I find it so funny that the concensus here seems to be that she hasn't had implants. Look at the second photo, from May 1999, in that gallery. Notice how full her breasts are, even at the top? And how low her nipples are? Those are recent implants--probably over the muscle wall. (It can take months for them to "settle.")

The way her breasts look in that October 2001 photo--also pretty indicative of implants too. It's possible that she wasn't happy with her first job. Or maybe that photo of her from February 2001 is just a matter of her pose and she's had only one job.

These are not the boobs of a breastfeeding woman. (SFW) Implants, people!

And to echo what Thorzdad said, retouching: it's de rigeur.
posted by veronica sawyer at 9:33 AM on November 15, 2006

(oh jesus I can't believe I know this, and I do contend that this is a remarkably... odd question, but here goes...)

Right after Britney got with Fed-Ex, there were some pictures of her out and about, sans bra, with a very thin t-shirt. They were all there, on display for the world, and I can tell you that there is no way that breasts that have been operated on would droop and hang like that. They were definitely one hundred percent natural. Some similar pictures of her while pregnant continue to confirm my belief. And I should know -- I live in L.A. And breasts are my passion.

I wasn't going to look for the pictures, but then I decided that I should make this the definitive post on the subject. Because I'd really like to be known for this on askme.

Implanted breasts don't point downward like this. NSFW!

Still more evidence. NSFW!

And more NSFW!

While pregnant NSFW!

Here's an example of the major bra action that can alter the shape of the boobs.

It's all costuming and airbrushing and bras and so on, as well as losing weight and gaining weight and growing older. All that gossip tabloid crap about 'she put them in, she took them out' is total bullshit. One of the gossip rags mistook my friend for a real estate agent once, and kept publishing his picture with his famous friends and he became known as the real estate agent to the stars. He never corrected them: it was too funny.
posted by incessant at 9:41 AM on November 15, 2006

Implants do indeed point down. Especially when they're new.

They also can point down because the shape of the breast before the augmentation determines the shape afterward. (See here, NSFW.)
posted by veronica sawyer at 9:54 AM on November 15, 2006

Even though I'm fully aware everyone boobs are different, I've owned D/DD breasts since I was 16 years old. They've never fluctuated like that, not even with 50lbs worth of weightloss (I went down half a cup size and that was about it). They grew, they stopped, they stayed there. You couldn't possibly recreate what I have from the barely-there chest she has in Crossroads.

And the sagging that comes with a large chest? Makes it impossible to ever go sans bra. You'd be hard pressed to find any woman with a bra size over a B cup that would ever go out in public with no support and keep them in perfect shape after 10 minutes. It's just not going to happen with natural breasts.

She has implants, yes. But she also has a very very good surgeon. Probably shares him with Lindsay Lohan.

And we care about this, why?

Probably for the same reasons you posted this snark: because we can.
posted by saturnine at 1:34 PM on November 15, 2006

I agree with saturnine, from personal experience. If her boobs were ever bigger than a B naturally, she wouldn't be going braless so often. The only women who can wear strapless bras are the ones who don't need them, and often in those pics she's not wearing anything at all. It looks to me like in all the picture that show her having big boobs - she's wearing a bra. Implants, possibly some wonderbras.
posted by jesirose at 9:32 PM on November 15, 2006

Hmm, well I went from a big C to a small B with the loss of 20 or so pounds, so weight fluctuation plus padding doesn't seem too unreasonable to me.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 10:00 PM on November 15, 2006