The downside of big breasts? Verbal abuse and assault… from other women, scientists say

FORGET about back pain, expensive bras and malicious looks from strangers.

The downside of having larger breasts is experiencing aggression and verbal abuse from other women, researchers say.

A new to study by researchers at Texas A&M International University suggests this may be because women with larger breasts are considered competitors.

“Given the great importance that men attach to the morphology of women’s breasts – especially the size – women, in general, are aware of this factor”, said the researchers, led by Ray Garza.

That’s right. By the reasoning of the authors (both men), having larger ta-tas makes women more desirable to men, causing other women to perceive them as a threat.

“Physicist characteristics that are desired by the opposite sex can generate competition between members of the same sex to gain access to potential partners,” they claimed.

“Women’s breast morphology can drive competitive tactics in women, where women with desirable breasts can serve as direct competitors.”

The study team decided to investigate whether the shape and size of a woman’s breasts would make other women more verbally aggressive toward her.

Writing in the study, published in SexesAssistant Professor Garza explained: “Men’s desired physical characteristics may drive intrasexual competition tactics in women.

“In the current study, we tested the role of breast morphology in impacting the likelihood of women engaging in rival derogation tactics, such as verbal and indirect aggression.

“Additionally, we tested whether women’s intrasexual competitiveness was associated with an increase in rival derogation.

“Overall, women were more likely to engage in rival derogation toward women with larger breasts, particularly sizes C and D, compared to those with smaller breasts.”

He continued: “The large size of breasts in other women leads women to perceive them as a sexual threat and to adopt tactics to compete with them, such as improving their own appearance.

“Furthermore, given that women are more likely to utilize non-physical means in their tactics to derogate a rival, it was predicted that women would engage in non-physical tactics to derogate women with attractive breast morphology.”

One hundred and fourteen women from Texas A&M International University participated in the online study in exchange for course credit.

They all identified as heterosexual, with 29 percent reporting being single and 71 percent in a relationship.

All but three of the participants were Hispanic women, with the remainder being white.

The women were evaluated using the Buunk and Fisher Intrasexual Competition Scale.

It asked them to respond to statements (which certainly wouldn’t win awards for their feminism) like “I can’t stand it when I meet another woman who is more attractive than me”.

The response options ranged from “totally disagree” – which scored one – to “totally agree”, with a score of seven.

“Higher scores on the measure indicate a greater propensity to participate in same-sex competitions, whereas lower scores indicate a lower propensity for same-sex competitions,” the researchers explained.

Participants were also asked how likely they were to be verbally aggressive toward another woman—for example, yelling at her, calling her names, or saying something offensive to her—or being indirectly aggressive by gossiping maliciously or spreading harmful rumors.

Finally, they were asked to view 12 images of women’s breasts and evaluate how verbally and indirectly aggressive they were towards the woman.

The images were manipulated to represent different sizes and different levels of sagging – called ptosis by the researchers.

Only the woman’s torso and breasts were visible in each image.

“Overall, breast size contributed to rivalry in derogation of other women, with women with larger breasts more likely to be victims of verbal and indirect aggression,” investigators said.

The researchers said women were more likely to be verbally abusive or aggressive toward women with D and C breast sizes compared to those with smaller breasts.

Although the exact reasoning for this is still unclear, Professor Garza and his colleague Dr Farid Pazhoohi have suggested that aggression may result from women with larger breasts being perceived as competition.

“It has been suggested that women have psychological mechanisms that lead them to compete with other women, particularly in the area of ​​mating,” they said.

“If men find women with large, non-ptotic breasts attractive, women may be more vigilant around those with this breast morphology and adopt tactics to mitigate the competitive risk these women present.”

Saggier breasts did not appear to trigger aggressive behavior, with the researchers saying this may be related to the age of the participants.

‘”Breast ptosis is often a marker of a woman’s age, as ptosis increases as women age.

“Our participants were young and may pay more attention to breast size as this is more easily discernible among women their age compared to sagging levels; therefore, they do not consider women as competitive rivals based on variations in ptosis,” said the .

In another chest NewsDr Philippa Kaye recently revealed weird facts you might not know about your own breasts – from why your nipples get hard when it’s cold to breast orgasms.

However, radiologists argued that bras are “essential” to women’s health and should be exempt from VAT.