Beauty can be defined as a combination of qualities of a person or object that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure, meaning, or satisfaction and that are aesthetically pleasing to the senses. While we are told as young children that beauty lies within, in today’s world for many people, that is regretfully untrue. We live in a very superficial society where most everyone is judged by their physical appearance. We are forced to change our values and purely focus on our appearance in order to be accepted and feel wanted. In recent years, the desire to be “beautiful” has become an obsession for many, leading sometimes to devastating consequences. The pressure to be beautiful relates to women’s studies and feminism because as supporters, we want females to love their bodies and feel comfortable in their own skin and not to feel like they have to conform to certain standards set by society. In other terms, we want them to feel comfortable just being themselves. In The New York Times’ article entitled “For the A-Cup Crowd, Minimal Assets Are a Plus,” writer Catherine Saint Louis discusses the issue of breast size. In current times, it is widely accepted that “bigger is better” and that to be sexually desirable and attractive, one must have large breasts (C cup or larger). She states that it is commonly assumed that small-breasted women feel that nature’s lottery has left them coming up short; however, over the past couple of years, this ideology is slowly beginning to transform. In the article, she interviews several owners of bra boutiques and discovers that many of their customers that are ironing-board flat are indeed very happy with their bodies. She also finds that over the past couple of years, sales in bra sizes AAA-A cups have tremendously increased and that people with smaller breasts aren’t looking for push-up bras to seem more voluptuous up top, rather they just want a style that will give support and patterns that will make them feel sexy, unlike the teenage polka dot training bras that they were used to wearing. Additionally, Saint Louis learned that “members” of the small-breast club become outraged when they get word that other members have given in to society and gotten breast implants. In this article, several key issues are raised, including social conformity and the pressure to fit in, and the beauty/body myth. The social conformity issue is a large one. Big-breasted models are the only ones seen gracing the pages of Victoria’s Secret catalogs and sexual ads. Popular sex symbols such as Pamela Anderson and Megan Fox all have large breasts as well. It is no surprise that through the media and society, most women today feel that they have to have large breasts in order to be seen as beautiful and having a desirable body. This fact is quite obvious as shown by the figures—in 2007, there were an estimated 307,230 breast implant procedures, making the industry a multi-million dollar one. Each year, this number has steadily risen, showing the effects of social pressure and people’s desire to fit in. Another key issue raised in the article is the beauty/body myth. Standards of beauty are always changing, depending upon what the culture sees as valuable at the given time. As stated before, in the society that we live in today, being big-breasted is a standard of beauty for women. According to Naomi Wolf, author of The Beauty Myth, the “beauty myth” is a political way of maintaining the patriarchal system, which is based on male power. She states that it keeps women under control by the weight of their own insecurities. So in relation to this topic, Wolf would agree that because small-breasted women do not fit into the standard of beauty, they are suppressed by the myth. In my opinion, this article frames women and feminism in a very positive way. It also provides an optimistic outlook for the way that things will be in the future relating to social conformity and the beauty/body myth. Because it tells of how women are becoming more and more comfortable with their bodies, at least in the area of breast size, it sends the message that today’s women are getting their priorities more in order and that they are now able to focus on more important things besides just their appearance. I believe that this is a big step for women and feminism because as women feel less and less suppressed by society and/or men, they have more of an opportunity to get their goals accomplished and set out to do things to make society a better place for everyone. The only thing I feel that is missing in this article is how women are feeling about other aspects of themselves besides just breast-size, whether it be appearance-wise or just in general. In order to overcome the confines of social pressure and the beauty myth, one must feel comfortable in most all aspects, not just one. I feel that although the article portrayed women and feminism in such a good light, it sort of skews people’s impressions since they are unaware of everything else and are only informed of the issues related to breast size. All in all, I really enjoyed reading this article and am very pleased with how things seem to be looking up in the society that we live in. It seems that we, as a whole, are overcoming social conventions set forth upon us, slowly but surely. As this is a gradual process and I am sure that it will take years and years to completely overcome (if that’s possible), it is refreshing to know that progress is indeed being made.