A-Cup Angst

Many works are set in a culture where the common assumption is that "Buxom Is Better". This standard of female beauty can be a challenge for women with smaller breasts, and while some wear the "ironing board" title with pride, others are plagued by problems of low self-esteem as a result of their... un-bustiness.

This can be for a variety of reasons, but the most common anxieties are that she'll look less sexy to a Love Interest, be mistaken for a child or a man, or be treated as underdeveloped and immature because of her small chest.

In fiction you frequently see this with teenage and preteen girls, disappointed that they're not as "mature" as their older sisters or more-developed peers, before ultimately learning An Aesop to love their body no matter what final shape it takes. It can easily become Hilarious in Hindsight if the character or the actress portraying her grows up and becomes quite big-breasted as an adult.

Things commonly done by this type of small chested woman:

Wearing loose clothing so that it's harder to guess the size of her chest. Trying to make herself appear more busty than she really is, possibly by using a push-up bra or Fake Boobs. Getting offended (and sometimes violent) when other people comment on the smallness of her breasts. Jealously staring at another girl's huge breasts at the beach, at the pool, or in the changing room. While the trope is named after one of the smallest standard bra cup sizesnote , for an Alliterative Name, the interesting thing is that a lady doesn't have to be "flat" or even remarkably small-chested in order to suffer from this anxiety. It's a state of mind that depends on what beauty ideal or peer group the character is comparing herself to, so even a girl or woman who fills a C-cup may feel inadequate in the presence of another who's an E-cup. Messages from the media, lack of self-esteem, or even just happening to associate with women who are bustier than average (sometimes the result of being the token average person in a World of Buxom) can give a female character a distorted image of what counts as "small".

Subtrope of Appearance Angst. Contrast Petite Pride for women who are small-breasted and proud. For "assets" on the other side of the spectrum, compare Big-Breast Pride and D-Cup Distress. See also Baby Don't Got Back, for the similar reaction to another body part. For the Spear Counterparts, see Muscle Angst and Teeny Weenie.

Anime Fanspeak refers to this type of character as a "Pettanko" (roughly, "completely flat").

Straight: Alice is extremely unhappy because she has an A-cup chest. Exaggerated: Alice goes to extreme lengths to hide her small chest, including wearing extremely baggy clothes to make it appear like she's hiding a large chest. Alice is Driven to Suicide because she has a concave chest. Downplayed: Alice, while not happy about her small chest, doesn't make too much of a deal out of it, mostly just making self-deprecating jokes about how she could pass for a boy or something. Alice has a respectable bust size, but is still jealous of women with bigger ones. Alice seems vaguely disappointed while in the locker room, or other places where women change clothes together. Justified: People think Alice is underage because of her small chest, or she can't land a date because she's often compared to the contrasting Bobbi. Bonus points if Alice is Really 700 Years Old and stays as a first-grader physique forever, much to her dismay. People think Alice is underage because of her small chest...in a dirty way. Alice lives in a society where women with small breasts are seen as inferior to women with big breasts and gets teased/harassed badly because of it. Alice is still young, by the time she grows... Alice is often mistaken for a guy due to her lack of breasts. A flat chest is only part of the major issue that Alice is having with the body she was born with. Alice's breasts are too small to find any well-fitting bras, or her breasts forcefully make her to waste time at the children's department to look for designs that aren't too infantile. Inverted: Alice considers her nearly flat chest her most attractive feature. Bobbi is incredibly displeased with her D-cup chest. Subverted: Someone is worried Alice has this problem, but she doesn't seem to mind having a small chest, or she was just joking. It's shown that Bobbi has back troubles because of her overly large chest. Alice gets mad whenever someone calls her "washboard" — not because of her flat chest, but because her abs aren't toned enough for that yet. Alice has an A-cup chest and dislikes it, not because it's too small, but because he is a Transgender man who would rather be called Alan. Alice's insecurity about her bust size is initially assumed by others to be this, but then her clothes are removed to reveal that she has a buxom chest that she doesn't like. Double Subverted: But her boyfriend/chaser makes her extremely uncomfortable since he always Baby Talk with her and treats her in strange condescending ways. due to the fact that he is actually a Loophole Abuse pedophile who only likes her small breasts for a fetishized reason. Alternately, the joke gets her thinking about her breasts, leading to this trope. Alice doesn't care that giant boobs cause back troubles; she still envies Bobbi. ...But she gets mad when people confuse her gender and don't let her enter the women's restroom/locker room since she has toned muscles and lacks of breasts. Alice is actually a transgender woman and she still presents as "Alan" to avoid being harassed or something else. Parodied: Alice has a C-cup chest but all her friends have E-cups or greater, so she still complains at regular intervals about her lack of chest size. Alice has an H-cup chest but still thinks she's too small. The reason being that every other woman has I-cups and greater. Alice goes bonkers whenever she hears the word "flat", even when it's used in a context that has nothing to do with her. When asked about why she wants large breasts, Alice says she wants all the problems D-Cup Distress brings (back pains, expensive custom clothes, etc.). Turns out she just likes seeing how green the other side's grass is. Even some of the men have bigger chests than Alice does. All girls in this work have the same breast size and body type, but Alice still thinks her breasts are too small. Zig Zagged: Some days she feels inadequate. Other days, she doesn't mind at all. And once in a while, she is extremely happy that she doesn't have the same back troubles as Bobbi. And in some situations she even wish her breasts being completely absent for less attention from men. Alice has Poland syndrome, which cause her underdevelopment of her one boob, much to her dismay, while another side is a gigantic buxom breast that she doesn't like whatsoever. Averted: Alice never has any issues regarding her bust size, or she is average sized or well-endowed. Enforced: Alice is the star of a new series aimed at younger girls, so she's given a smaller chest to appear younger to help her relate with the target audience. Alice is the star of a comic in a women's beauty magazine. Alice's experimenting with supposed methods for a bigger chest serves as a medium for the author's advice to women regarding that subject. Lampshaded: Alice looks down her shirt, and says to her breasts, "Where are you guys?" Invoked: The very busty Bobbi routinely flaunts herself around Alice to stir up feelings of inadequacy in Alice. Alice gets a job as a stripper or porn star, and since the laws don't allow seemingly underage people to work as sex workers, she starts worrying that her breast size won't allow her to pass the Censorship Bureau. Alice, tired of My Girl Is Not a Slut treatments and/or Lolicon fetishists due to her breasts size, starts seeking methods to make her become more busty. Exploited: Bobbi, of the Invoked example, notices Alice's preexisting angst, and flaunts herself to bruise Alice's self-esteem further, knowing that she would ask Charlie for a date as a measure to reinforce said bruised self-esteem. Bobbi does this because she knows Alice and Charlie would make a nice pair. Charlie intentionally pushes Alice's breast angst button, if only to see her trying to fish for compliments. Because to him, there's nothing cuter or more feminine than a girl wanting the boy she likes to notice her. Less positively, pure negging. It's much easier to pick up chicks if you provoke their biggest insecurities and then assure them afterwards. Defied: Bobbi realizes she's going to meet the flat chested Alice, and having some jealousy inducing assets, chooses to incorporate a sweater into her everyday wardrobe to help smooth over their acquaintance. Bobbi tells Alice that Alice is actually a B-cup, not an A, and her breasts are actually only slightly below average - and that many women are actually, because of public perceptions, wearing a bra a size too small. Alice quickly gets breast implants. Discussed: Two characters are discussing, "It's sort of funny how ladies tend to get so flustered over something as insubstantial as their cup size." Conversed: Two characters are discussing a work they like, "Well, at the very least, I guess we should be happy they included a female character who doesn't look like she should have back problems." Implied: If you look carefully you can see a character with a flat chest sometimes staring at buxom girls or looking down at her breasts when well endowed girls are around. Deconstructed: Alice is eventually Driven to Suicide because she's so unhappy with her lack of assets, and partially prompted by Bobbi who frequently bullies her about it. Alternatively, every single relationship she tries to get into fails because she can't look past the fact that she has a small bust. Guys that would ordinarily be interested in her are turned off by her extreme angst. Alice has a serious neurosis that manifests itself as her physical insecurities. Something terrible ensues. Alice doesn't actually mind her chest or anyone else's larger ones; it's everyone expecting her to be angry about it that annoys her, leading people to believe her ticked expression whenever someone brings it up to be genuine breast envy. A mix of Condescending Compassion during breast jokes and actual mean-spirited jibes eventually makes her want to make her breasts large just to make it all stop. Alice has a serious gender dysphoria alongside with severe body image issues, but no one takes her issue seriously. The Sour Prude and the Madonna-Whore Complex thinks she shouldn't need to be like a Ms. Fanservice, worse than that, the Petite Pride Straw Feminist claims that Alice is just brainwashed by Male Gaze and she flaunts herself to cheer Alice up, all of these treatments make Alice feels worse about herself and even Driven to Suicide. Alice initially thinks she needs big breasts, but after breast implants, it turns out that she doesn't actually want large breasts like what society dictates her to do, and the side effects from her breasts delve her into D-Cup Distress instead. Reconstructed: Alice then gets implants or moves to a place where she is statistically normal or well-endowed by comparison. Alice seeks professional treatment and learns to react to her small cup size much more moderately, maybe getting implants from less than A-cup to A or B-cup for therapy reasons. Alice still doesn't hate her breasts, but she eventually speaks up to the others about how they shouldn't assume she has a complex. If it was Psychological Projection on their part, they learn to stop using her as an example to feel better about their own chests. Alice only hangs out with a bunch of skinny guys to avoid comparison. Alice even renames himself "Alex" and blends with them. Alice decides that she'd rather have flat boobs than constant back pains. Alice then gets a reduction to have small but not too flat size, instead of the overly large one. Played For Laughs: Alice is flustered at being surrounded by other women's huge and often awkward busts. Hilarity Ensues, Alice faking a big chest would be a source of comedy, with chest bouncing and the occasional Skinship Grope for good measure. Played For Drama: Alice is flustered at being surrounded by other women's huge and often awkward busts. The Deconstruction line provides some pretty sterling examples of this. Alice's barely-there breasts are justified that she suffers from serious genetic condition which prevents her from puberty. Untwisted: Alice doesn't mind it publicly. But in private, she angsts over her lack of a bust. Plotted A Good Waste: It's an excuse for Alice to get implants and provide a lot of Fanservice in a way that implies she likes it just as much as the viewers do.

MEDIA EXMAPLES

Karane of The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You is not the flattest of all the girls (she's actually on the small side, and small types like Shizuka and Chiyo are flatter, with the latter either prepubescent or in very early puberty), but she's not happy about her bust at all. A good majority of the girlfriends she surrounds herself with, including her go-to partner Hakari, are also huge, so she tends to compare herself to them. Yuuko of Ah My Buddha. She gets in a few Skinship Grope moments with Chitose, mentioning how envious she is of her larger bust. She's only slightly larger than Hinata. Skuld of Ah! My Goddess sometimes shows shades of this. She's still relatively young (in Goddess terms), but it doesn't help that Urd constantly ribs her for her lack of maturity (physical or otherwise). It's specially notable when she gets a temporary Overnight Age-Up and feels very happy for it. The title character of Aizawa-san Multiplies is only modestly endowed, and she's a bit self-conscious about it. Her duplicates are as well and at least one of them is more vocal about it. Further, she and her duplicates have compared their breast sizes with each other and found about 1-3cm of variation. Shiki, the duplicate based on her libido, naturally has the largest, with the original Shino in fourth place. She wonders if she can still beat Anna, her black-haired fifth duplicate. Aimi of Love Pheromone from Akahori Gedou Hour Lovege. She's destroyed entire buildings over being called flat-chested. Downplayed with Hotaru Tachibana, the bifauxnen protagonist of Aoharu × Machinegun, who usually isn't bothered by her lack of feminine features unless someone else points it out. In the first episode, she mentions that she doesn't need a bra after Kanae nags her for not wearing one and immediately falls to her knees when she realizes what she just said. She also gets upset when Matsuoka refuses to believe she's a girl even when she puts his hand on her chest. Hanako Honda from Asobi Asobase is really flat, which she has a large complex about and is passed down from her mother. When measured in Episode 12, Hanako's measurements add up to a AA cup size, which is even smaller than A. Not helping matters is how it is vastly overshadowed by Kasumi's large chest, who adds fuel to the fire by her constant D-Cup Distress. Kaede Kayano from Assassination Classroom, so very much so that when Koro-sensei was framed of being a pervert by listing his female students' cup measurements, she's angry not because her teacher was framed but because she's listed in the list as Forever Zero/Flat and even goes as far as to loudly announce to the real culprit that she's a B-cup. Even as Akari Yukimura, she's shown to openly envy her older sister's massive bosom. Azumanga Daioh: Tomo uses her lack of endowment relative to Sakaki to get a handicap when competing against her in a footrace, claiming that Sakaki had an eight centimeter advantage (Tomo still loses). Later on, Yomi mocks her size in a locker room scene, much to Tomo's anger. However, Tomo's definitely not the least endowed girl of the group (that distinction going to Osaka and, obviously, Chiyo-chan), just the one who gets jokes made about it (probably because Chiyo-chan is too young and Osaka too spaced out to care that much). On a few occasions, Osaka indicates that she feels similarly, such as when she gets upset when it's pointed out that Chiyo has more years of adolescence ahead of her than Osaka does and may be better-endowed than her as an adult. When Ayaka from Baby Steps notices that many boys like breasts she tries to grow her A-cups into F-cups. It turns out as expected and she fails. Aoi of Beelzebub at times, mostly when up against her kinda-sorta love rival, Hilda. Koma: Calm down. Whether they're massive or itty bitty, I love all tits. Aoi: ITTY BITTY!? Akane Sano in Black God plays with the trope a little. She's decently endowed, but mentions once when she goes shopping with Kuro that maintaining her bust size is a pain at her weight. In Black★Rock Shooter, Arata Kohata cites her flat chest as one of the reasons she is too shy to ask her crush out. Bleach: Filler Rukia is afflicted with this. In the Bount Arc, she's enraged when Kon compares her to a wall. In the Rock Musical, she shouts at Yoruichi about breast size being unimportant. In Bleach: The 3rd Phantom, she feels left out when Rangiku and Orihime compare breast sizes. Canon Rukia, possibly due to being on the job, doesn't care at all. Hiyori was annoyed when Mayuri called her a boy upon their first meeting and shouts that she will show him her breasts to prove her gender. Shino got very upset when she heard others saying that she hasn't developed breasts of her own. In Bloody Maiden: Juusanki no Shima the captain of the ladies' spear fighting club is a senior who's the same cup size as the freshmen. The girls who do posses large breasts and the fact that the whole team is not shy about being naked around each other only makes her attitude worse. The primary protagonist from Blue Seed, Momiji, is a bit insecure about her modest bust, particularly since Mamoru Kusanagi likes to tease her about it. It gets another knock in the OVA Blue Seed 2, though in this case to show she managed to grow out of it after two years and now has a decent figure. In Brave10, Isanami comments on this multiple times. Ironically, she is far from being flat-chested, but other women in the series are much better endowed and the men tend to treat her like a kid sister and call her flat anyway. A Bride's Story: Downplayed in regard to Anis, who is a thin, delicate beauty with a practically flat chest. She's kind of fascinated with Sherine's big breasts, remaking that her own didn’t grow even after having a baby. She doesn’t seem particularly envious, though, and if she feels insecure it’s about her overall thin figure rather than just her breasts. Marin and Moe of Brigadoon: Marin and Melan are both anxious about their nearly non-existent bosoms. (Given that they're in their first year of middle school, they have time to develop.) Sera in Case Closed has small breasts and even gets mistaken for a boy on a regular basis, but she mostly just shrugs it off aside of a few comments. ("They're due to pop out one of these days...") Mikoto Misaka of A Certain Scientific Railgun is self-conscious of the fact that some of the younger students of Tokiwadai Academy have a bigger bust than she does. Of course, with the existence of Misaka WORST, her age-accelerated clone who is relatively busty, it would seem she doesn't have much to worry about. Not that WORST doesn't take the opportunity to Troll Mikoto by claiming that her artificial development is the only reason she has larger breasts. Kaori Makimura from City Hunter offers us a rather unusual example: while she has large breasts (87 cm, or 34.252 inches if you're American), she also has the bad luck of knowing Saeko Nogami and Kasumi Aso, who have even larger breasts (only made worse by Kasumi having been sixteen when Kaori was 21 yet already having larger breasts). Kanae of Classicaloid develops this in the second episode after getting praised for it by a bustier friend in regards to swimming. It ends up being a Chekhov's Gag when Motes (who was at that point in time trying to win her affection) makes a birthday cake for her...and it looks like a pair of big boobs. In Comic Girls, because the editor imposes Ruki the Pen Name of "Big Boobs Himeko", she's rather sensitive in her lack in that department. In the first episode Koyume noticed, during a Skinship Grope, that her breast is heavily padded.