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I debated whether to post this, but eventually decided that I really want to say this. I'm vowing to myself in advance that I'm not going to respond to any comments on this post.
A disclaimer: I have absolutely no affiliation with Curvy Kate. I've never so much as seen a CK bra in person. I like some of their designs, ... but I know their shapes won't work for me. I don't live in a country that's eligible for any Star in a Bra competition.
To my main point: I think the whole debate on whether CK should allow women with surgically altered breasts to compete in SiaB comes down to a set of 2 questions:
1. Do you think women with breasts that have been surgically enhanced for aesthetic reasons should be allowed to compete?
2. Should CK ask for medical records for confirmation of non-aesthetic breast surgery?
My answer to both questions is: No.
I think the second one is obvious: Where do they draw the line? If breasts were reduced for medical reasons, but the shape was altered in the process, does that count? Who decides what constitutes an alteration and what constitutes an enhancement? What counts as a valid medical reason?
What I'd like to talk about is why I believe it's OK for CK to choose to exclude women with breasts that have been surgically enhanced for aesthetic reasons.
I understand that for most women the choice to have breast enhancement surgery is not taken lightly. Surgery is a very unpleasant experience: it's painful, it's expensive, it disrupts your life. I'm sure that being made to feel like you're being unfairly excluded by CK is very upsetting, and may touch on self esteem issues that you thought you'd left behind.
But I have a little sister (she's 22 now, but she'll always be my baby sister). She is an absolutely beautiful girl. She's thin, but she thinks she's fat because she has boobs and hips and a bum. As a teenager her friends teased her for having the biggest boobs. Until last year, when she was fitted into a 28GG at Bravissimo, she wanted to have breast reduction surgery.
My sister loves the Curvy Kate models. When she looks at them, she sees bodies that are more like hers than those of any other models she's seen. CK's models help her see how beautiful her own body is.
I have two cousins who had breast reduction surgery in their late teens. I am close to one of them, and because she's lost a lot of weight since the surgery, her breasts now have a very strange, unnatural shape. She can't breastfeed her son because of the surgery. I wish that CK's models had been around when she was 18, so that she could have seen bodies like hers before putting herself through the pain of surgery and giving up on the chance to breastfeed her babies.
I've struggled with my body image since puberty. I look at pictures of myself from my teens: I'm either in baggy jeans and oversized tops, or in ballet clothes. The ballet pictures show me how beautiful my body actually was, and how unnecessary the baggy outfits were. I wish I could have seen pictures of CK's models when I was 13, or 16, or 18, because then when I looked in the bathroom mirror instead of seeing a body I needed to hide, because it was so different to the bodies I saw in ads or in television shows, I would have seen a body I should have been proud of.
There are millions of young women and girls around the world who struggle with their self esteem and body image, and feel unattractive compared with the images that most companies (including youth oriented full bust companies like Freya or Cleo) project at them. Curvy Kate do a wonderful thing, by putting out images of a different body type. And their positive effect, I truly believe, is only possible because their models show the bodies they were born with.
My sister and I, and other women like us, can see positive role models in the CK models because we know they were made that way. Knowing that the models might have surgically enhanced breasts would change that image.
I don't think CK are completely blameless for this situation. I think their PR people made a complete balls-up, and utterly failed to get the correct message out.
But when it comes right down to it, they're a business, not a non-profit organization, and they have to make certain choices in order to survive in an industry that becomes more competitive every year. Someone was going to be hurt, whether they chose to include women who've had breast surgery or not.
In the end, I'm glad Curvy Kate are around, and I wish other companies showed as much diversity as they do.
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Shared on Sep 28, 2013 Flag this
Might be best to post this in the fit request section so it won't scroll off too fast.
Looks to me as though you are wearing it far too low.
Otherwise, hard to tell, except pendulous come to mind (since I am too). Have you checked out this post? http://brasihate.blogspot.com/2013/02/clarifying-breast-shape-full-on-top-vs.html
It's virtually impossible to tell from the photos you posted, especially because that bra is nowhere near the 'correct' size and an unknown model to boot. However, from this angle, to me, your breasts look splayed and shallow with breast tissue going high up your chest -- the latter often an indication of Full-on-Top breasts, actually. The combination of shallow, splayed, and FoT seems a reasonable assumption also because you say that this is "the most cleavage [you] have ever gotten in a bra".
I agree with RG that your bra seems to sit very low relative to the crease of your breasts (as far as we can guess where that crease sits). If your bra is indeed sitting low -- check where the wire marks are: do they sit in the crease of your breasts or significantly below that? -- I think you're also fairly high-on-chest, which means you may often run into 'armhole issues'?
All this is, obviously, just speculation. If you wish more adequate help, please, post a fitting help request with some more recent photos in a slightly better fitting bra. Also, check out the link RG posted -- it's perhaps not 100% accurate, but still very helpful :)
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