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"Then, this line from a game said that a flat chest is a status symbol! A rarity! And when you think about it, there's a demand right? So, word for word, I'M VALUABLE!"
—Konata, Lucky Star
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A girl who sees her lack of assets as a plus. Flat chests are usually associated with the young, and a girl with Petite Pride will play this up as much as she can, usually to make herself seem cute and innocent, and to appeal to guys that like that.
Contrast A-Cup Angst and type 4 of Big Breasts, Big Deal (pride). Anime fanspeak calls this sort of character Pettanko.
Anime & Manga[]
- Konata from Lucky Star, though she will only talk about it if someone else broaches the topic.
Konata: A flat chest is a status symbol! Extremely rare and valuable! |
- In the above quote, Konata is referencing the flat-chested Mayumi from the dating-sim game, Shuffle Mayumi is proud of her "lack of endowment", but Rin and his friends like to make fun of her for it.
- The same quote later makes its way into Genshiken. Also, Sue was making the comment in regards to Ogiue's chest while the group was at a hot springs, leaving Ogiue a little freaked out between the personal nature of the comment and the fact Sue had been stalking her all day...
- Minor character Chichigami from Negima isn't much of an example herself; however, her reaction to one of the main characters being embarrassed of her flat chest is notable.
Chichigami: Large breasts may be fabulous, but tiny breasts, too, are wonderful! |
- Chaika, one of the Catgirl aliens in Asobi Ni Iku Yo, is very self-confident about her figure. Particularly in comparison to fellow Catian Pettanko Melvin.
- Kyo in Girl Got Game doesn't seem to mind her small breasts, and is annoyed when she finds they've gotten bigger... but that's probably because she's disguising herself as a boy.
- Emotionless Girl Nozomi from Kanokon is rather proud of her flatness - often calling the more busty Chizuru's chest "flab".
- Shizuku from Omamori Himari is another Emotionless Girl who is also not embarrased of showing her Token Mini-Moe body.
- Yukari in Rosario to Vampire gives this impression whenever she gets into a fight with Kurumu, though other times she seems a bit ashamed.
- The eponymous Black Rock Shooter wears a most noticeably showy outfit, despite her very obvious lack of assets. It's a safe bet to say she doesn't suffer from any body image issues.
- Nagi from Kannagi seems to carry this attitude, especially during the Beach Episode... only to be trumped by the appearance of a new Token Mini-Moe.
Apparel[]
- There's a T-shirt that reads: "itty bitty titty committee".
Fan Fiction[]
- As stated in Aikan Muyo
Aeka: "More than a handful is a tongue-sprainer." |
Film[]
- The perfect rationale for why many women prefer to have smaller boobs came in Some Like It Hot. Sugar remarked that she admired "Daphne"'s flat-chested appearance: "Clothes hang better on you."
Live Action TV[]
- Veronica Mars: The titular character provides the page quote.
Music & Music Video[]
Objection: "Next to her cheap silicon I look minimal / That's why in front of your eyes I'm invisible / But you gotta know small things also count" |
- In the video, she plays a girl who is cheated on by her boyfriend. When she confronts the "other woman", she pokes her Gag Boobs and they deflate.
- Whenever, Wherever: "Lucky for my breasts they're small and humble / So you don't confuse them with mountains"
- And (the same line meaning the same thing) in the Spanish version of the song (Suerte): "Suerte que mis pechos sean pequeños / Y no los confundas con montañas"
- Also Pink in Stupid Girls.
Baby if I act like that / flipping my blond hair back / Push up my bra like that / I don't wanna be a stupid girl |
- Patty Loveless has often shown her Petite Pride by wearing low cut tops in her music videos and on her album covers.
Stand Up Comedy[]
- Maria Bamford occasionally draws attention to her (lack of) assets in the chesty department. For example, she notes with more than a little sarcasm that men can't get enough of "these 32 AA's", describes them as "perfect, rare, delicate miniatures". More generally, as part of a larger bit on body issues she noted that she somehow managed to master being thin, but then they start laying the expectations.
- "Skinny is in, I've got that covered. But now you have to have muscle tone too! I'm already hungry and tired; now I gotta go work out?!"
Video Games[]
- Rita in Tales of Vesperia comments that she's glad she has a flat chest, because boobs the size of Judith's would bounce around too much and make it difficult for her to concentrate.
- Suika Ibuki from Touhou. In fact, there's an entire song titled Tsurupettan, complete with a video (warning: very addictive!), which is essentially a high-spirited hymn to pettankos all around the world. In case you are interested in the origins of the song and video, refer to this post.
- For extra hilarity, the video has Kaguya quoting Konata's famous line in the background (see 0:52).
- Then combine that song with the above mentioned Lucky Star, for ensuing hilarity.
- Innocent Key takes the joke and runs over the hills waving it like some prankster waving a stolen bra as though it was a flag with this song, Touhou Holy Water Festival - The Troubled Maidens Year ~Pappa~, which portrays many of the girls as being utterly insecure about their size.
- And then Umineko borrows the song, when Jessica and her friends cosplay in the second episode (5th or 6th of the anime). Too bad Jessica's not this.
- Archers in the Disgaea series are proud of their (lack of) assets, in stark contrast to most other Pettanko characters. (Fridge Brilliance: Of course they would be, boobs get in the way of shooting properly!)
Web Comics[]
- Twice Blessed has Pella, who definitely can work the petite look.
- Played for laughs in Misfile when resident Pettanko Missi immediately switches from A-Cup Angst to Petite Pride because Ash accidently gave her the impression that she prefers small-breasted women. Missi instantly goes from angsting over her flat chest (her Imagine Spot is the page image for I Have Boobs - You Must Obey!) to trying to capitalize on it.
- Mistress of Oglaf is very flat-chested but given the kind of clothes she wears, it's probably safe to say she's not self-conscious about it.
Real Life[]
- The bulk of supermodels through The Sixties and The Nineties. The perceived attractiveness of this is apparently a Cyclic Trope. Like Twiggy, Milla Jovovich (until her pregnancy), or Kate Moss.
- Actually, Twiggy was one of the only supermodels of her period to have a boyish figure. Prior to her modelling career (and indeed afterwards, when the 'Perfect Size 6' occurred in the 70s and 80s), models were normally voluptuous. A boyish, flat-chested physique didn't become truly in vogue until the 'heroin chic' look of the 90s.
- Director Billy Wilder said of Audrey Hepburn, "This girl, singlehanded, may make bosoms a thing of the past." He was, arguably, not far off target.
- So popular in The Roaring Twenties that there was underwear produced to flatten the chest. The "washboard" look was meant to stick it to the man in the early days of feminism, the same as wearing too much makeup and cussing was. In other words, it was all about projecting an un-ladylike image.
- Lampshaded in the movie Thoroughly Modern Millie, where flapper Millie (played by Julie Andrews) complained that her "fronts" made it difficult to wear her beads properly.
- Though everything else about Paris Hilton may be fake, she insists that she will never get a boob job because she likes her "tiny chest" and thinks it looks better in the couture designs she wears constantly.
- Debra Messing. She was the butt of more than a few flat-chested jokes on Will and Grace, but has said that she doesn't subscribe to that standard of beauty, and is happy with what God gave her.
- Rachael Ray, whose Pettankotude is almost as notorious as her extreme perkiness, has had necklines steadily trending lower as she has become more famous.
- Nostradamus wrote, The Elf wythe Fyngers of Saussage will be blessed Not with Boobyes agayn this Yeare.
- That guy was amazing about predicting things after they happened.
- Keira Knightley. While her makeup in Pirates of the Caribbean was designed to create the illusion of cleavage, she is proud of her small chest.
- Captain Jack couldn't resist taking a shot, though:
Sparrow: "So unless you've got a rudder and a lot of sails hidden in that bodice--" (scans her briefly) "-- unlikely..." |
- She's also been described as "Sunken Chest and No Booty".
- Despite being flat as a board, posters for King Arthur were doctored to make her look like a C-cup. Keira Knightley was unhappy with her posters being photoshopped to make her look bigger.
- In Domino, a girl in her boarding school makes a snark about her adolescent boy physique, prompting a beatdown.
- Unlike North America, where breast augmentation is the most popular cosmetic surgery procedure; in Brazil, that distinction goes to breast reduction. Of course, unlike North America and Europe, beauty standards in Brazil tend to focus on a different part of the anatomy.
- Former (maybe) porn star Brianna Love, chest-wise might as well have never hit puberty even while being pregnant, but like the above statement puts focus on something else.
- Though she's not spoken about it much, Rooney Mara's nude scenes in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo resulted in a lot of press about whether or not it was again fashionable for women to be modestly endowed.