THERE are few body parts that capture the imagination or invite attention as much as breasts do. And they've been in the news lately. Taiwanese band Girls F4 are making headlines not for singing talent - the jury is still out on whether the girls have any - but for their impressive vital statistics. The members who call themselves Fanny, Amy, Stacy and Tiffany made their debut on Taiwanese television in July and it was clear that their F cups runneth over. They charge about NT$100,000 ($5,260) per appearance for flaunting their assets on air and they have been kept busy despite criticism from Taiwan's first lady, Madam Wu Shu-chen that they were a 'source of social chaos'. The buxomy foursome have inspired a local version, the 3D Girls from Jeffrey Chung Models, who went to Taiwan recently for a trade exhibition and attracted hordes of photographers. HIRED FOR EXHIBITIONS The trio are hired for exhibitions and product launches where they dance during intervals. Taiwan's top model Lin Chiling hit the headlines when she fell from her horse in July. One of her breasts implants allegedly burst in the accident, but Chiling's mother denied the reports. When Zoe Tay gave birth to her son Brayden last year, there was more interest in her plumped-up assets than her little bundle of joy. She had swelled to a 38D. A rose-flavoured Japanese chewing gum called Bust-Up also made waves in March this year for its claims of perkier breasts after a few chews. Then, there was supermodel Tyra Banks and her now infamous test on her show last month to prove her mammaries are genetically blessed and a product of push-up bras. Let's also not forget Ms Nasty herself - Janet Jackson. Her exposed boob during the Superbowl half-time performance last year hit front pages, made the US Federal Communications Commission see red and created a new phrase - wardrobe malfunction. Just why are we so obsessed about big breasts? The answer is obvious. It's about sex. Dr Kiveli Filmeridis, professor of social psychology at the Singapore Management University, said we are obsessed with a stacked rack because it is equated with sexuality. She told The New Paper: 'That obsession has to do with the Western ideal of the female figure - the one with the big breasts and skinny body. 'Bigger breasts imply that a woman is more sexual.' This big booby obsession is not new - it's been around for centuries. Breasts have been celebrated and envied from the Egyptian hieroglyphs to those heavenly nymphs carved on the Angkor Wat. Dr Ava Cadell, an American relationship therapist wrote in an article for news magazine, Tongue, that the first public taste of 'breast mania' began when the first Playboy magazine was published in 1953 with Marilyn Monroe as the nude centrefold. She wrote: 'Playboy has maintained its image by publishing nude photos of young women with either big breasts or perfect breasts. 'The ongoing demand for breast implants, despite the risks the procedure entails, makes it clear that today's ideal is still a Playboy centrefold or a Barbie doll figure - both top heavy and lusted after by men.' Dr Filmeridis, 53, thinks that the breast obsession is more a media obsession than a public one. 'The media are the conveyors of the message, publishing photos, articles, instilling in us that, this is the ideal figure,' she said. 'We, the public, don't question it. We think it's the norm and human beings are conformists.' Thanks to the Internet, satellite television, and yes Hollywood, this obsession has seeped into the Asian psyche as well. Dr Filmeridis said: 'In Asia, where women are born without 'enhanced' breasts, most of the time, they want to conform to this Western ideal.' However Mr Peter Skalberg, 40, managing director of advertising agency, Bates Singapore, thinks that the media is not that powerful. While he acknowledges there are a lot of breast enhancement advertisements, desire is stronger than the media. 'I don't think the anxiety (to conform) was created by the media. The need has to be there first. 'You can't sell it to the people if they don't desire it,' said Mr Skalberg who has been in the advertising industry for 20 years. For this ideal figure, some women would do just about anything from buying a push-up bra to getting their breasts augmented. The bra market in Singapore is estimated to be worth more than $120 million a year, with over 20 brands available. Spokesmen from two of the big players in the lingerie market, Triumph and Wacoal, said that push-up bras are extremely popular but declined to reveal sales figures. Triumph said that the Maximizer bra is still its best-selling bra since it was launched 10 years ago. Singaporean women own between 12 and 15 bras on average. Leading plastic surgeon Dr Martin Huang, 43, told The New Paper that he does 30 breast augmentation surgeries a year. 'I get many more requests than that but I think I'm too expensive,' he said. He charges about $15,000 to $20,000 per procedure. Dr Valentin Low, 38, of IPL Clinic said there has been an increase in the number of boob jobs in Singapore. While there is no consolidated data on it, he estimated there might be over 200 procedures done a year. There was an estimated 40 procedures in 2002. He said: 'Women today are more open to getting surgical procedures done probably due to increase in exposure of such procedures in the media recently.' But Dr Filmeridis feels that breast enhancement is against nature. 'We are born with certain physical characteristics that we can improve naturally - like through exercise. So, why
endanger your life and empty your pockets?'
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