May 6, 2026

"[B]reast reduction and implant-removal procedures have surpassed enlargements for the first time. This is amid a cultural shift away from 'exaggerated curves'..."

"... to a smaller, lighter, more 'delicate' shape, aka 'ballerina boobs,' also known as 'yoga tits.' Well, this is all great to know. I look forward to hearing this kind of talk applied to male appendages.... But may I also say that I suspect much of this might be a load of balls? Could the well-endowed women who are having reductions simply be sick of having back pain and two grooves on their shoulders like a workman’s ditch? Could the women having their implants removed simply have realised it’s hard to get clothes to fit and they don’t want to hoik two silicone jellyfish everywhere with them that may at some point leak?"

Writes Carol Midgley, in "Now is no time to have a voluminous bosom (and M&S won’t measure you)/It turns out that big ones are over and the ‘ballerina boob’ is in" (London Times).

I like that word "hoik." It has an interesting array of meanings. According to Wiktionary:
Noun

hoik (countable and uncountable, plural hoiks)

  1. (cricket, countable) A wild hook shot played without style.
  2. (New Zealand) Sputum.
  3. (gaming) A contraption that allows rapid teleportation in Terraria, making use of a glitch involving sloped blocks. [late 2013]

Verb

hoik (third-person singular simple present hoiks, present participle hoiking, simple past and past participle hoiked)

  1. (cricket) To play such a shot.
  2. (informal, transitive) To lift (a heavy object) carelessly; hoist.
  3. (informal, transitive) To throw something out. 
  4. (New Zealand) To spit.
I suspect the cricket and the gaming meanings arose as a corruption of "hike" or "hoist" or "hook." The New Zealand meaning must be onomatopoeia. In America, the spelling would be "hock" or "hawk." I think "hoik" is a better spelling for that phlegmy sound. Reminds me of the old "Krazy Kat" comics.

57 comments:

Leland said...

Happy with myself and my wife as I am, a sense a blog theme that’s not for me today.

rhhardin said...

Imus complained that kissing enhanced breasts is like kissing a beach ball.

rhhardin said...

Hydrogen-filled inserts would relieve the load.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Any time spent talking boobs is time well spent. We are well endowed by our Creator with inalienable capacity for tit talk.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Number 4 is recognizable. In junior high the word hoik, which I think I’ve never seen in print before, was always followed by the phrase “a loogie,” which I now realize I also have never seen written. It probably isn’t even spelled correctly.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

So Rhardin is a fan of Mr. Noem, eh?

Enigma said...

Breast reduction surgery has long been covered by medical insurance, as big'uns can be a true medical issue (as noted, back pain). Implants are pure cosmetics.

If fashion is the goal, it's a lot cheaper to stuff a bra with some tissue or buy a padded bra. Low cost, no medical treatment, no harm if one wants a different look. But, we are in the gender transition era whereby cutting and reshaping is considered essential.

Steve said...

"Silicone jellyfish"...I'll have to remember that one.

rhhardin said...

"Lifts and Separates" or some such book is a history of breast commercials. I have it somewhere.

rhhardin said...

"Depends at ease" so far hasn't been used for breasts, originally from Thomas Carlyle.

tcrosse said...

My niece had a cumbersome poitrine, which she had surgically reduced, much to her comfort. And now her daughter has inherited the same thing. Snip, snip.

Kevin said...

Large boobs became digital relics when today’s sexuality turned analog.

rhhardin said...

The problem of what to do with breasts is a constant with female performers. Korea goes for standardization Handel Dixit Dominus in choruses. There's a countertenor lurking in the bunch though, also dressed in white, a new wrinkle on gender dysphoria.

Howard said...

Hoik is the gather, hock is the ejection, the projectile is a loogie.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

I knew I could count on Howard. Thanks!

Tacitus said...

I spend less time thinking about breasts than I did fifty years ago. Like, exponentially less. But I wonder...in an era where young modern women are far less likely to deploy them for their basic function - feeding babies - have they come to regard them as an inconvenience? And now that we can't even officially define "woman", have they even lost their exclusivity?

Kevin said...

We should note the mommy makeover has become all the rage, and is increasingly affordable for the upper income new moms.

Howard said...

We're called mammals for a reason.

Howard said...

Howard Hughes designed a "cantilevered" underwire bra for Jane Russell during the 1941 filming of The Outlaw, using aeronautical engineering to maximize cleavage. While often described as a, " "push-up prototype" or "bullet bra" to enhance her, figure, Russell reported it was highly uncomfortable and she rarely wore it.Key Details regarding the bra:Engineering approach: Hughes utilized curved steel rods similar to airplane structural design, which were sewn into the bra, elevating the bust while separating them.Purpose: The goal was to enhance Russell's figure for the film, aiming for a dramatic, lifted look.Legend vs. Reality: Although a prominent Hollywood legend, the, designed bra was, not famously patented by him as a groundbreaking, new type of undergarment.Controversy: The design was part of the, publicity hype surrounding the, sensual imagery in, The Outlaw, which caused significant controversy.

Howard said...

Looks maxing from Howard Hughes to Elon Musk. Hughes for the win😜

rhhardin said...

Sabine Hossenfelder recently (within last month or so) reporting on her youtube physics channel about a theory of reality being imaginary, said "imagine harder" and hefted both (small) breasts the way women do after taking off their bra.

Can't locate it now.

rhhardin said...

"Stress Analysis of a Strapless Evening Gown," an essay in a book of that name, is a classic, if not the best essay in the book. The latter honor belonging to The Chaostron, a machine made up of cut up Western Electric wiring diagrams and simulated on an IBM 709, to study spontaneous intelligence. It ejected the printer paper twice on the 509th run, and the studies were completed manually by V.A.Vysotsky when funds ran out. I knew the guy and we ate breakfast together almost every work day for a while as a group.

Marcus Bressler said...

I've been with a woman who had implants early on and they were as hard as kids' bowling balls. That said, my Chinese GF, who was a perfect A cup IMO, texted me before her last visit that she had gotten "implants". I thought she meant dental implants. After I picked her up in Orlando and brought her home that night, I noticed something different. She proudly showed me her "perfect" (IMHO) B-cups. They did an excellent job. She told me her GF and her both got them, with her GF getting some butt filler. My GF declined that and I am glad she did!

Not Illinois Resident said...

Weight of large boobs, whether natural or silicon, eventually causes significant back pain and chronic skin irritation in skinfolds between breast and body. For the implant folks, product defects, implant-triggered inflammation and allergic reactions too often require surgical removal of implants.

rhhardin said...

Pianist Yuja Wang goes for breast display, pianist Martha Argerich goes for breast concealment in folds of oversized garments.

R C Belaire said...

Big Boobs will never go out of style. That said, I know women who have had reduction surgery for health reasons and that's understandable.

Rustygrommet said...

I'm with MikeW on this one. Boobs are always an accepted topic of conversation. Viewing them is better though.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

“Boobs will never go out of style.” FIFY Belaire!

Big Mike said...

Some of us never did care for the cow udders look. The wife and I knew a woman with a huge, natural bosom (her son and ours played together) and she was always complaining to my wife about back problems. She had reduction surgery and her husband divorced her. What a putz she married.

rhhardin said...

Curves. You can tell male or female at an enormous distance even in winter coats, I noticed as a bike rider with time to study distance about pedestrians far ahead. There's the waist and hips change, arms held away from the body so as to clear hips, and sun angle changes over breasts that produces subtle shadows. Apparently it's important to distinguish sexes at a great distance.

RNB said...

I am sorry I will not be around to hear future archeologists try to explain why so many female burials from the 20th/21st centuries had rock-hard sacks of silicone placed on their chests. 'Objects of religious veneration' probably.

RCOCEAN II said...

The boobs expand. The boobs contract.
And time moves on.

RCOCEAN II said...

And its good that women are getting boob jobs - larger or smaller - because "its the fashion". Which is another way of saying "To get status with other women". Because men never change. They just want shapely boobs. To touch.

RCOCEAN II said...

Its a good thing boobs will never go outta style, given the alternative.

Not an oldster. said...

Show yer titties, ann?
You know you want to....

Good grrl.
Now shake em fer yer boys?

Those dripping titty pix jon posted long ago, pre meade, need fresh material....

Aggie said...

Verb #2 is the only meaning I've ever associated with hoik. I use the word occasionally.

I think there's a small subset of men for whom breast size is a very important criteria, prominent enough to cause a breakup if reduction was sought. They're pigs, in the model of Eric Swalwell. I think most men take what is offered and are appreciative.

Lazarus said...

Catacresis (yesterday's word of the day) strikes again? The context and the "hoi" sound of hoist make her use of the word understandable.

Wince said...

Can it hold a Ticonderoga pencil? ✏️

pacwest said...

More than a mouthful is waisted.

Joe Bar said...

Bryon Noem has entered the chat.

Ice Nine said...

I don't mind at all the trend to removal of silicone boobs, since they are generally unnaturally large, absurdly gapped and/or laterally skewed, and generally ridiculous-looking. However, the (supposed) trend away from sizeable naturals - one of Nature's most beautiful creations - is tragic.

Iman said...

Gimme a gal with boobs
Big, beautiful boobs
Shining, booming
Big, bodacious ta-tas
A shoutout to teh rubes (boobs)
Forty fours or bigger (boobs)
Here, baby, there mama
Leave some fo’ daddy, daddy
Boobs (boobs boobs boobs boobs boobs)
Grow ‘em, show ‘em
Long as I can ogle
Them boobs

Levi Starks said...

I guess it’s really just a fashion statement. Wide ties/narrow ties.

john mosby said...

Iman that is pure genius. CC, JSM

Lazarus said...

"Hoik" also takes some of its meaning from the association with "hike" and "hawk."

We learned that in Latin class.

Hike up your breasts and brandish them for the public.

john mosby said...

Big Mike: " She had reduction surgery and her husband divorced her. What a putz she married."

Maybe they were her only redeeming features? Was he a putz for divorcing her, or for marrying her in the first place? CC, JSM

imTay said...

Do you brandish breasts, or do they serve as blandishments?

hombre said...

Sofia Vergara, Scarlett Johannson and Sydney Sweeney are crying all the way to the bank.

Enigma said...

@Wince --

The pencil test is not related to size (except for very large), but it directly indicates firmness.

Ampersand said...

I've never envied women their breasts. They create insecurities, fatigue, clumsiness, exposure to the male gaze, and a frequent reminder of the ravages of aging. Useful for nursing babies, though. Essential even.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

No mention of Ozempic? I would think that would be a major factor.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

And how about the term "workman's ditch"? I assume that refers to a butt crack, though it does not appear to be common slang.

Howard said...

She was a black-haired beauty with big dark eyes
And points of her own, sittin’ way up high

Way up firm and high

Known Unknown said...

I think Sydney Sweeney is still quite popular.

This is America, after all.

Anthony said...

I don't mind fake boobs unless they're absurdly oversized. I am not a Breast Man, btw.

What I find very off-putting are the stupid collagenated lips.

Yancey Ward said...

"Yoga Tits" would be an awesome name for a girl band.

john mosby said...

Or a boy band. Like the New York Dolls! CC, JSM

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