But show even small ones on network televisions and you'll be fined a half-million dollars

From Mannequinstore.com:

Olivia -MannequinStore Exclusive

• Well-Endowed
  
• Rounded Buttocks
  
• Hand Painted Make-Up
  
• Feet for Heels or Thongs
  
• Heavy Fiberglass Construction
  
• Base, calf and Foot rods Included
  

5' 10" Tall - 45 lbs.
40(28) -25 - 37
"DDDD" breasts
Shoulders 16" wide
Inseam 32"

List Price $400.00
$249.99

You'll have to click the link for the photo, I'm afraid. I can't afford to have firewalls blocking this site. *grin*

Wendy Paris notes in Salon today about the increasing preponderance of store mannequins sporting the kind of huge, pneumatic Hummerhooters that more and more young women seem to be achieving by having gel-filled plastic bags inserted into their chests:

I was in Miami in October, strolling past the retail shops on Collins Avenue in South Beach, when I saw two mannequins in a store window that caused me to stop and stare. I wasn't the only one staring. The mannequins -- one wearing a tight white bikini and the other a flirty miniskirt and a T-shirt tied at the waist -- were modeled after women who'd had breast augmentation surgery and gone in for DDDD cups. These buxom Fiberglas beauties weren't in a head shop or an adult video store, but rather at Deco Denim, a family-owned Miami retail group specializing in brand-name denim and casual wear.

I've never been one to complain about our culture's obsession with beauty, to worry that shows like "Extreme Makeover" normalize plastic surgery in an already looks-focused society. You won't hear me ranting against Botox treatments at the mall. "Which mall?" is more likely my response, "And how much does it cost?" But these mannequins with their massive chests crossed the line from a little harmless obsession with appearance to a society run amok.

I grabbed my husband's hand and jerked him to a stop in front of the store. "Look at that!" I demanded. He was already looking. I was suddenly conscious of my own chest and its relative lack of girth. It's easy to feel physically inadequate in South Beach, to see oneself as too short or too fat or too insufficiently swathed in lime green Spandex. Perhaps mannequins with boob jobs were just a South Beach thing?

Not so. When I returned to Manhattan, I noticed two of the top-heavy models in the window at Mystique Boutique, a trend-focused, budget clothing store in SoHo. I did a quick Internet search and turned up a dozen sites selling the super-busty mannequins -- generally Chinese imports costing as little as $150, about a tenth the cost of top-of-the-line mannequins sold today. I gaped at "Olivia" (40 inches/25 inches/37 inches) and "Marie" (40.5 inches/24.5 inches/36.5 inches), introduced in 2005 on Washington state's MannequinStore.com. I gawked at the equally well-endowed "Mary" on StudioRox.com, the Web site of a New York mannequin manufacturer and importer. I saw a "Full Size Realistic Sexy Standing Female Mannequin" -- also named "Mary" -- for $289.99 on the Los Angeles site DisplayImporter.com.

Obviously these kinds of mannequins aren't going to find their way to the windows of Bergdorf's any time soon, not when high fashion still requires a relatively small chest in order for most clothes to hang properly. After all, a dress that is not completely form-fitting around large breasts has a nasty habit of falling straight down from the highest point, as it were, making the wearer look more like Margaret Dumont in Animal Crackers than Marilyn Monroe, or even Anna Nicole Smith.

But the obsession in this country with ever-larger breasts has always fascinated me as much as said breasts fascinate men -- because said breasts are also treated with revulsion, especially when used for their natural function. How do you explain a culture in which a nanosecond flash of Janet Jackson's breast with a pastie on it causes the moral scolds of this country to go absolutely nuts, but a woman gets kicked off a plane for breastfeeding? And why is it still OK to show dark-skinned women in primitive tribes bare-breasted on national television, but not women of any skin color who live in contemporary society?

I once worked with a beautiful Chinese woman who had a lovely, slim figure. And her Chinese husband wanted her to get breast implants. Even those from cultures where breast size isn't important succumb once they get here. But show a nipple and you have to think of the children!

I just don't get it. I've asked Mr. Brilliant time and time again what is the obsession with breasts about, but he just gets what I call "the guy look", grins, and says "Boobs are cool."

Not if you're not wearing a good bra on a very hot and humid day, they're not.