Ladies, is taking off your bra the first thing you do when you get home? Is it the first thing you would want to do? Then this article is for you! (Disclaimer: I am a man. I am not necessarily best suited to talk about female clothing. I’m doing it anyway.)
July 9 is known as national no bra day in the United States. This was started by a woman going by the name Anastasia M. Doughnuts in 2011 and has been popping up on facebook every year since. It is an opportunity (or an excuse) to not have to wear a bra for a day.
July 9: National No-Bra-Day
Breast Cancer Awareness
Let me get this out of the way first. In many discussions, no-bra-day gets linked to breast cancer awareness. In particular the other national no-bra-day (yes, there are at least two!), October 13th, which falls in the middle of Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October), has been publicized as a way to heighten awareness of breast cancer. This is, with all due respect, a load of BS.
The first time I heard about no-bra-day in the context of breast cancer, I did not think any further and accepted the statement at face value, But when I read the excellent article on the Cancer in my Thirties blog, I realized how this does not make any sense and is actually quite offensive. I don’t have anything to add to that. By all means, celebrate no-bra-day, but don’t claim it is in support of breast cancer.
History of the Brassiere
The word “bra” is short for brassiere and dates back to the 1890s. Of course, support for breast has been around much longer than that; the Wikipedia article on the history of brassieres traces some form of them back 3,400 years.
For most of history, the “bras” women have been wearing were bands of cloth wrapped around the upper chest, which I can imagine provided comfort, especially for women with larger breasts. But later, women in the upper class of society would wear different types of corsets, which would squeeze the middle while pushing breasts upward. Comfort cannot have been much of a reason for choosing that particular type of garment.
Modern bras have evolved out of those corsets, so it is not surprising that the majority of brassieres are designed for looks, not comfort. In particular, they are designed towards a theoretical ideal image of women, which would be someone in their twenties with a breast shape that is unrealistic at best.
Selection of Underwire Bras; image adapted from Wikipedia
Why Bras?
Why do women wear a bra? Of course, there are as many answers to that question as there are women. For some, it is about comfort, and there is nothing wrong with that. If you feel more comfortable, go for it!
Also I have heard women say they wear a bra because they think it helps keep the desired shape of their breasts. They would sometimes point to National Geographic photos of women in African tribes with severely sagging breasts. Unfortunately, this argument does not really hold water. On the surface, it seems to make sense that wearing a bra helps breasts keep their shape, but actually it turns out that reality is more complicated than that.
I’m not sure if the research by dr. Rouillon, which concluded that bras are useless, can be trusted, but I do know that many women who do wear a bra all the time still end up with breasts that are much more sagging than they were in their teens. This is obviously the result not just of gravity but of the natural changes in breasts over time as the result of child bearing, changes in diet, and the like.
In fact, I don’t believe there is any scientific research supporting the idea that wearing a bra prevents sagging. And those women in National Geographic? Don’t forget that these have often had many children, perform back-breaking work and go through periods of malnutrition.
Mandatory Bras
But I would venture that most women wear a bra because, well, that is what women do. They feel they cannot leave the house without wearing breast support. And this is where the national no bra day comes in.
Breasts are a normal part of a human body. We all have them, in some shape or form. Any difference between male and female breasts is based on function, and in fact, some men have breasts that are more pronounced than those some women have.
Men are not made to hide their chest, regardless of how much tissue they have, so there is really no need for women to feel such pressure. And there is no reason to feel ashamed about the shape of your body either. When we get older, our breasts, like all other parts of our body, mature. Sure, some of us would like to keep the body we had when we were young, but that's not how it works.
Celebrate No-Bra-Day?
So how about it, ladies, will you celebrate no-bra-day? Will you consider, for one day a year, to resist societal pressure, to let out the inner rebel in you? To show that you are an adult who is free to make her own choices?
July 9: National No-Bra-Day
