Take this opportunity to give the bra a long holiday.
This was Louise Kilburn’s first adventure out shopping in weeks, and she realized she was not wearing a bra when she returned home. “I completely forgot.” She said. Kilburn is a university teacher who is still busy teaching online recently, but usually does not turn on the camera. She used pajamas and home clothes to create a more comfortable work outfit. “It doesn’t include bras.” Kilburn said with a smile. Her bra was hidden under a pile of clothes she wore before the epidemic, which was too difficult to find.
The stay-at-home order has changed the way we present ourselves to the world, and many women choose to change their bras. Tommy Obaro, a writer for news aggregation platform Buzzfeed, wrote on the social network in May: “In my opinion, bras will not make a comeback in the future.” The content she posted received hundreds of thousands of likes. An article published on the website Reductress also had such a title-“”Bra Fake” Has Been Extended”.
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Bras are often seen as a necessary but unpopular garment. Who can forget the question that comedian Gina Yashal asked Michelle Obama in an interview with The Guardian: “Your husband’s presidency is over, would you just take off your bra after a long day? Same, finally feel complete freedom?” Kilburn said: “Before the outbreak and months of home life, the first thing I did when I went home was to get rid of the shackles of the underwire bra. Nothing. It’s more relief than this.” The
local councillor Emma Roddick stopped wearing a bra after the stay order was issued. “I live alone and don’t have a date. When I change clothes in the morning, I think, why do I wear a bra? It will only make people uncomfortable. The underwire is too piercing. I didn’t feel particularly uncomfortable before, but As soon as I put it on, I want to take it off,” she said.
Not wearing a bra was once a shocking move. Roddick has always felt that for a bra (G cup) like his own, a bra must be worn, and there is no room for bargaining. In the eyes of many of us, unless the figure resembles the famous model Kate Moss who refuses to wear a bra, we should wear a bra obediently. “What I heard before was’your breasts need support, not wearing a bra is not good for your back’ or’not wearing a bra will be very uncomfortable’, but this is not the case.” Roddick said.
| Do we really need bras? |
Underwear companies have noticed this situation. Claire Turner, head of product and supply planning for underwear brand Bravissimo, said: “I firmly believe that bras will survive.” This company mainly serves women with full breasts like Roddick. Although underwire bras are still the largest part of the company’s business, Turner said that “we have seen huge growth” in rimless bras and more comfortable styles.
This part of the increase in sales was not triggered by the stay-at-home order, but was “the general trend in the past two or three years.” Turner attributed this to the growing popularity of sports and leisure clothing and the increasing attention to physical and mental health and self-care. “People want to take good care of themselves and wear things that make them feel good. For many people, this is as important as appearance, or even more important than appearance.” She said.
What we call “bras” has replaced the previous corsets, which have only existed for about a hundred years, but now we always wear bras automatically without asking why. Do we really need bras?
Joanna Wakefield-Skuer, professor of biomechanics at the University of Portsmouth, said that for women who are experiencing breast pain, “bras can relieve breast pain by fixing the position of breast tissue.” In addition, bras can also Prevent “excessive movement”. “There are no muscles in the breast. It is only supported by two fragile structures, the skin and the Cooper’s ligament.” She said, “When we exercise, the breast moves, which may damage the supporting structure of the breast. This is one of the initial benefits of a bra. One: These support structures can be prevented from overstretching. The strain limit of the skin is about 60%. If you stretch the skin of 10 cm to 16 cm, it can return to normal; if you stretch it to more than 16 cm, it will Damage to the skin. The result of repeated stretching of the skin is premature sagging of the breasts.” Such stretching may also cause skin injuries and stretch marks.
However, in the long term, there is no evidence that wearing a bra can prevent sagging breasts. Breast sagging is affected by factors such as age, gravity, pregnancy, and genetics. “There has not been any study comparing a group of women who have worn a bra for 50 years with another group of women who have not worn a bra,” Wakefield said. In 2013, a French sports science expert was very excited to point out in an interview that the facts are just the opposite of what people think-he found that not wearing a bra when he was young can improve the structure of the breasts and reduce sagging.
People may wear bras for health reasons, such as to relieve breast or back pain. For some women, sagging breasts may cause skin problems, and lifting the breasts can make them feel more comfortable. But for many women, whether to wear a bra is an aesthetic issue. For hundreds of years, people have been telling us that breasts should be lively and full, and nipples should be invisible. Although the story of those feminists burning bras in the late 1960s is largely inconsistent with the facts, the abandonment of the bra is not only because of the shoulder straps and protruding steel rings, but also because it implies Women free themselves from shackles and pursue equality. The phenomenon of not wearing a bra is becoming more and more common, and the home order only played a role in promoting it, not the main reason for this situation.
| The future of bras: resistance and compromise |
Celebrities such as Rihanna urged the choice not to wear a bra. The “liberation of the nipples” movement, which advocates women’s right not to wear underwear, pointed out that bras not only try to constrain the shape and movement of breasts, they also pretend to cover up the nipples seriously.
The writer Chidra Eglu has stopped wearing bras since 2017. After accepting her body shape, she launched a campaign called “Don’t take sagging breasts seriously”. “For me, this is more for comfort, but the launch of this sport is also to resist a world that thinks I should wear a bra. My breasts are sagging, and I used to think they need to have a’vibrant’ appearance, even if they are not. Comfortable. Now I just want to appear as I am and don’t want to be criticized for it.” Eglu received some negative comments, “mainly from women who have internalized misogyny and those who still think they have the right to dominate. Straight male cancer patients with female bodies.”
After people go to work, can the wave of not wearing bras continue? Actor Alison Harris doesn’t wear a bra anymore. “It’s more free now, it’s definitely a comfortable thing.” But she may still use the bra, especially when going to auditions, “If the breasts are too big Obviously, it may distract people. However, I don’t know if this is my problem or someone else’s problem. If they look at God, is it still my problem?” Roddick thinks that once she returns to work For a job, you should wear a bra. “Colleagues may criticize me for not wearing a bra.”
So what will happen in the future? Roddick hopes that society can develop to the point where no bra is needed, “as long as there is a choice not to wear a bra.” Kilburn ruled out the possibility of wearing a bra again, “It is more comfortable without a bra, and it also makes me feel that I have not succumbed to society.” After getting rid of the shackles of the steel ring, she said this especially excited.
