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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

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Original poster

Bras

114 replies

Molasses · 22/01/2012 07:53

Inspired by the high heels thread: bras. Why do women with less than a D cup bother? I read a comment about nipples poking out and needing to hide them. Doesn't sound particularly liberating.

OP posts:
CogitoErgoSometimes · 22/01/2012 12:17

The bra should be treated by feminists as a progressive article. Pre-bras we were squeezed into vicious corsetry and masses of fabrics which rendered us useless for anything other than sitting quietly, doing embroidery and trying to breathe. Strait-jackets with a waist. It's no coincidence, I don't think, that women's rights finally started to take off once we abandoned the fussier fashions of the late 19thC and went for shorter, lighter, less restrictive clothing.... including mobility-enhancing bras!!

OnlyANinja · 22/01/2012 12:21

I find it more comfortable than not wearing a bra.

B-cup here.

Do I take it that the OP has mahoosive breasts and thinks that anything below a D-cup is tiny?

TunipTheVegemal · 22/01/2012 12:22

but the only alternative to the bra is not hardcore 19th c corsetry.
The bra is not progressive in itself. The shift from that particular style of corset to the bra may have been progress but that is because what came directly before was relatively bad.

motherinferior · 22/01/2012 12:28

I spent ooh, the best part of a decade not wearing one. Now I wear one. I have rather large breasts (and interestingly, the decade of not wearing one didn't particularly drag them down. Pregnancy, breastfeeding and age, now, those did the job very effectively).

I wear quite low-cut necklines as well.

Thistledew · 22/01/2012 12:34

Cogito - it is wrong to present corsets as tools of oppression that prevented women from doing anything other than embroidery. They were worn by all classes of women, including working women.

They don't stop you breathing, but encourage deeper diaphragm breathing rather than shallow chest breathing.

They were also probably a godsend for women who had to do hard physical labour such as laundry, scrubbing floors, and carrying heavy buckets of water up flights of stairs for bathing etc. Corsets probably saved thousands of women from backache.

I know several women who do historical reconstructions, who say that at the end of a day when they have been wearing their properly constructed, made to measure corset, they are far more comfortable than the days they don't wear it.

As to bras - I would not like to give mine up, as it means I can run for a bus or up stairs etc without my breasts being painful. Even walking briskly is only comfortable with a bra on. I am a D cup though.

gothicmama · 22/01/2012 12:41

I would prefer to wear a bra as I find it more comfortable when doing my day to day stuff to me the bra is noy a synbol of repression rather one which allowsd women toi comfortable do what they need to do be that paid work or household work

TunipTheVegemal · 22/01/2012 13:38

quite Thistledew.

A corset CAN be a tool of oppression, very much so, if it is uncomfortable and restrictive and forces your body into an artificial shape.... as can a bra.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 22/01/2012 13:39

Birdsofshoreandsea - if bras are intended to make every bosom look like Barbie's, then they have failed massively. I don't see hundreds of Barbie-busts around me whenever I go out - and my boobs have never looked like Barbie's.

As far as I am concerned, the bra is a practical garment to support boobs that need it. It can be sturdy and plain or sporty or pretty, practical or frivolous, but the bottom line is that a lot of women need something to support their boobs. It also seems to me that bras are designed firstly with women in mind - our needs and preferences and desires, and they are certainly not all designed to produce one, uniform shape of boob for the sake of men - I just don't see how anyone can look at the wide variety of boobs, bustlines and bras out there, and argue that.

Original poster
Molasses · 22/01/2012 14:40

OnlyANinja: "Do I take it that the OP has mahoosive breasts and thinks that anything below a D-cup is tiny?"

Ha, D cup was just an arbitrary size - I have no idea because I don't wear a bra. Will measure.....

31 inch underneath and 38 1/2 around them. What's that?

I haven't worn a bra since I was 22 (34 now) and my breasts are quite perky, but I've no idea if a bra would have changed this. I occasionally get comments (nearly always from men) about my nipples being visible, but I tell them not to be so rude and anyway don't they have nipples too? Are they surprised I have nipples? Do they wish to comment on the rest of me at all?

I can't remember why I stopped wearing a bra but I feel very restricted if I try it now. I did actually buy one not so long ago on a whim, but it definitely did not fit when I got it home, so I took it back and exchanged it for a bottle of fizz, a bottle of red and a stir-fry.

Far more enjoyable :)

OP posts:
birdsofshoreandsea · 22/01/2012 14:42

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ballroompink · 22/01/2012 15:49

Also in the 'smaller than a D cup but wears bras' (small C before I was pregnant) camp, because as others have said, it would be uncomfortable otherwise. It's fine if you're just sitting around in the house etc but anything active and I want them held in place. I don't care what said bras look like, tbh I prefer any that don't show through my clothes so no big patterns, frilly bits etc.

TwoStepsBack · 22/01/2012 16:45

I'm a 34A. I wear a bra for warmth, to prevent nipples rubbing on my clothes and for a bit of padding when wearing tight fitting clothes - otherwise I have the shape of an ironing board.

It's nice to go bra free on hot summer days though.

EllenandBump · 22/01/2012 16:56

I was wearing a bra at 36c or my boobs were killing me going up and down stairs after having my LO, I am now a 36 D (yes i have actually gotten bigger round the boobs and a lot less belly since having him!)

I think i wore a bra prior to pregnancy 34A just because it was the normal thing young women do, and of course the nipple thing and being very conscious of having absolutely nothing there!

TunipTheVegemal · 22/01/2012 17:08

so in part the need for bras is because of clothes being so thinly woven and body-hugging. You wouldn't have felt you needed a bra to stop your nipples rubbing or poking through if you were wearing a linen shift and a lined woolen bodice.

TwoStepsBack · 22/01/2012 17:11

No, no and thrice no to linen shift. Think of the extra ironing!

sportsfanatic · 22/01/2012 17:13

I've always worn bras - I simply didn't fancy ending up with my boobs round my waist. And it's worked.

Takver · 22/01/2012 17:14

I have very small breasts (34AA) - I wear a crop top style bra some of the time though not always.

Certainly I would say if you are wearing something scritchy then the smooth cotton of a soft bra or crop top is much pleasanter on the breasts - soft old t-shirts fine without, new ones not so good, for example. But I don't wear one in summer if it is hot & sweaty weather.

I have a fancy lacy bra with a bit of padding to wear under a couple of dresses which are cut wrong for a crop top and are definitely indecent with nothing under them Grin

Takver · 22/01/2012 17:15

If I wore a homespun linen shift and a woolen bodice I would definitely want a bra! Just think how scratchy!

OneHandFlapping · 22/01/2012 17:23

I have never understood why women are so obsessed with not letting their nipples poke through their clothes. So what if they do? Men don't worry about their nipples - they are just as erectile as ours and you don't see them wearing padded bras to conceal them.

Maybe it's because I spent my youth in the brafree carefree 70s.

Takver · 22/01/2012 17:30

Dunno, but my indecent dresses are indecent cos you can see down the neckline owing to the way they're cut rather than being able to see through them.

Admittedly no-one objects to topless men, but I don't think I'm up for challenging societies norms to that extent, certainly not when going to parties in my best frock . . .

EllenandBump · 22/01/2012 18:13

As long as the topless man in question is fit of course! IMO

birdsofshoreandsea · 22/01/2012 18:27

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 22/01/2012 23:05

Birds - I am a 44F and have never bought a minimiser bra. They are available, obviously, but it is wrong to imply that all bras for larger sizes are minimisers - and, whilst I haven't checked, I don't believe that all bras for smaller sizes are padded either. Some are, some aren't.

And to return to my central point - how do you explain the fact that I don't see Barbie's bustline everywhere I turn - because I don't.

ArtexMonkey · 22/01/2012 23:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

sonicrainboom · 23/01/2012 16:38

If bras are uselful to you, great, wear them.
But I hate how bras are kind of mandatory since visible nipples and non-spherical, bouncing boobs are a no-no. (Not my opinion, general fashion and patriarchal opinion)
Anything that fits tight over my ribcage hurts me, so I can't wear bras. Which makes it difficult and annoying to hide my sinful female nipples, grrr. it's such a stupid thing to constantly worry about during the warmer months - but I do. People stare or react negatively.