"The first step to freedom": Women who refused to wear bras
For women with big breasts bra - a vital element of the wardrobe. Without proper support, your back can hurt, and playing sports or just walking around the city can be painful. However, for women with small breasts, a bra often becomes an absolutely decorative - and optional thing. Often the reason for the faithful wearing of a bra is not in the convenience, but in the survivability of the fittings, that the nipples must all be allegedly hidden. Earlier we told how women won the right to their breasts - and now we talked to girls who no longer wear bras, and found out how this decision was given to them, what people said and why refusing a bra helped them to get rid of stereotypes.
From the very beginning, as soon as my breasts began to grow, I did not quite understand - why wear a bra at all? Even from the side, he looked uncomfortable. Over time, it turned out that it is. I bought bras a couple of times, but in the end they were gathering dust in a closet for several years. Now I only wear a sports bra when training, or during menstruation, if the chest swells strongly.
Surprisingly, in my whole life, and now I'm twenty-four, only two people noticed that I walk without a bra. With each of them, I once had a serious relationship. In addition to them, no one has spoken about this anymore.
In my opinion, society obliges women to wear a bra for two reasons. The first is the sexualized image of the female breast, and it’s good that on this occasion battles have been fought for a long time with varying success. The second is money. Suffice it to recall the expensive lace lingerie and prices for it in stores. For the money that you have to give for one lace bra, you can buy a whole mountain of simply comfortable or sports underwear.
At one time I did not work for a long time and was mostly at home, where, like most women, I did not wear a bra. At first, I wore a bra on the way out, but gradually I stopped, because this is trite, not the most comfortable piece of clothing. In addition, I began to look at photos of beautiful models, who had very small breasts and no bras, and their example inspired me too.
Mom still scolds me regularly that I don’t wear a bra. He says that without him I have "absolutely no chest." I encountered similar pressure when I was still a teenager: in my social circle, then size was important and everyone laughed at the “ones” and “nules”, called “boards” and “inferior”. So at that time my friends and I wore a push-up and in every possible way tried to enlarge the breasts. Good thing it ended for me.
When I was 14 years old, on the street an unfamiliar group of teenagers began to laugh at my lack of a bra, and one of them pinched my nipple. I didn’t tell anyone about this and just made the decision not to take any more risks. It seems that exactly this behavior is expected from the girl: to consider that it is you who are responsible for the rudeness and violence of those around you, ashamed of what happened and limit yourself from now on so as not to fall into similar situations. Since then, began my six-year epic with bras. At first I chose them for hours, then it turned out that the metal bones were tearing the laces, the skin was rubbed to the blood, and the models with foam rubber were sweating on the breasts or just always need to correct the cups and straps. In general, I was tormented, but the sense of security and the ability to visually enlarge the breast were comforted - like many of the same age, I dreamed of a third size.
One day my boyfriend asked what the scars are on my ribs. I told him about the blisters from the bones, complained about the irresistible inconvenience of bras. He asked why I wear them at all. I shared my story of street harassment, he reacted correctly, and I felt like a stone fell from my heart. I realized that I was no longer a timid girl and I could fight back.
I began to leave the house without a bra and realized that the world had not collapsed. On the contrary, there are many advantages. All women know how to breathe freely when you take off your bra after a long day, and what traces of it remain on your body. Now I can not imagine that I again agree on this. In a bra you get used to constant stiffness of movements and breathing, to the falling of the straps, to the increased sweating (in the summer in our city of heat), to the contraction of muscles and skin. Now I remember it with a shudder. And in choosing swimsuits I became more picky - I put on standard models with cups and I feel that my mother was right when comparing bras with harness.
For eight years without bras, my chest has grown from the first almost to the third size, but I don’t feel any discomfort. In the first weeks it was a bit painful to run and jump, but soon the muscles strengthened, and since then I feel only comfort. In addition, while wearing a bra, my chest was constantly itchy and often sore, even when it stopped growing. She was very vulnerable. It was necessary only to stop squeezing it and break the blood and lymph circulation, the problems stopped. Besides, I am glad that I don’t spend money on a piece of clothing that I don’t need.
My refusal of a bra influenced the choice of clothes: I don’t wear fabrics through which my nipples and halos would stand out in color. Protruding nipples do not bother me, although I constantly catch myself looking at expressing indignation, lust or interest, but I do not think that this should make me give up comfort and health. I, too, know how to look so that opponents look away, or respond to rudeness. Once towards me, men chatted about each other about my nipples. I firmly demanded not to stare, but they were only embarrassed.
I think that some women are really more comfortable in bras, but I am a living example of the fact that the bra is worn not for convenience, but because of social pressure. For example, some wear it only because the shape or size of their breasts do not meet the imposed standard.
I love to feel comfortable, and the study of feminism only pushed me on the path to convenience in everything. At first I gave up heels, and then a bra. At first I went without a bra in the summer, because it was hot, and then in the winter - first, under a free jacket, so that it was completely invisible. After that, I tried again to put on a bra, and it seemed terribly inconvenient to me: it was pressing, it was hard to breathe. Just got used to the good! Since then, I wore a bra a couple of times just for beauty, but for three and a half years I haven’t wear anything, only sometimes sports tops.
Oddly enough, my decision caused almost no reaction. Rarely, someone will comment on a photo on the Internet, where it is noticeable that I am without a bra, but in real life they only said it once, but rather in jest, nothing offensive. After that, I asked my acquaintances, and of a different gender, it turned out that no one really noticed. Maybe it's because the size of the breast is small.
When I gave up the bra, life became simpler: nothing presses, it does not press, it is not hot. In addition, it is nice to know that I don’t have to do meaningless things: I really don’t understand why women are still forced to wear bras, it seems to me a strange echo of outdated fetishes.
Once I sat on a pair at the university, the bra was terribly pressing, interfered, and I thought only that as soon as I get home, I will take off my bra and never wear it again. The promise kept. And I think at first my decision was not connected with feminism, but with banal discomfort.
At first, I felt rather uncomfortable. People often squinted, someone was teasing, some tried to lecture me about how "indecent and defiant." Fortunately, I was lucky with the environment, so my friends and acquaintances accepted it calmly, shrugging their shoulders, saying, "everyone has their own oddities."
From the advantages of non-bra, I can highlight the convenience. The feeling of tightness of the body and stiffness of movements is extremely annoying. Having refused a bra, I no longer fix it every hour, don’t pick up clothes that will hide it, don’t tolerate bones that dig into skin, and don’t spend extra money — the underwear is now quite expensive.
We are told that women should wear bras to hide their forms or make them more attractive. I think this is unfair, because men do not have such unpleasant elements of clothing. So why should I wear something that I don’t like?
With the rejection of the bra, my life really became better, precisely in terms of self-awareness. I decided that since I was able to get rid of such a horribly inconvenient thing that was actively being imposed on girls from my youth, I could do everything else. Around this time, I became interested in feminism and discovered a completely different world for myself. It was the first small step to freedom, after it I got rid of many other things that prevented me from living. Condemn for such things will always, but I do not care, because the feeling of freedom is priceless.
If a girl has breasts of a second size and smaller, the bra can not be worn all year round. Muscles cope with this load themselves, and the refusal of linen just does not harm. Well, a bra for girls with big breasts is needed just for convenience. I would recommend to wear underwear to everyone only during and after feeding the child, regardless of the initial size. As a result of post-lactation changes, the chest dries and falls due to gravity, so additional support is needed.
In different periods of the development of society, there is a certain rate of corporal closeness. Suppose you used to wear corsets or did not show your toes. Exactly the same way it is now accepted to close the chest with a bra. Similar norms die off in a natural way - this is how new fashion trends appear and old ones die out. And to loosen this norm, you need to remove the bra, that is, to go to protest. This aggression against the established tradition will be met with outrage of the people who protect this canon. As a result of this struggle, a new norm will be formed, for example, the corsets have disappeared so much, but we do not yet know what will happen to the bras.
In addition, the negative reaction to the absence of a bra is largely due to the physiological response. In our culture, it is customary to wear a bra, and its absence is perceived as a hint of nudity, which, in fact, is even more powerful stimulus than outright nudity. Thus, our so-called animal nature orders to regard this as a call, and the bark of the big hemispheres (it is she who is responsible for self-control and other achievements of civilization) says that everyone has the right to dress as he wants. As a result, cognitive dissonance arises, which a person, in principle, does not tolerate very well and therefore may show aggression or simply experience irritation. Someone may offend a girl, someone may be suspected of sexual provocation, someone will not say anything at all. The reaction depends on many factors, including how our cerebral cortex works.
PHOTO:Group Partner, Monki