BRALESSNESS: An old Fashion Way or A New Style.

BRALESSNESS: An old Fashion Way or A New Style.

© Adedeji, Adewale H.O.K.

In Western society, since the 1960s, there has been a slow but steady trend towards bralessness among a number of women, especially millennials, who have expressed opposition to and are giving up wearing bras. In 2016, Allure magazine fashion director Rachael Wang wrote, "Going braless is as old as feminism, but it seems to be bubbling to the surface more recently as a direct response to Third Wave moments like #freethenipple hashtag campaign, increased trans-visibility like Caitlyn Jenner's Vanity Fair cover ... and Lena Dunham's show Girls.

Women choose to go braless due to discomfort, health-related issues, their cost, and for social reasons, often having to do with self-acceptance and political expression. Women have protested the physical and cultural restrictions imposed by bras over many years. A feminist protest at the 1968 Miss America Contest is often seen as the beginning of the anti-bra movement, prompting manufacturers to market new designs that created a softer and more natural look of new bra inventions.

The word braless was first used circa 1965. Other terms for going braless include breast freedom, top freedom, and bra-freedom. Activists advocating going braless have referred to protests as a "bra-cott".

Researchers and physicians have found health benefits for going braless. One researcher found that women who did not wear a bra experienced less shoulder and neck pain. According to a research published in the "Clinical Study of Pain", large-breasted women can reduce back pain by going braless, and they may find going braless a preferred treatment over reduction mammaplasty. Among many of the women with larger breasts who participated in the study, 79% decided to stop wearing bras completely.

Women who have gone long periods without wearing a bra often report that this leads their breasts to being firmer, rounder, and perkier over time but women with larger or fuller breasts may feel more back strain when not wearing a bra.

In another study, eleven adult female subjects aged 22–39 wore a correctly fitted bra for three months and then went braless for three months. After the bra-wearing period, when compared with the bra-free period, the distance between the woman's right and left nipples became wider, and their breasts sagged more.

Professor Jean-Denis Rouillon, a sports science expert from the University of Franche-Comté at Besançon, France, conducted a 15-year long study that studied the benefits women get from wearing a bra. He discussed his preliminary research in 2013, generating considerable media attention in France and elsewhere. In a controversial finding, he concluded that the nipples of 330 women aged 18 to 35 who never wore bras were on average {7 millimetres (0.28"inches)} higher in relation to their shoulders each year than regular bra users. 

He concluded, "Medically, physiologically, anatomically – breasts gain no benefit from being denied gravity. On the contrary, they get saggier with a bra".

Bras can impede blood flow to back and chest muscles, contributing to sore back muscles. Women with large breasts who stop wearing a bra may experience improved blood flow more quickly than women with smaller breasts, as bras supporting larger breasts tend to fit tighter than those worn by women with smaller breasts. Research shows that, 70% of women wear bras that are too small because finding a well-fitting bra is difficult.

Susan M. Love, a Clinical Professor of Surgery at UCLA, is a founder of the National Breast Cancer Coalition. She wrote, "Except for the women who find bras especially comfortable or uncomfortable, the decision to wear or not wear one is purely aesthetic - or emotional. If you don't enjoy it, and job or social pressures don't force you into it, don't bother."

CANCER FEARS:

Some women choose not gjgjgjggjg ga wear bras because they worry that it might increase the risk of breast cancer. This idea was promoted in a controversial 1995 book Dressed to Kill: The Link Between Breast Cancer and Bras. A 2002 survey found that 6% of women agreed that "Under-wire bras can cause breast cancer", 63% disagreed with this claim, and another 31% did not know.

SOCIAL ISSUES:

Laura Tempesta, bra expert and founder of bra manufacturing company named Bravolution, stated that, "Lifted breasts are considered attractive in our culture which is why bra-wearing is a cultural development." Women feel pressured to wear bras because society expects their breasts to "stay firm and in the right position", or that if they are braless, it means she is promiscuous, loose, or slutty.

During the 1960s, a few feminists embraced bralessness. However, most Western women continued to wear bras, despite complaining about how uncomfortable they were.

In 1968 at the feminist Miss America protest, protesters symbolically threw a number of feminine products into a "Freedom Trash Can". These included bras, which were among items the protesters called "instruments of female torture"

NO BRA DAY:

One outgrowth of the resistance to bras was the formation of No Bra Day in 2013. In 2017, the unofficial day was observed by women in 30 countries, including New Zealand, Romania, Malaysia, Scotland, India, and Ghana. More than 82,000 women posted pictures on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #nobraday.

Free the Nipple is a #topfreedom campaign created in 2012 during pre-production of a 2014 film of the same name. The campaign highlights the general convention of allowing men to appear topless in public while considering it sexual or indecent for women to do the same, and asserts that this difference is an unjust treatment of women. The campaign argues that it should be legally and culturally acceptable for women to bare their nipples in public.

In 2017, a "Free The Nipple" event was held in Hull, England, on the day also celebrated as Women's Equality Day and Go Topless Day, the anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920 which gave US women the right to vote.

There was also a Free the Nipple event in 2017, held in Charleston, West Virginia. Sports bras can often provide too much support and prevent the ribcage from functioning properly

In conjunction with regular bra fittings, women who suffer from back pain should consult an osteopath on how they move, the effects of their working and home environment, and get a list of exercises to help their mobility. Bras help muscles and the spine get into a better position, but it’s not a one-stop solution.

CONCLUSION:

It is one's choice to decide when and how she wish to put on bras. Irrespective of she going to work or at home. No one says you should or should not wear bra but all of the misconception and misinformation has to be eradicated.

A professional health physician once said, "women wearing a bra often experience "boob sweat", clogged pores, skin irritation, and body odour. They can develop acne mechanica. It is possible to alleviate this problem by going braless".

Women complain of breast, shoulder, neck, back pain, migraines, indigestion, skin abrasions, and restricted breathing due to wearing bras. Women who have large breasts are more likely to experience discomfort. Large cup size has been correlated with an increase in shoulder and neck pain. One researcher found that 40% of women who rode horses reported breast pain. Women often cite the discomfort and pain associated with wearing bras as the primary reason for disliking them and for giving up wearing one.

A breast can weigh more that a kilo when you are a D cup or above. The pressure on the whole body is huge, especially for the back. Remember that breasts are made up of fat, glandular and adipose tissues, and only the skin and the ligaments support them.

If you feel uncomfortable in your bras, most likely the problem lies with the bra itself. Perhaps you are not wearing the right size or the quality of your bra is not good enough to provide all the support and comfort you need.

When you wear a well fitted and textured bra, you should feel lighter, confident and almost forget that you are wearing one. While many women think that bra straps are the most important element of a bra to provide support, it's actually the back fabric.

If you want to ditch your day-to-day bra and go braless all together, however, I'd advise opting for a sports bra or – ideally – how about trying a bra without under wiring? I suggest opting for a seamless or T-shirt bras which are really comfortable.

MORE READINGS:

1) Mallenbaum, Carly (July 19, 2016). "Why Millennials are going braless". USA Today. Archived from the original on 2018-09-20. Retrieved 20 September 2018.

2) Ahsan, Sadaf (29 August 2016). "The only time we feel comfortable to go braless shouldn't have to be in our bedrooms". National Post. Retrieved 9 June 2020.

3) Jenny Kutner (16 December 2014). ""Maybe America just needs a big blast of boobies": Lina Esco tells Salon about her topless crusade to free the nipple". Salon.com. Retrieved 4 April 2015