You will see that most modern fashionable women, celebs and otherwise, do wear a bra with their outfit. This ideally have specific reasons as well apart from standing out from the crowd. In fact, you will be surprised to know that few medical experts even suggest that you do not wear a bra!
You may or may not have come across the phrase ‘’Free the Nipple’ or may have seen the movie with the same name. This is the phrase introduced by LinaEscoin 2012 to mutual consciousness with a promotion.
·The primary intention behind was to de-stigmatize female nudity and decriminalize it in public.
·This movement created a stir and quickly caught on. It gained more attention as few well-known celebs mobilizing in masses against public topless-ness laws and rules.
Instagram should be named in particular as it banned women’s nipples from the social media but allowed men to reveal the same freely without any shame or consequences.
Amidst a stir, Instagram clarified later about their decision in their community guidelines. It justified that nudity in photos of sculptures and paintings is agreeable just as photos of mother actively breastfeeding her child or post-mastectomy scarring.
Lina strongly opposed this and said that at least to start a real dialogue about equality among men and women, being topless is the best thing to do. It is about a choice and not about being topless, she said.
Going braless under clothes
Free the Nipple concept may be initially focused on being completely and literallytopless but soon the movement also encompassed conversations about being braless under clothes.
In fact, it is seen in the past couple years that while the celebs are talking and demonstrating about freeing the nipple under the clothes, US students have mobilized against sexist dress codes. One of the most significant and salient points raised by them is the need to wear bras.
·There are a few instances where students staged a demonstration that went viral when a student was forced by the college to put Band-Aids over the nipples simply for not wearing a bra.
·Another protest, ‘No Bra, No Problem’ went viral too after a student was disciplined due to the fact that her being braless simply ‘made someone uncomfortable!’
However, these people as well as the protestors did not take one significant point into account. It is the fact that wearing a bra under the dress or even being called for not wearing one really makes someone else the most uncomfortable: it is the person with the breasts!
Reasons other than fashion
There are lots of reasons other than fashion not to wear a bra under your dress, no matter how surprising the fact may seem to you. Since these are the reasons suggested by medical experts, sociologists and professors, there is no reason to doubt it. However, first you must know the views of some famous people on this.
·Most people consider women’s bodies as contested terrain especially in public places, said Deborah J. Cohan, an associate professor of sociology at the University of South Carolina, Beaufort, to Teen Vogue. According to her, strangers touch the bellies and even give unsolicited advice to pregnant women but the right to choose during abortion or pregnancy remains contested relentlessly.
·It is the same when women nurses babies in public and anything connected to women’s body is consideredgood to wage a war, make advancements, and shaming them.
·The ‘No Bra, No Problem’ Facebook page, though no longer live, describes it as a movement for women’s rights and gender equality but most importantly it is all about ‘being comfortable.’
All these ultimately point out that whether or not to wear a bra under the clothes is a personal decision. Though this is at the root of it, the choice may be simple. However, in reality, it is a fact that is indissolublyconnected to not only fashion, but also to women’s right, history, sexuality, equality and health.
Looking at the history
The history of women scrapping bras from their outfit dates back to 1960s and 1970s. You may have heard about the “bra burning” movement in that time when feminists burnt their bras en masse. However, this was actually a myth. This stemmed from the liberation demonstration when women tossed almost all anti-feminist items into fire, and bras were included.
The receptacle, called the “freedom trash can” was filled with various items such as:
·High-heels
·Women’s magazines
·False eyelashes and more.
However, it was only the discarded bras that caught notice, captured and shared in the media. This specific item therefore cemented it as a symbol of feminist movements in the minds of the society, though not in a good way. However, the movement changed in forms and ‘Free the Nipple’ and ‘No Bra, No Problem’ movements came into existence, almost becoming a fashion.
Now the questions
Whether you use a bra or not will always raise questions in your mind.
When you use it you will think:
·What is the right type of bra for your body
·What is the right fabric and
·What is the right sizeand even use bra size calculator inches to know it.
On the other hand when you do not want to use it and follow the braless fashion, you will have questions like:
·Will it hurt your back
·Will your breasts sag in the future
·What if you have large breasts and
·What if you do not want to free the nipple?
Well, consider bras as technical garments. These are worn only to provide support to your breasts. Therefore, if you have large breasts and want to avoid breast painchest wall inflammation, bra is a good thing to wear.
In fact, not wearing a bra is a personal choice. If you choose not to and avoid pain then yoga, Pilates and other stretching exercises will be very helpful. Yes, your breasts will sag but then that is a natural and normal phenomenon. In fact, there is no medical reason, as of now, to wear a bra to limit fashion.
