Bralessness
[2][3][4] 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.
[5] 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.
"[5] 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, more natural look.
In a 1952 article in Parents' Magazine, Frank H. Crowell erroneously reported that it was important for teen girls to begin wearing bras early.
[40] Women tend to find a bra that appears to fit and stay with that size for a long period of time even though they may lose and gain weight.
[20][44][45] Women complain of breast, shoulder, neck, and back pain, migraines, indigestion, skin abrasions, and restricted breathing due to wearing bras.
[61] John Dixey, former CEO of bra-maker Playtex, explained on a British TV Channel 4 interview, "We have evidence that wearing a bra could not prevent sagging, because the breast itself is not muscle, so keeping it toned up is an impossibility. ...
"[60] 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.
An increasing number of millennial women reject these ideas as holdovers from earlier eras when a "woman's existence is for the male gaze.
These included bras,[67] which were among items the protesters called "instruments of female torture"[68] and accouterments of what they perceived to be enforced femininity.
A local news story in the Atlantic City Press reported that "the bras, girdles, falsies, curlers, and copies of popular women's magazines burned in the 'Freedom Trash Can'".
Make a bonfire of the cruel steels that have lorded it over your thorax and abdomens for so many years and heave a sigh of relief, for your emancipation I assure you, from this moment has begun.
"[88] Feminist author Iris Marion Young wrote in 2005 that the bra "serves as a barrier to touch" and that a braless woman is "deobjectified", eliminating the "hard, pointy look that phallic culture posits as the norm."
[93][94] On August 1, 1969, an Anti-Bra Day was declared in San Francisco to protest societal pressure to wear constrictive, feminine garments.
[95][96] In 1968, shortly after the feminist protest against bras and other feminine products at the Miss America pageant, actress Marlo Thomas began going braless on the prime-time television series That Girl.
"[99] In 1971, activist and actress Bianca Jagger broke tradition and wore a tailored Yves St. Laurent Le Smoking jacket to her Catholic wedding with nothing underneath.
"[5][104][105][106] An increasing number of women question previously accepted medical, physiological, anatomical, and social reasons for wearing bras.
[114][115][116] In 2009 Somalia's hard-line Islamic group Al-Shabaab forced women to shake their breasts at gunpoint to see if they were wearing bras, which they called "un-Islamic".
[122] Teen Vogue reported that the Free the Nipple movement may have initially focused on being actually topless, but it has grown to include the idea of going braless under clothes.
In 2017, the unofficial day was observed by women in 30 countries,[citation needed] including New Zealand, Romania, Malaysia, Scotland, India, and Ghana.
The tabloid website TMZ posted an item about "Happy No Bra Day" with an image of Selena Gomez wearing a see-through top.
"[102] In June, 2017, Sarah Starks organized a protest in Charleston, West Virginia, in response to the social expectation that women and girls must wear bras and shirts to avoid offending or arousing others.
[135] The critics believe that businesses benefit financially by encouraging precocious sexuality in girls and exploiting their fears about self-image and social norms.
[142][143] The number and variety of legal issues faced by women about whether to wear a bra or not illustrates the depth and complexity of the subject in society.
In Chatham, Ontario, Canada, police came under criticism after it was revealed that a woman held in custody was required to remove her bra before a breathalyzer test.
The police stated that they required women in custody to give up any item which could be used as "ligatures for self-harm or strangulation" – including necklaces, ties, shoelaces and bras.
Called out of class to the dean's office, Martinez was told she was in violation of the School District of Manatee County's dress code (although the district's dress code did not require females to wear a bra)[153] and was causing a "distraction," stating that boys were "looking and laughing.”[154] Notifying them of her sunburn, she was required her to wear an additional shirt and due to the continued visibility of her nipples through her T-shirt was told by the dean to obtain adhesive bandages from the school's clinic in order to cover them.
"[154] In Montana, senior Kaitlyn Juvik at Helena high school was reprimanded on May 25, 2016, for wearing an off-the-shoulder black top without a bra, being told that she was causing male students and staff to feel "uncomfortable".
[165] Within Iran the Guidance Patrol (Gasht-e Ershad) act as undercover agents who implement, enforce, and uphold state interpretations and expectations of morality, including rules of dress.
She claimed that due to medication utilised to treat an acute fibrocystic disease her skin and breasts had become sensitive and painful, further justifying her position in stating that, “I do not wear bras at home, at work or even at parties.”[165] For her release, Narges was coerced into signing a pledge declaring that she would not repeat the action.
