Okay, so one cultural artifact I’ve been mulling over is the evolution of the bra. It’s introduced to every girl at the ripe of age of 8 or 9, with the concept of a “training bra.” There are so many different styles and options today, but I think looking at the evolution of the “artifact” and learning how we got here is important, because women in history didn’t have the “luxuries” we have.
Here are a couple of links I found on the subject:
https://www.bustle.com/articles/104975-the-history-of-the-bra-is-as-long-complicated-as-the-history-of-women-in
http://www.elle.com/fashion/news/a15269/history-of-the-bra/
http://www.alternet.org/story/59877/a_social_history_of_the_bra
Wearing a Bra Should Be a Personal Choice and Not a Social Norm – Here’s Why
I think there could be (of course, this can be confirmed or denied by further study) a direct correlation between the different types of bodices (handling boobs, for a lack of a better term) to the liberation that women experienced.
There’s different forms of bras as early as Ancient Times in Greek and Roman society, and of course in the Middle ages, but I’m more interested in the American 1900s for right now.
For instance, in the 1920’s, chests were almost binded so girls could attain a “boyish” look that was all the rage in the flapper-era. I’m not sure if this is coincidence or not, but the 1920’s was also the birth of women’s suffrage, and women starting to gain equal footing with men. Of course, women showed off their long legs in short dresses, so they weren’t trying to become masculine, but perhaps a “stowing away” of the boobs and emphasis on flat-chestedness represented a new ideal that women were approaching in this era.
During this time, corsets were not popular because they didn’t have metal to spare during the first and second World War. So instead, women started inventing their own versions of the bra, which quickly caught on and soon became mass produced. Bras also revolutionized fashion, because it radically altered what women could wear, and tons of new designs for evening gowns were produced.
Then there were the “bra-burning feminists,” who, turns out, didn’t actually burn bras. They simply threw them in a “Freedom Trash Can” along with other repressing objects, such as high heels and corsets. But yet someone made the analogy to the burning of anti-war propaganda books in Germany, and it stuck. These feminists have been bashed and are often used to support an “anti-feminist” sentiment, but the fact that the literal burning never took place raises questions. It also relates to today’s controversy of trying to abandon the bra, which I will touch upon at the end.
And then, in the late 1970’s was the invention of the Sports Bra. This opened a new branch for practicality and supported women engaging in athletic activities, once again taking another step close to equality and men. This also coincides with Second Wave Feminism, which had to do women’s reproductive rights as well as more women entering the work force and gaining the respect of their male peers. In fact, this almost echoes the “flapper” style binding of putting the breasts away to focus on other things.
The rhetoric in advertising bras is greatly diverse now. Some stress ultimate comfort for the women, other’s use words like “sexy” to make it sell. There’s almost a bra for every need/want now, in tons of colors and designs. It seems that through this apparel, women have received the maximum amount of liberation, not necessarily in equality to men, but having the freedom to pick how they want to make themselves appear.
However, there’s a lot of controversy with bras. One is the “Free the Nipple” movement, which is trying to make it socially acceptable for women to not wear bras in public and have their nipples exposed through their shirt. I think this is rather interesting, because in many countries in Europe, this is how women normally dress, and they don’t receive adverse judgement because of it. Somehow America has crafted this culture that is for sexual liberation, but one that refuses to acknowledge and embrace women’s natural bodies (wearing no bra, having thick leg hair, not shaving armpits, etc). Instead women feel coerced by social norms to wear a bra, even if they can go without one easily, or they don’t find them comfortable, or else they might receive dirty looks.
I think another thing that’s interesting (based on the girls I talk to) is that most girls are not afraid of what guys will think when they don’t shave their legs/put on makeup/wear a bra, but about what other girls would think. Girls tend to be a lot more judgmental than men, and if this is true on a larger scale, then it is women themselves purporting this imprisoning rhetoric on beauty, instead of be accepting on all different approaches to it, and embracing natural beauty.
I think, even with all the options we have now for bras, because they are such a large part of the culture, women are having a hard time cleaving themselves from the artifact. I’m not sure why, but I think it would be interesting to study it. Is the pendulum swinging back, where the bra is no longer liberating as in the progressing 1900’s, but instead a source of objectification, as in Greek times? And what’s next for it?