The bra; a piece of clothing women have such a difficult relationship with. You’re shamed if you don’t wear one, you’re shamed if you wear one and it’s visible, you’re shamed if the colour doesn’t match your clothing, you’re shamed if doesn’t go with your lingerie. There’s no winning.
Your breasts are everyone’s concern
Your breasts are one of society’s major concerns. They give anxiety to your mother, alarm to your father, distraction to some and discomfort to others. They’re the most important things in your life and in everyone else’s lives too.
Your breasts must be big but not too big. They should be proportionate, firm, perky and round with a small areola and an upright nipple. You ought not to alert everyone by making your bra or cleavage visible. And heaven forbid you to take them out to feed a hungry baby.
Society expects you to grow and maintain a perfect pair and if you can’t, there are plenty of ways to accentuate them. From creams and exercise to cosmetic surgery, in a world that talks so openly about fixing your ‘imperfections’, what’s the obsession behind having to hide your breasts?
It’s ingrained in us to always wear a bra
It’s instilled in us, from breast-growing age, that we should always wear a bra, whether for support, to make your clothes look nicer or to stop sagging. So because of this, it makes us think that it’s indecent to step outside our house without one.
But if women are expected to wear a bra for these reasons, why are women shamed if a strap seeps through or the outline of their cups are visible? Why are so many people shocked when they see a bra on a woman when it’s society that has programmed us all to think that women should always be wearing one?
We need to teach women and men that it’s okay if a bra is visible or if a woman isn’t wearing a bra at all. So what if you can see a nipple underneath a t-shirt? If that makes you feel uncomfortable then that’s your problem! Sexualisation, to an extent, is perception and as a society, we need to recognise that this perception has been moulded by patriarchal values.
Not wearing a bra should not be viewed as making a statement that defines your appearance or who you are as a person because, at the end of the day, BRAS ARE UNCOMFORTABLE. It’s about how you feel, not how society has made you feel about a part of your anatomy.
Do as you please
Bras should exist for two reasons:
- For physical support – being of a larger chest it’s difficult to enjoy going to the gym/ going for a run without a sports bra on
- To be taken off
I guarantee that a large proportion of girls and women wear a bra just because they think they have to. They disregard whether they ‘need’ to because they were born into a western culture that seems to own their bodies and tells them how to look.
Don’t wear a bra, do wear a bra, do as you please! But I will say this – women who are not wearing bras are not indecent, if women are showing their boobs they are not ‘asking for it’; women are much more than their breasts.
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Written by Kelsee Leighton
Illustrated by Francesca Mariama
