I think every man who wears a mask possibly now understands the relief women feel when they get home, walk through the door, and immediately remove their bras. For many of us, working from home has provided the opportunity to rid ourselves of restrictive clothing.
I have always felt that bras were restrictive. As much as I could, I have avoided wearing them and I never missed an opportunity to swim topless whenever I got one.
The true nature of bras has always been to restrict, after all, they evolved from corsets. Prototypes of the first bras were mass-produced and marketed in England, America, Germany, and France from the 1850s until around the 1920s. The use of the bra continued to become even more popular and later attracted a sex-appeal image after their appearance in Hollywood movies. Some say this image further objectified women. My reasons for wearing a bra have always been tied to the fact that I was made to feel that perky and upright boobs were the ideal look and a bra ensured such a look with its firm wires and stiff padding.
For some women who experience breast pain, a bra can be seen as a great companion as it helps to relieve such pain by holding the breast tissue in place, according to Joanna Wakefield-Scurr, a professor of biomechanics at the University of Portsmouth, who leads a research group into breast health.Furthermore, Wakefield-Scurr highlights that “there are no muscles within the breast and there are only two weak supportive structures that hold the breast in place”. As a result, bras are your best chance at reduced movement. The supportive structure is made of the skin, and Cooper’s ligaments, the fibrous tissue that support and shape the breast. Therefore, when one moves during sporting activities such movement can cause damage to the supporting structures. Hence the need for proper support.
In addition to this, some women also wear bras to help relieve back pain, while some use it as a preventative measure against under-boob skin problems. Over the years, too we have seen bras develop to accommodate for comfort with softer and more gentle materials (triangle style, boneless, etc) and their use became a bit more natural.
Nevertheless, the wearing of bras has always had inevitable partisan implications. Women found they had to care excessively about texture and colour, revealing straps and so on. But they would be judged if they chose not to wear bras and were therefore forced both consciously and unconsciously into their use.
With the current relatively limited need to interact and because many do not have to leave the house every day, bras are optional, and women have gotten used to the comfort of not being forced to wear one. However, bras aren’t going anywhere. They are still part of the market that is dependent on them. But it would not be wrong to say that the culture around them generally may be changing their initial popularity.
