It’s date night for you and your significant other, and you find the most adorable top to wear. One problem: The top is super low cut and revealing. Your options are either: to go braless or wear a completely different top. Those who choose to go braless tend to feel uncomfortable with the notion of other people enjoying their dinner and seeing your non-imprisoned breasts in between gulps of wedding soup. Why do women have to feel like they cannot wear specific clothing or be comfortable in front of others without a bra on? Women should be allowed to be comfy with or without a bra.
In my opinion, bras are not comfortable. Some bras have an underwire that constantly puts pressure underneath the breasts onto the ribcage. It repeatedly reminds you of the bra that is surrounding your breasts. Girls often get the wrong size, then the extra tightness puts pressure and could affect you internally. Even with a size too big the straps flop around and can just be an annoyance. The bralettes that do not have underwire involved tend to be more comfortable but if you have sensitive skin like me then the lacy replacements irritate your skin. For me not wearing a bra seems like a better way to go. More and more I see women converting from bras to braless.
This conversion from bra to braless causes me to wonder why they wear them in the first place. Personally, I do not think women wear bras because they are “comfortable” but more because of effects I established through interviews on some of my close friends in college. Of the interviews I conducted many of the women admitted that they caught people staring at them when they did not wear a bra. They said that if people would not show their disapproval so vividly the girls would consider not wearing bras more. When not wearing a bra the women I interviewed said bras tends to complicate everyday activities like walking down steps, running, etc. Four out of five girls said that not wearing bras made them feel powerful and “free spirited”. The same girls in my interviews stated that they were not uncomfortable seeing other women without bras. They all said that they were jealous they are not comfortable enough to go braless.
Society has made women feel like they cannot go a day without a bra since all the actress’ on television and in magazines wear bras. This restriction on women’s culture of beauty makes being comfortable impossible for other women to listen to their body’s pain and take that bra off. All of the women feel like they need to meet some requirement of what a perfect, natural breast. In my interviews, many women stated that since they have a bigger breast size, they feel more uncomfortable not wearing a bra. They claim after a while their breasts constantly sagging makes their backs start to hurt. Yet all the women I interviewed said they experienced more pain when wearing a bra compared to not.
After I conducted the interviews with the women, I was curious enough to wonder what the young men who supposedly “stare” thought about girls not wearing bras. I interviewed five men total. Three of the men said seeing a girl without a bra on would not bug them as long as they did not see nipples through the shirt. Two of the young men admitted that they did not mind a girl not wearing a bra as long as she was comfortable. The guys all said that they thought if a girl went to a party or out in public in dressy clothing without a bra, that this new found freedom was a sexual reference. They said that she would be referring to showing her sexuality proudly. One male had a statement that really stood out to me, he stated that “We [men] don’t have to wear bras, so why should women?” He pulled out the concept of equality into to the interview which I highly agree with. He also stated that he personally “hates wearing underwear all the time”, which helped me see that men sometimes feel the same as women do about bras. I noticed, in my interviews, that the men had some discomfort talking about bras and breasts, yet the girls were more than happy to express their opinion on how they felt about bras. It is hard to tell what other men feel about the subject, but since I wanted to keep my interviews more local I based the overall opinion of their comments.
The uncomfortableness girls feel about not wearing a bra should not be a common thing. Breasts are body parts similar to arms and legs, yet those can be free without restriction. I think bras should be an option, not a requirement. So, girls, if there is anything you learn from this particular topic, it is that I hope you always feel comfortable no matter what you wear. What you wear does not matter to anyone but yourself. Whoever tells you otherwise do not matter. My advice for women who are considering the transition is: to be more comfortable with their body, don’t listen to others comments, and lastly set them free.
