Cover Up! What Is Society's Morbid Obsession With Breast And Bras?

In September 2023, British Airways issued a guideline regarding flight attendants' uniform. It had launched a new set of uniforms with semi translucent white blouses due to which the bras of most of the employees were visible hazily through their uniform. The British Airways then introduced a guideline for the type of bras flight attendants should be wearing under their uniform. They mentioned how their employees should not be wearing lacy or designed bras and mostly wear a white bra or t-shirt under the blouse to not show any inner wear. The flight attendants' union filed a complaint against the company and the guidelines issued by them.

After much consideration in December 2023, the Airways revoked its guideline on bras and soon followed much criticism by netizens after the news went public. This provoked many into pondering how a patriarchal society claims to have autonomy over a female body and patrol how they dress, speak, act, behave, sit and walk. One can summarise, our society, patriarchal in nature, monitors females and any gender not aligned with its ideologies. 

Shared Sisterhood of Corsets and Bra

Bras originally were born out of corsets, something to support the bosom of women and uplift them as efficiently as a corset would. It was Caresse Crosby who invented the modern day bra in the 20th century when corsets were re-designed and half corsets or bras came into meaning. The function of a bra was no less than a corset but instead of shaping and tightening the breasts and entire torso, bras just shaped and tightened breasts. At the core, the concept of corset and bra has been sexualised over the centuries since the Victorian era and continuously been used to reignite the idea of how a woman's body should look like. Many feminists have concluded that bras are literal mechanisms to restrain women and their bodies. 

The idea to have perfectly shaped and uplifted breasts was reinforced by our patriarchal society and slowly ingrained into every young girl growing up. We were always told to move with grace, cover ourselves, not wear anything too revealing, wear training bras and then shift to wired bras and other lingerie to appeal to men. What we were never taught was to learn to gain autonomy over our bodies and ourselves, to never be afraid to tell a predator a 'no', to not let patriarchy control us, our bodies and mind. 

Free the Nipple Movement Sparking Outrage in Men

Many women have been fighting against these ideas of patriarchy and 'Free the Nipple Movement' was one such landmark event which gained global response from feminists. It highlighted the hypocrisy of a world where men of all ages, sizes and ethnicity were/are allowed to strut around shirtless, post topless pictures and use their bodies to gain positive traction from the audience but women are not allowed  to do the same thing. For women, showing any absurd amount of cleavage (here the amount of absurdity is also set by our society) meant backlash from people and comments where they are labelled 'slut' or 'whores.' Free the Nipple Movement wanted a society where men and women had the same rights, the same freedom and the same autonomy over their body. 

Unfortunately, social media sites have banned any graphic picture of women from uploading their nipples but no such guideline exists for men.  Sexualizing women and their bodies was invented by patriarchy and has always favoured them since it reduces women to nothing but a sexualised creature. It then becomes difficult for our society to acknowledge women beyond their bodies and physical features and results in decades of stereotypes etched in the younger generation which makes it difficult for the community to move forward.

Views expressed by the author are their own.