Let the boobies fly wild 'n' free!
The UK bra industry is worth £500m UK pounds per year. The “over-shoulder-boulder-holder” is a necessary evil in many women’s lives…but who do we have to blame for this often uncomfortable, but ever-so-sexy piece of clothing?
The first modern bra was invented by a New York socialite named Mary Phelps Jacob way back in 1913, in order to find a way to squeeze into her evening gown. Since then the bra has gone from strength to strength, literally as well as figuratively. Despite the brief bra-burning episode in 1968, the bra has endured. Millions of women in the Western world have used it ever since, to contort themselves into ever more youthful and gravity-defying shapes.
Let’s face it girls - breasts are heavy, cumbersome things. When you run to the shops, providing you’re not completely flat-chested, if you go without a bra then the little buggers bounce and swing all over the place, resulting in male admirers with eyes out on stalks and tongues hanging out. Not a pretty thought.
And all this fuss over a pair of udders. Yep, that’s right, udders. Why-oh-why are men obsessed with udders? There’s a whole industry grown out of photographing these mighty mammaries. They are worshipped, adored, obsessed about, lusted after, and generally drooled over.
This sexualisation appears to occur only in humans. When did you last see a bull eyeing up a pretty young cow in the field, and saying to his mate, “Ay Caramba Hank, that’s a mighty pert set of udders that pretty young heifer’s got, don’t-cha think ?”
And yet humans, supposedly way more civilised than our bovine friends, find this type of behaviour perfectly acceptable. The sex industry thrives on the mammary obsession, you photographers make (hopefully) a decent amount of money at it. So why the attraction?
Personally I think it all stems back to the Goddess/Mother earth mythology. The Goddess has been worshipped throughout human history for her fertility and her power. Without sounding too “Da Vinci Code” about it, throughout most religions from Mayan mythology through to modern Christianity, the Goddess has been venerated as the founder of mankind. The milk of her breasts is seen as the source of all life in the world. Every woman is derived from the Goddess, so the wisdom goes. So why corrupt the Goddess by covering up her very symbols of life-force? When was the last time you saw an Egyptian statue of a priestess in a bra?
In modern society, breasts must be kept hidden. Baring your breasts is a big taboo of course, and going without a bra (with clothes on) is equally frowned upon - I have to put a bra on when I pick the kids up from school, otherwise you should just see the looks I get!
Sagging and jiggling breasts (such as mine) are seen as unattractive in the Western world, whereas in the Kalahari Bushmen, for example, they are seen as proud representations of motherhood – nudity is nothing to be ashamed of there, nor are age or the effects of gravity. And it’s religious repression and fear of aging which are the key to this difference. In Western Society breasts must be young, firm and youthful, in order to be considered fertile and attractive by men and women. Hence the invention of the bra, which holds them up, clamps them in, and makes them appear much younger and firmer than their true age and shape.
Western society also generally forgets that breasts are primarily designed for one thing – food. I have been asked many times to be a breastfeeding counsellor. I’ve been doing it for 12 years, and I’m pretty darn good at it. But I’d be a terrible counsellor, because I’d have no patience with young new mothers, who think that feeding their baby for three weeks is acceptable, instead of the four years that human young are biologically designed for. I’d tell these women to burn their bras because even nursing bras cut off the milk supply and cause mastitis. I’d tell them that bras are unnatural, horrible things, that they have even been linked to breast cancer because of the lymph node restriction.
But these women wouldn't care what I think. They would still wear bras, because they are seen as conventional to society, because breasts are seen as sexual objects, rather than the vessels for food for the young, because this Western Society is repressed and doesn’t appreciate each individual woman for her natural naked physical beauty, no matter what the size and shape of her breasts are.
If all women burnt their bras, breastfeeding wouldn’t be seen as embarressing and something to be done out of the public eye. All sizes and shapes of breasts would be seen as normal and beautiful. Women wouldn’t hide them away under some uncomfortable torturous device of wire and itchy fabric. They would love themselves for their real bodies, rather than covering them up.
Nudity would be one step closer to being perceived as normal, rather than something repressed and hidden, and nude photographic art would be seen as beautiful mainstream work, openly celebrating the power and eroticism of the Woman, rather than primarily titillating (pun intended) "eye-candy" to be giggled at and labelled “porn”.
So I urge all women reading this to throw away your bras! Protect your health and the health of your future babies. Don’t be afraid to display your breasts for the camera. Let others admire your beauty, and trust the photographer to reflect this in his work (without drooling). He's not intersted in your breasts (well, not much anyway). He's driven by a passion to create art of the most powerful life-force in the universe. The female.
Be proud of your body and your breasts, no matter if they are young, pert and gorgeous, or if they have been chewed by three kids and are hanging round your ankles. Your boobs are talismans to your past experience – they show your life.
They show YOU, the Goddess, in all your glory.
Beautiful, naked, powerful and free.
The young Goddess, Lilmummy.
The first modern bra was invented by a New York socialite named Mary Phelps Jacob way back in 1913, in order to find a way to squeeze into her evening gown. Since then the bra has gone from strength to strength, literally as well as figuratively. Despite the brief bra-burning episode in 1968, the bra has endured. Millions of women in the Western world have used it ever since, to contort themselves into ever more youthful and gravity-defying shapes.
Let’s face it girls - breasts are heavy, cumbersome things. When you run to the shops, providing you’re not completely flat-chested, if you go without a bra then the little buggers bounce and swing all over the place, resulting in male admirers with eyes out on stalks and tongues hanging out. Not a pretty thought.
And all this fuss over a pair of udders. Yep, that’s right, udders. Why-oh-why are men obsessed with udders? There’s a whole industry grown out of photographing these mighty mammaries. They are worshipped, adored, obsessed about, lusted after, and generally drooled over.
This sexualisation appears to occur only in humans. When did you last see a bull eyeing up a pretty young cow in the field, and saying to his mate, “Ay Caramba Hank, that’s a mighty pert set of udders that pretty young heifer’s got, don’t-cha think ?”
And yet humans, supposedly way more civilised than our bovine friends, find this type of behaviour perfectly acceptable. The sex industry thrives on the mammary obsession, you photographers make (hopefully) a decent amount of money at it. So why the attraction?
Personally I think it all stems back to the Goddess/Mother earth mythology. The Goddess has been worshipped throughout human history for her fertility and her power. Without sounding too “Da Vinci Code” about it, throughout most religions from Mayan mythology through to modern Christianity, the Goddess has been venerated as the founder of mankind. The milk of her breasts is seen as the source of all life in the world. Every woman is derived from the Goddess, so the wisdom goes. So why corrupt the Goddess by covering up her very symbols of life-force? When was the last time you saw an Egyptian statue of a priestess in a bra?
In modern society, breasts must be kept hidden. Baring your breasts is a big taboo of course, and going without a bra (with clothes on) is equally frowned upon - I have to put a bra on when I pick the kids up from school, otherwise you should just see the looks I get!
Sagging and jiggling breasts (such as mine) are seen as unattractive in the Western world, whereas in the Kalahari Bushmen, for example, they are seen as proud representations of motherhood – nudity is nothing to be ashamed of there, nor are age or the effects of gravity. And it’s religious repression and fear of aging which are the key to this difference. In Western Society breasts must be young, firm and youthful, in order to be considered fertile and attractive by men and women. Hence the invention of the bra, which holds them up, clamps them in, and makes them appear much younger and firmer than their true age and shape.
Western society also generally forgets that breasts are primarily designed for one thing – food. I have been asked many times to be a breastfeeding counsellor. I’ve been doing it for 12 years, and I’m pretty darn good at it. But I’d be a terrible counsellor, because I’d have no patience with young new mothers, who think that feeding their baby for three weeks is acceptable, instead of the four years that human young are biologically designed for. I’d tell these women to burn their bras because even nursing bras cut off the milk supply and cause mastitis. I’d tell them that bras are unnatural, horrible things, that they have even been linked to breast cancer because of the lymph node restriction.
But these women wouldn't care what I think. They would still wear bras, because they are seen as conventional to society, because breasts are seen as sexual objects, rather than the vessels for food for the young, because this Western Society is repressed and doesn’t appreciate each individual woman for her natural naked physical beauty, no matter what the size and shape of her breasts are.
If all women burnt their bras, breastfeeding wouldn’t be seen as embarressing and something to be done out of the public eye. All sizes and shapes of breasts would be seen as normal and beautiful. Women wouldn’t hide them away under some uncomfortable torturous device of wire and itchy fabric. They would love themselves for their real bodies, rather than covering them up.
Nudity would be one step closer to being perceived as normal, rather than something repressed and hidden, and nude photographic art would be seen as beautiful mainstream work, openly celebrating the power and eroticism of the Woman, rather than primarily titillating (pun intended) "eye-candy" to be giggled at and labelled “porn”.
So I urge all women reading this to throw away your bras! Protect your health and the health of your future babies. Don’t be afraid to display your breasts for the camera. Let others admire your beauty, and trust the photographer to reflect this in his work (without drooling). He's not intersted in your breasts (well, not much anyway). He's driven by a passion to create art of the most powerful life-force in the universe. The female.
Be proud of your body and your breasts, no matter if they are young, pert and gorgeous, or if they have been chewed by three kids and are hanging round your ankles. Your boobs are talismans to your past experience – they show your life.
They show YOU, the Goddess, in all your glory.
Beautiful, naked, powerful and free.
The young Goddess, Lilmummy.
Labels: Lilmummy
posted by Lin at 8:36 PM
3 Comments:
Well, at least the UK has "Page 3" girls and "Topless Darts in Space" and the like in your mainstream media to maybe make breasts not such a big deal. In the US, we get a glimpse of Janet Jackson's nipple with a giant chunk of jewelry almost acting as a pastie, and it's a crisis of epic proportions.
As Terry-Thomas said about Americans in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" -- "And this infantile preoccupation with bosoms. In all time in this Godforsaken country, the one thing that has appalled me most of all this this prepostrous preoccupation with bosoms. Don't you realize they have become the dominant theme in American culture: in literature, advertising and all fields of entertainment and everything. I'll wager you anything you like that if American women stopped wearing brassieres, your whole national economy would collapse overnight."
Thank goodness someone finally said it!! Thank you so much Lin!
I think I horrify my older next door neighbor, just by letting my dogs out without a bra!
And I LOVE IT!
I have nothing intelligent to quote like Gary... but I can say I'd gladly spend my money somewhere other then the hundreds, probably thousands of dollars I've spent on bras!
:) Lela
Bra-less all the way! :)
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