{"id":121,"date":"2011-02-26T00:22:50","date_gmt":"2011-02-26T00:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fanagrams.net\/blog\/?p=121"},"modified":"2011-03-20T18:17:31","modified_gmt":"2011-03-20T18:17:31","slug":"the-bra-strap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/the-bra-strap\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bra Strap"},"content":{"rendered":"

I remember the day distinctly, it was the mid sixties and I was standing in the girls locker room with my shirt unbuttoned just enough to reveal (to anyone who might want to notice) that I was wearing my first training bra.\u00a0 The gleeful shouts of my classmates echoed amongst the metallic clanking of the locker doors, and Kit Spaulding jostled me to get at her locker beneath mine.\u00a0 The training bra was little more than a glorified undershirt, whose only bralike feature was the clasp in the back.\u00a0 It was also unclear what I was in training for, since there was clearly nothing to \u201clift and separate\u201d as advertised by Maidenform.\u00a0 Perhaps the advertising geniuses wanted to take a page out the cigarette industry and get pubescents hooked on their trainers early on and create a life long devotion to the Maidenform brand.\u00a0\u00a0Personally, the only thing that I was in training for was a slowly emerging pubescence that seemed to lag behind the other boy-crazy girls in my class, like Debbie Brown or Gail Chandler.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I remember looking down and noticing that the bra was adorned with a demur pink ribbon and feeling very conflicted.\u00a0 On the one hand, I certainly wanted to join my peer group and announce my anticipated puberty, but I wanted to do it quietly and discreetly without someone coming up from behind and snapping the strap and yelling, \u201csnap, snap you are a turtle now!\u201d\u00a0 I tried to figure out how I could somehow simultaneously whip off my school shirt and slip into my gym uniform, and then of course I would have to repeat the performance at the end of the day.\u00a0 I stood there quietly as the voices died down and my classmates skipped off to field hockey practice oblivious to my tense rite of passage.\u00a0 When no one was left in my locker row, I achieved my goal of anonymity, but then was disappointed that nobody had noticed.<\/p>\n

I certainly did not realize that I was also entering into the confusing roles of the bra as function, fashion and sexuality.\u00a0 The word bra did not even come into existence until the early 1900s, when some one came up with the clever idea to support the breast from above (i.e. the \u201cover the shoulder boulder holder\u201d), rather than a corset that pushed up the breasts from below.\u00a0 Until the 1940s when the \u201clife and separate\u201d era began, breasts were generally not considered individually, but rather were referred to collectively as the bosom. \u00a0The late 1940s also saw the introduction of the bikini, and the blurring of the distinction between outerwear and underwear began.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My concept at the time was that bra was most definitely underwear, but even so the rules were very confusing.\u00a0 The standard school outfit was a white cotton shirt, and the back of the bra was clearly visible beneath the shirt, particularly if you bent over or extended your arms.\u00a0 \u00a0This was perfectly acceptable, and in fact this was one way of advertising that you were wearing a bra if your diminutive breasts were not apparent from the front or sides.\u00a0 Sometimes you could get a glimpse of the front of the bra \u2013 this was not optimal, but within the realm of acceptability.\u00a0 However, if you were wearing a sleeveless shirt and the bra strap wandered off your shoulder and was directly visible \u2013 well that was borderline trampy.\u00a0 Acquaintances might titter or feel sorry for you, but true friends would take you aside and would say with whispered urgency, \u201cYour bra strap is showing!\u201d\u00a0 The only thing that could be more embarrassing was pubic hair peeking out of a bathing suit.\u00a0 Panicked reparations would then ensue, which sometimes involved pinning the strap to the shirt.\u00a0\u00a0 But then of course you could not let the pin show or pucker the shirt.\u00a0 Therefore you had to carefully fix the strap to the shoulder seam.\u00a0 There were certain recalcitrant bra straps that always slipped down the shoulder, and it was just safer to just throw them away.\u00a0\u00a0 (In fact I do the same thing for underwear that habitually wedges or socks that fall into my shoes.)<\/p>\n

The other acknowledged function of the bra was to address the visible nipple.\u00a0 Lightweight bras could certainly be very\"\"<\/a><\/a> comfortable, but might not be up to the task if the weather turned nippy.\u00a0 In the 1970s Farrah Fawcett rose to fame based on a poster showcasing her tousled hair and gleaming smile.\u00a0 But I think that the unspoken appeal was the novelty of one very visible nipple beneath a clinging red bathing suit.\u00a0 I am still startled to see the sturdy nipples of both of the Williams sisters as they hustle around the tennis court.\u00a0I just want to reach into the TV set, tap them on the shoulder and save them from embarrassment in front of millions, \u201cGirls, your nipples are showing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then of course there were rules governing bikinis, which were only considered outerwear when worn near water.\u00a0 I remember the movie Lolita where the young minx was lounging in the back yard in a tease of a white bikini top.\u00a0 However, the sprinkler was on and so what looked like a bra became acceptable outerwear.\u00a0 While bathing suits can be worn with impunity near the pool, sea or streamside, getting to and from the water requires a transitional outfit \u2013 the beach cover up, which is strictly limited to short<\/em> errands such as pumping gas or returning a movie, particularly if the cover up is see through.\u00a0 For example, I have never seen anyone in a gossamer cover up in the public library or at a waitressed restaurant.\u00a0 \u00a0We had a back yard swimming pool, and my mother would spend most of the summer in a bathing suit, which was far from a bikini, but more like a one piece romper.\u00a0 However, every time that she needed to go on an errand, she would dutifully change into a top and shorts (which were not that different from her romper), and then change back when she returned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As confusing as this situation was, there was further upheaval a mere five years later when bras became the symbol of sexual repression and plumes of acrid smoke from burning rubber became the stuff of the nightly news.\u00a0 At this point I was in the college, and by the time the sexual revolution filtered down to my apolitical level, the only message that I got were that bras were now optional.\u00a0 Sounded good to me from a purely practical point of view \u2013 less clothes to buy and less laundry to wash.\u00a0 I did not have big breasts sloshing around that needed support and therefore bras seemed totally unnecessary.\u00a0 The visible nipple was still an issue, but that was solved by wearing thicker cotton shirts.\u00a0 Those Mexican wedding shirts were quite ideal – my favorite one was an otherwise light weight see-through cotton shirt but with two columns of embroidery positioned directly over the nipples.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After college I went to medical school and then onto motherhood, so I was completely distracted and unaware of the changing\"\"<\/a> cultural mores.\u00a0 When I finally came up for air, I was appalled to notice teenagers walking around with visible bra straps \u2013 where were their friends to give them the heads up?\u00a0 But with careful scrutiny, I discovered that the bra strap taboo was over – in fact visible bra straps were everywhere, underneath camisoles, or criss cross straps beneath a tank top, where the visible straps could only have been intentional.\u00a0 But mentally I was still stuck in front of my grade school locker thinking, \u201cHey, your underwear is showing!\u201d\u00a0 I interviewed a teenager who educated me on the different classifications of bras.\u00a0 Your underwear drawer now included bras with \u201ccute\u201d straps that were intentionally visible and color coordinated with the camisole or tee shirt.\u00a0 However, these were distinct from your everyday bras \u2013 ratty cotton bras with white elastic straps and yellowed out armpits were still worn, but only when there was no possibility that they would be seen.\u00a0 It reminded me of the old adage to always wear clean underpants to bed in case your house burned down and you were forced to flee into the streets with nothing but your underwear on.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then there was the emergence of the bra as fashionable and sexy lingerie \u2013 seems our culture was finally catching up to the French here.\u00a0 While past Sears\u2019 catalogs featured disembodied photographs of sedate bras with a dash of frill, Victoria\u2019s Secret created a buzz by featuring full frontal photos of models wearing nothing but elaborate come-hither underwear and high heels<\/em>.\u00a0 Now when I get dressed, the shoes are the last thing that I put on, and the first thing that I take off at the end of the day, so the combination of underwear and heels made no sense.\u00a0 Furthermore, instead of being a second tier tawdry underwear model, the top Victoria\u2019s Secret model was touted with the same breathless admiration and celebrity as a\"\"<\/a> swimsuit model. \u00a0There was an episode of Seinfeld that captured this dilemma of bra as outwear vs. underwear.\u00a0 Elaine had a big-breasted childhood friend named Ellen Mishki who irked her by always going braless.\u00a0 Elaine decided to give her a white bra for her birthday, which Ellen then preceded to wear as outwear beneath an unbuttoned blazer.\u00a0 As she nonchalantly walked down the street, Elaine was even more peeved to realize that she got more stares and whistles than when she jiggled braless down the street. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Into this confusing mix came the sports bra, which by its very name suggested its ambivalence as under vs. outer wear.\u00a0 Ostensibly the sports bra was not designed to be sexy but engineered to tamp down the heavage of the cleavage, although Serena Williams seems to outheave even the best efforts of the Nike engineers.\u00a0 The convention seems to be that the sports bra can be worn as outerwear while jogging, extending its range beyond water limits of a swimsuit, but similarly, a sports bra is considered underwear in other venues.\u00a0 Recall the performance of Brandi Chastain, the US soccer player who scored the\"\"<\/a> winning goal in the dramatic gold medal game against China in the 1999 world cup.\u00a0 She ran halfway across the field then took her shirt off and waved it over her head, revealing her black sports bra.\u00a0 Cultural anthropologists could probably create a thesis focusing on the demographics of those who regarded this performance as a strip tease versus a simple celebration.\u00a0 I was in the startled strip tease camp, while my daughter said, \u201cIts no biggie, it\u2019s just a sports bra, mom.\u201d\u00a0 While it may have been a sports bra, the key fact seemed to be that she had taken off her shirt to reveal it, and that was stripping, regardless of what lay beneath.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0Forty five years have passed since my first steps into the world of bradom, and like many other fashion trends, I have chosen to be a bystander. \u00a0To me the everyday bra is still resolutely underwear, and an exposed bra strap still makes me anxious.\u00a0 I\u2019m an old dog averse to new tricks and I like of the comfort of the bra as nothing more than a functional piece of clothing.\u00a0 It\u2019s simpler that way.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0missing words in the following poem are all anagrams (i.e. post, stop,\u00a0spot) and the\u00a0number of\u00a0dashes indicates the number of letters.\u00a0 One of the missing words will rhyme with the preceding or following line.\u00a0\u00a0Your job is to\u00a0solve the missing\u00a0word using the context of the poem.\u00a0 Scroll down for the answers.\u00a0<\/h6>\n

Thoughts on Bras<\/p>\n

\u00a01.\u00a0 Puberty is a complicated transition with many different —–<\/p>\n

\u00a0But a simple training bra is one common way it starts.<\/p>\n

\u00a02.\u00a0 A visible bra —– used to make you want to cringe and die,<\/p>\n

\u00a0But what was underwear is now outerwear seen by every naked eye.<\/p>\n

\u00a03.\u00a0 When a large breasted athlete has a problem with her cleavage<\/p>\n

She wears a sports bra that \u00a0—– her breasts to diminish any heavage.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Answers;\u00a0 parts, strap, traps<\/p>\nFollow Liza Blue on: \"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>Share: \"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I remember the day distinctly, it was the mid sixties and I was standing in the girls locker room with my shirt unbuttoned just enough to reveal (to anyone who might want to notice) that I was wearing my first … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-such-is-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iVc8-1X","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions\/322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}