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The 'Purpose' of the Bra What does a bra do? You might think that to be an inane question. Most people know what a bra does… right? They hold breasts in place! I wonder what happened to breasts before we had bras… did the breasts fall off? We might find it worth our while to look back at the original intent of the bra, and then look at what the bra is used for now. Some experts are troubled by the possibility that wearing a bra might be detrimental to our health. We will address some of those concerns here. Garments and various devices that led to the development of what is now referred to as a brassiere, date back into history. In 1893, Marie Tucek made a "breast supporter" that looked a lot like a modern brassiere. It had pockets for the breasts and straps and closures like we use today. During the early part of the twentieth century, Mary Phelps Jacobs put together two handkerchiefs and a pink ribbon to wear under her dress instead of wearing a corset. Ms. Jacobs designed that garment to provide some control over the movement of her breasts, by flattening them against her chest. It is not known whether this was a common concern by women in those days, or if she herself was concerned. Mary patented her idea in 1914, calling it a "brassiere", but sold the patent a short time later to a company named Warner Brothers Corset Company in Bridgport, Connecticut for $1,500. Ida Rosenthal grouped women into "cup sizes" and "stages of life". She formed the Maidenform Bra Company. Before brassieres were made commercially available, some women wore corsets that literally bound the body very tightly, compressing the internal organs and forcing them into new positions. They created an unnaturally small waist, which brought about the term "hourglass figure". Some women even resorted to the removal of the two lowest ribs to provide a slimmer waist. Serious medical consequences resulted from wearing corsets and other garments that bound, contorted and restricted the body, including fainting, which commonly occurred. The breasts were not considered as very important then, as far as fashion designers were concerned, but they inadvertently became emphasized by the use of corsets, which forced excess skin and fat from the torso upwards. The breasts literally lay on a "shelf" like "eggs in a nest". Separation and shape was of no concern at that time. Many societies, from early history forward, have allowed fashions to be worn that partially displayed the breasts (i.e. the "Peasant Blouse") or completely displayed them (i.e. Ladies of the Court). Anyone alive today has heard many stories and claims about the important use of a bra. Considering the fact that so many women wear them today, they apparently accept what they have been told about bras to be correct. They may even feel that their experiences with a bra substantiate or prove the validity of the claims that have been (and continue to be) made by advertisements and other media messages. Doctor Niels H. Lauersen, M.D., Ph.D., and Eileen Stukane describe in their book, "THE COMPLETE BOOK OF BREAST CARE" a question that many people have asked:
Research indicates that breastfeeding does not have as much influence on the altering of the breast shape as the actual pregnancy itself does, with its obligatory weight gain that stretches the breast skin. We would bet that that is not what your mother told you! It certainly is not what the advertisements for bras are telling us. We have always been told that bras were almost a necessity… a "requirement". Maybe these two authors just said that to get our attention? We find further confirmation of the above statement In "DR. SUSAN LOVE'S BREAST BOOK":
Society's concept of the "ideal" breasts are breasts that would remain in their firm, uplifted attitude, on their own, for our entire lives. Advertising and messages in today's media have done a good job of convincing us of that myth, and the myth that breasts will sag unless we "properly support" them. The point to remember is that they will assume a more relaxed, adult position whether they are supported OR NOT! Some breasts never seem to reach that lower, relaxed position, even into a woman's sixth decade of life. This phenomenon is not a result of constant bra usage. Bras will not prevent that from happening. (1), (2), (6). We are still looking for any research that has been done to actually prove that the bra will prevent the breasts from sagging. If you know of any, please drop a line to KLS@attbi.com, telling us about it. We suspect that you will find no supporting scientific arguments that prove bras will prevent sagging. If bras actually do what media claim they will do, why do many young, nuliparous (no children) women that are in their 20's, who have worn bras faithfully since they had the first signs of nipple enlargement, have pendulous breasts? Columbia University's popular Q&A site on the internet, referred to as "GoAskAlice", answered a young lady's question about the necessity of wearing a bra by stating:
Concerning SAGGING (ptosis), Dr. Love states:
In a conversation with Dr. Gregory Heigh and Dr. Claire Heigh (man and wife), they stated that they…
Dr. Gregory Heigh first heard of this connection from a plastic surgeon several years ago. Other doctors have "weighed in" on the topic:
Just what is a bra supposed to do for us? Let us consider the stated purposes for wearing bras that have been told to us. COMFORT from support is given as one purpose for wearing a bra. We are told that "unsupported breasts will pull on internal components and that it will be painful." Actually, the truth of the matter is that the support from a bra will relieve the internal tension from the suspensory (Cooper's) ligaments that pull inward from the inside of the skin of the breast, but that is not necessarily good. Some ligaments are actually formed like a basket (or like a brassiere) inside of the breast, to cradle the breast and support it. Constant, unnatural, external support from the bra will allow the ligaments to atrophy. If the ligaments are allowed to weaken from the lack of use, they will become sore when they are later required to fulfill their designed purpose of supporting the breast. In our society today, most breasts are bound in bras, and thus are supported from their earliest signs of development, which prevents their ligaments from developing (from puberty onward) and enabling them to do their natural job. If you have ever decided to get back into running after a long hiatus, have you ever noticed that ligaments and muscles in your legs and feet are weak and become tired quickly? What would you have if you artificially supported the weight of your body during that time of not running, so that the ligaments and muscles in your legs and back would not have had to support you? You could not have done that and still be able to run now. Your ligaments and muscles would have atrophied. If you had continually used those ligaments and muscles in your legs… if you had ALLOWED them to do their job… the tension and weight bearing derived from running would have caused the ligaments to get stronger and to stop giving pain. Women that do not wear a bra daily have ligaments that become stronger through use, therefore minimizing the pain and usually providing more natural lift.
Some women are concerned that when the breasts are pendulous enough, they will lay against the chest wall and cause perspiration, irritation of the skin, skin rashes, etc. This may affect some, so they wear a bra to prevent that. Many of those women prefer not to wear a bra, and deal with perspiration in other ways. These may include their making a garment from cotton (for absorbency) that comes up under the breasts without covering them. Similar to a cotton tee shirt that stops below the breasts, it is worn under their outer clothing. Many women have noticed the opposite to be true. They find that the buildup of perspiration in the bra itself is more unbearable than going without the bra. This will allow air to circulate around the breasts to evaporate the moisture. Air circulation is important, and the type of clothing worn can have some control over temperature control. Try to avoid using an anti-perspirant under the breasts. We should encourage fluid flow both throughout the body and from inside the breasts to the outside, to flush out the toxins trapped in our bodies. A minority of the women that do not wear a bra are bothered by the nipples rubbing against the fabric of the blouse or dress. If this occurs, take extra care in choosing the fabric used in the outer clothing, and try to avoid darts and seams that will cause irritation. Wearing a camisole usually offers help here. Youth is a fleeting thing for all of us, and we will most likely try many things to prevent the loss of it. Age (along with nutrition, pregnancy, weight gain/loss, and genetics), will eventually cause the breasts to develop the tendency to assume their natural adult position on the chest wall. A natural assumption is made by many people that the height of the nipple line is an indicator of a woman's chronological age (if the nipple line is high, the woman MUST be younger, and vice versa …don't we all wish?). The brassiere will offer a "temporary fix" by lifting the breasts (nipples) to a higher attitude. The concern that many experts share is whether any damage is being done to the breasts, chest, shoulders and back, by the constrictive nature and forceful lifting and pushing action of the bra. Experts have major concerns about forcing the breasts to be "relocated" by pressure from the outside, due to the loss of lymphatic circulation. (4), (5) It is interesting that we wear bras to retain a youthful look, but when we were in our youth, we tried our best to look mature. Training bras are worn for several reasons, such as it's being "a badge of achievement", an indication of "growing up" or maturing (adult women wear bras, so wearing a bra makes me an adult), a "rite of passage", or "It's just the "right" thing to do!". A more practical one is that the wearer hopes that it will prevent the nipples from protruding through the front of the blouse or dress. Early increases of breast size can be "hidden for a little while longer" with a training bra. When a nipple shows through the outer clothing, it often causes embarrassment to the young woman. The tendency is for her to hide them, as if she were ashamed that they are there or that she should not have them. Even bras on adult women have trouble keeping an erect nipple covered. Maybe we all need to consider working a little harder on our body image?! A woman's intentions are often misunderstood by how she dresses. Women that elect to not wear a bra might be considered by some immature individuals to be signaling many things, including sexual desire, a lack of good taste, a lack of moral fiber, or just plain being "out of style". By designing, merchandising, buying and wearing the fashions of today, we are all telegraphing a mixed message. The glamorous awards shows on television are considered by many to be strong predictors of the fashions we will be seeing in the near future. The 2000 Grammy Awards telecast will be remembered by many people that saw Jennifer Lopez wear a wrap that only closed in front of the pubic bone, clearly showing that she was wearing no bra. The February 2000 issues of several magazines had images of women that were wearing very fashionable clothing (not counting sportswear or bathing suits) and they were very obviously not wearing a bra of any sort. ELLE had eighteen, including the cover shot. VOGUE had a few more with twenty-nine. HARPER'S BAZAAR was the winner with fifty-three. We are assuming that most of the readers of those magazines viewed those women and their fashions to be socially acceptable. Those images did not convey the message that the women were desirous of sexual pleasure, or that they were deficient in "good taste", or lacked moral fiber, and they certainly were not "out of style". We truly send mixed messages to everyone. Does society want us to wear a bra or not? How can the average woman ever know? Movement of the breasts is a concern of many women, and they may wear bras only to control that movement. We have to ask ourselves whether this is a concern that is based on the myths of fashion, or on the common sense of science. Unsupported breasts (of any size) will most likely move when the woman is walking or moving about. This is a natural movement, and there seems to be a reason for it. We have breast massage articles from several experts that address the question of breast movement and its relationship to the natural flow of lymphatic fluids in the breasts. Since there is no "heart" to move the lymphatic fluid, we must rely on body movement and muscular contractions to move the fluid.
Read more about how the lymphatic system functions under our Breast Cancer - Breast Massage section. It will point out how the lymphatic system might be compromised by a brassiere. An article from Southwestern's Health Watch tells us "…
If you determine that you want to go without the bra but are facing pressures from your unenlightened employer or peers regarding your appearance, keep in mind that what outer clothing we choose to wear can either accentuate or camouflage breast movement. We are very familiar with how a satin finished pullover or rear buttoning blouse with no detail on the front will move in a way to suggest breast movement, even when the breasts are restrained. Shirts, bulky sweaters, shirts with breast pockets, western style vests, and over-blouses all distract the eye from the breasts. Most heavy business suits will keep your secret. Try to avoid tucks, and darts, and "fitted" fashions. Hopefully, the day will soon come, when the fact that a woman does not wear a bra will be the "norm", and will not attract unwanted attention. From the time of our birth, mom and dad have (hopefully) been guiding us in our decisions, and in the formation of our values and concepts from which we make decisions in our adult years. It is very difficult to go against that guidance, unless you are in defiance of authority in general (and parental control specifically). We will always remember those words about wearing clean underwear on the chance that we might be involved in a traffic accident. We have been programmed to believe that a bra is part of our requisite underwear package, and that we are doing "wrong" if we leave part of that package off. When our mothers were younger, they did not know about what a bra is now suspected to be doing to us, and they believed all of those things that "everyone" told them about bras. Things about the suspected "bad consequences" of going without a bra (and the "good" reasons to wear one) that are now in question. Some people in the American society consider breasts, unfortunately, as sexual body parts, instead of the providers of life to our offspring. This leads some unenlightened people to believe that if a woman is without a bra, she is suspected of "trying to make a sexual statement", or of "being promiscuous". Some members of our society would prefer women not draw attention to their breasts in public. We are seeing a gradual change in their views. While some bras are basic and utilitarian in their appearance and their function, many of them are anything BUT that. It is nice that they put little flowers or bows on them or trim them up with some delicate lace, so that they make us feel pretty "from the inside out", but some are intended to allow us to wear fashions that are quite sexually alluring. We have strapless bras to allow exposure of all of the body North of the nipple line, and demi-cups to allow scooped necklines that expose the upper 3/5ths of the breasts. Push-up bras, padded bras and even blow-up bras are available, that allow us to appear to have larger (more sexual?) breasts, and some will move the breasts apart or together, to get just that certain amount of cleavage that is "correct". We even have some brassieres that allow us to wear a neckline cut nearly to the navel, and others that allow the back of a dress to dip dangerously low. Now let me get this straight: the reason that we do not want to go without a bra, is that it may draw attention to our breasts, is that about right? After considering all the reasons that others have for our wearing a bra, it would be up to us to determine, individually, if we want to wear one or not. But, we need to consider one last issue that could be very important. One that might outweigh all the reasons we are told for wearing a bra. There is a considerable amount of factual data that supports a concern about a connection between breast disease and wearing a bra. BREAST DISEASES, which include fibrocystic conditions and breast cancer, are a major concern to us, since the first one involves discomfort, pain, and needless worry, and the second one involves all of those, plus disfiguring surgery and nearly 40,000 deaths each year. Breastnotes.com has a section that goes into more detail about breast cancer (Breast Cancer - Possible Causes), but we want to mention here that there is a suspected connection between a person's wearing a bra and their chances of suffering from breast diseases. Some people may not think that an article of clothing could have an effect on breast health, but there definitely is scientific support for the plausibility of this connection. An article written by Oliver Poole of the Sunday Telegraph in London states that "Wearing a bra exposes women to a "statistically significant" risk of increased breast pain, cysts in the breast and might even be linked to the development of cancer, according to a study in Britain." (8) In his article, Mr. Poole stated that Robert Mansell, a professor of surgery at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff and Doctor Simon Cawthorn, a consultant surgeon at the Frenchay Hospital in Bristol, the two principals involved in the research, called for more research into the breast pain findings. They want to see research done to determine if wearing a bra results in any long-term damage. They suspect that the problems are caused by bras suppressing the lymphatic system, and are planning further research into what happens if the lymphatic system is blocked. Prof. Mansell is particularly concerned, because the garments appear to be compressing the body at the outer, upper part of the breast, where 80 percent of the lymph flows. This is also the location of at least 50 percent of the breast lumps. Mr. Poole further states that "…the scientists say their findings might support the theories of an American medical anthropologist, Sydney Ross Singer, who has long claimed there is a distinct pattern of risk associated with the length of time a woman wears a bra and her chances of developing breast cancer." (8) The results of much of the research have been interpreted as there being a positive correlation between restrictive clothing and breast diseases. Until more research is done, we are left to decide for ourselves what we want to do with our bodies. Dr. Michael Schachter, M. D. sums up our concerns about the possible restriction of the lymphatic system's ability to function properly when he describes the lymphatic system:
Some research is being done on the health problems that may be caused by the self-generated heat from the breasts that cannot get away from the body. The theory is that a bra prevents the heat from the breasts from escaping, causing an increase in the internal temperature of the breast. It is known that the additional heat generated and maintained in any undescended testicle of a boy born with that malady will usually cause that testis to become irreversibly sterile, and leaves that testis with a much higher risk factor of testicular cancer. Damage to our body's organs by excessive heat has been documented many times. One study is being evaluated, where the women in a select society are experiencing an increase of breast cancer, but they are finding it in only one side (breast). These women have taken up the habit of breastfeeding from only one breast, due to working conditions or some other factor. Done openly (due to the support of public breastfeeding in that society), the one benevolent breast is frequently exposed to air circulation, allowing it to maintain a lower average temperature. The other breast remains warmly tucked into the bra, and that breast is most likely to be the one that develops a malignancy, if the woman later develops breast cancer. If we can find more on this study, we will try to keep you up to date. Dr. Gregory Heigh further stated that in addition to breasts sagging more from being confined in a bra, he noticed that women at his clinic usually found relief from fibrocystic lumps and pain within a few weeks, after they stopped wearing a bra. He says that women who go bra-free have an "immediate reaction" of eliminating their lumps and pain, their breasts become firmer, and they sag less. There is also less monthly swelling and discomfort." He had more than seventy patients fill out a questionnaire, and he found that nearly 100 percent of the women who took off their bras have found relief. Many experts believe that bras contribute to a constriction of the lymphatic fluids. If the fluids are not allowed to flow freely (because of restriction from tight bras and clothing, no breast movement, no breast massage, etc.) they can form cysts, resulting in swelling, pain and causing women to have unnecessary concerns about possible malignancies. Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer have done some research and have written a book titled "Dressed To Kill," in which they analyzed thousands of women about their bra-wearing habits. They have some very enlightening things to say:
The authors did a Bra and Breast Cancer (follow-up) study on the island of Fiji, after their first book was published. They had noticed that breast cancer was literally non-existent in Fiji before World War Two, but after the "liberation" of Fiji, some of the professional and working women adopted the "Western" styles of clothing and began wearing bras to their work. Their study showed that breast cancer was still quite rare among half the women's population (the ones that did not change from their original style of dress). There have been a steadily increasing number of women that are developing breast cancer among those that have taken up the new fashion styles and are wearing bras. The "more modern" women that have started wearing bras (which did not exist in the traditional Fijian clothing) may live in the same village or home, eat the same food, share the same genetic background and environment as the traditionally dressed women, but they are the ones developing breast disease. As a result of Singer and Grismaijer's Bra and Breast Cancer study, information about the health risks of wearing a bra has been disseminated on national television and radio, and is published in the "Fiji Times". Fiji now recognizes Breast Cancer Awareness Week, which now includes warnings about the wearing of bras. (7) Other studies done by these two authors include: (7)
The Avery News Release states further: (7)
Singer and Grismaijer show a strong correlation between lower breast cancer rates and women that wear bras less than 12 hours a day (and some that never wear a bra). In our opinion, that justifies more studies to determine the exact magnitude of the connection between one's wearing bras and one's increasing their risk of contracting breast cancer. We strongly recommend that these studies take place. Since you are reading this article, we think that you would love to read their book. It is difficult to know what to do when so many opinions are forthcoming to a simple question. To make a decision about what to do about anything, one must be properly informed, and one must consider the source of that information. We usually try to determine if anyone stands to make money from us if we follow the advice that they offer to us. We do not consider an advertisement to always be a credible source of advice. Advertisements tell us what the manufacturer of a product wants us to believe. Advertisements are designed to create in our mind a need for a product. They are obviously heavily biased. Read as much as you can, always remembering who is doing the writing and what their motives might have been when they wrote the material. (1) "The
Complete Book Of Breast Care" by Niels H. Lauersen, M.D., Ph.D.,
& Eileen Stukane
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