KRISTOR writes:

The Corset Revolution would presumably herald the downfall of the movement that began with the public burning of bras.

Laura writes:

Yes, of course. The revolution must come full circle and make some dramatic statement involving underwear. We cannot project an image of seriousness otherwise. 

Why did they burn bras anyway? I forget.

Here’s an article claiming that the bra-burning is a folk myth. Also, I have been unable to find an image in online archives of anyone burning bras; perhaps it never happened. I’m inclined to believe it never did happen. No woman in her right mind, even a radical feminist, would burn her bra. [SEE the comment from a reader below whose sister and friends did indeed burn their bras.]

Kristor writes:

But I can remember seeing newspaper photographs of women burning bras. Or can I? I sure seem to. Gosh, maybe this is a memory of a scene described in print that I vividly imagined; this would put it in the same category as my memory of the sight of characters in literature.

The point of burning the bras is that the bras represented limits on the personal freedom of women imposed upon them by men, or by society. Bras were of a piece with shaving, heels, make-up. It’s all part and parcel of the liberal hatred of the limit.

Laura writes:

Yes, I have a vivid recollection of seeing photographs before of women holding up flaming brassieres. But perhaps I also just read about it and then imagined the picture. I don’t know. If anyone has evidence, please send it in.

I was half-joking when I asked why they burned bras. In the twisted logic of radical egalitarianism, the bra is a symbol of difference, which is evil. But what does a bra really have to do with socially- imposed limits? Nothing. It reflects only nature’s limits. Bra burning as a symbolic gesture makes no sense. It’s the equivalent of near-sighted people burning their eyeglasses. If feminists did indeed do it, it may also have been because they saw men burning draft cards and wanted to join in.

I can think of one very good reason for burning a bra. The cheap imported garments sold in stores today deserve a torch.

A reader sent the image below but according to the Snopes piece linked above this was not a bra-burning but a demonstration outside the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City in 1968 in which women threw cosmetics, girdles, bras and other tools of oppression into a “freedom trash can.” Apparently there was no fire.

Jill Farris writes:

Bra-burning happened! I grew up in a New Mexico hippie town and my sister and her friends burned their bras. I, too, remember the pictures. I don’t have time to do a search but I am sure LIFE magazine documented the bra burning along with the flag burning.

Remember, the ’60’s was the era when anything that was “restrictive” was subject to great suspicion! I read (somewhere! Sorry…no time to document it!) of a group of hippies in San Francisco who decided that personal hygiene had been invented by “the establishment” to restrict freedom. So…they didn’t wash, bathe or clean up in any way shape or form. Months later they sought out medical care because they had contracted skin problems and diseases that (according to the examining doctors) had not been seen since the Middle Ages.

I believe that story because watched my teen brother and sister and their friends live through those years and I witnessed the anger they had toward anyone in authority. Rules, morals, historical traditions; all were suspect!

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