There is a lot of unfounded genetic social behavior society tends to lean on when it comes to gender. Makeup, hair styles and dyes, jewelry, perfumes, lotions, and fashion. Both genders use these products but they are packaged, labeled, and marketed with specific genders in mind. Society has tended to differentiate “thing” to be used specifically with either male of female labels. I suppose, as not to mistake one gender for another in the appropriation/conception of our species.
Today in the 21st century, we have opened up our minds, for the most part, about relaxing those norms when it doesn’t infringe on young folks learning about life and when society feels comfortable that there is no harm with accepting thing beyond societies norms.
Specifically, when it come to women’s clothing foundations specific to this social forum, no matter which gender you were born with, “WE WEAR BRAS!” Girls donning training bras, boy’s developing because of gynecomastia, women needing contouring and support, men who love the support and hugs a bra provides and those whos testosterone levels and old age has demanded they wear a bra to alleviate pain or provide for their own support. Sure, there are those who are transgendered or just crossdressers who wear bras and lingerie as the need fits. And contrary to popular beliefs by some women, males who wear bras, never “EVER” defines their sexual orientation because they wear a bra. A LOT of bra wearing men are married and heterosexual, with supporting wives.
When “We Wear Bras” ….it is due to a desire to fulfill a need whether the person is male or female. Just as we desire to wear perfume, jewelry, color our hair, wearing a bra fulfills a need. When women tend to laugh or don’t understand why a guy wears a bra, they revert to a conditioning society has trained them to understand. It was the same way, back in the Victorian days, when women started to wear pants. It was chastised and ridiculed. Today, women wearing men’s styles are the norm.
As a person in the general public, reading this topic, sectioned for public view, you may better understand the need for a social forum as this. Those of us who are members of this social forum, can only hope, you will join us…. to relate, inspire, recommend, or be enlightened in the vast knowledge we all provide each other on a daily basis. Ladies and Guys, girls and boys, can find this site has the latest styles, trends, products, advice, and purchasing deals along with correct fitting advice.
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Reminiscing PT CDer. 65. DADT 30 yr marriage. Upper Midwest USA. Natural 38C. He or She.
If I may quickly jump in – You touched on this twice, but this paragraph:
When “We Wear Bras” ….it is due to a desire to fulfill a need whether the person is male or female. Just as we desire to wear perfume, jewelry, color our hair, wearing a bra fulfills a need. When women tend to laugh or don’t understand why a guy wears a bra, they revert to a conditioning society has trained them to understand. It was the same way, back in the Victorian days, when women started to wear pants. It was chastised and ridiculed. Today, women wearing men’s styles are the norm
Coupled with this:
boy’s developing because of gynecomastia, women needing contouring and support, men who love the support and hugs a bra provides and those whos testosterone levels and old age has demanded they wear a bra to alleviate pain or provide for their own support.
I believe that’s why women (believed to be more submissive and more prone to social shaming effects) would continue to wear pants, as in first excerpt: practicality. Riding horses and bicycles (date at least back to 1817) make the “pants” far too practical to ignore. Dresses and petticoats would be impossible to keep free of chains and sprockets, and uncomfortable in inconvenient on a horse; side saddle is a recipe for disaster if the horse rears or bucks. Plus, women already wore pettipants (Not sure of spelling) – so the idea was certainly there anyway. Practicality mandated some concessions, and then you have broader and broader acceptance over time…
Which brings us back to males NEEDING support at a certain point. While it’s more common in “modern” times (after 1950s, as food and lifestyles changed, but acknowledging many heavy men existed before this), it’s still seen as emasculating. I understand why – much of masculinity is formed around being physically and mentally “strong,” and needing support is seen as weak – pretty much in the definition. Now, coupled with the reduction in male spaces, there’s less and less “moral support” for the guys, while at the same time, the physical strength is much more a LUXURY (like the Victorian corsets and skirts and such, a province of the upper classes more than the average Joe and Jane) – how much on supplements? How much time in the gym? How much time required by the job, the family, the house? Income vs DIY savings? Etc. We see men being weakened from two angles, the physical causing a reduction in the mental. I.E., being less able to lift heavy things and move them around, plus less need to pick things up and move them around, plus it’s a COST to maintain that physique – now the mental is being battered, and then the breasts grow from a variety of chemical and hormonal means…
I’d guess it’s really only a matter of time before men MUST adopt a bra-wearing standard of dress.
But the funniest part – I’d STILL expect they’ll be divided as you point out, with the “Bro” (Seinfeld) marketed to men – supportive but utilitarian, vs the Bra, still more feminine styles of supportive but also sexy. 😉 Thought I’d HOPE that the cut is different, since masculine rib cage has different shape.
Need to maintain those boundaries! 😉
It will be interesting to see what happens first, as we are in something of a Fourth Turning. These tendencies are born of necessity; Fourth Turning times make the whole world change rapidly and in unexpected ways. (E.G., what will be the long term effects of the sudden MASSIVE spike in “gene therapy” approaches to medicine? And what will the truly fearful Conservative side – used in the US meaning – do, which is often counter-productive to even their actual goal? I’ll never ask “how bad can it get?” because we’ve got millennia of history that shows us. But the “PROGRESS!!!” crowd is no better, it’s a toddler playing with an Explosive New Shiny – when your only tool is a hammer…? OY!) LOL
Fun times! Lots will happen.
Very well written Candy. Clothing is just one item that society assigns a gender. We, all of us, decide wether to follow and obey what society dictates, or to be an individual, and decide for ourselves what to wear, how to live our lives, how to think for ourselves.
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Bali High, Candy Kowal@Candy Kowal – you are spot-on! I can say this from the point of view of mixing in my social group and public dances in general, for years – dancing close-up in ballroom and Latin American dances. I am sure all the ladies I dance with must have known for so long, that it is now “ordinary” for them to see Hermana in a bra, with my modest-yet-always-viewable B cup bumps showing, coupled with a hint of bra cup lace “accidentally” peeking out the top of my man-shirt (if I happen to be in a man-shirt that day…
).
Just like in my own real social life, the idea is to “share the love” to all those sadly restricted males who do not (yet!) wear bras – anything, to try and get them into the proper, prettiest underwear…
I was a late-starter with wearing bras. Already well into adulthood when my former fabulous girlfriend, Ms CAGMBB (“Come And Get Me, Big Boy”) put her bra on me. I think she surprised herself as much as me, as to how I looked, for her eyes flew open wide and sparkling, and she blurted out in astonishment, “Oh, Hermana, you Suit a bra!”.
And that was the day my life changed forever. I am pretty sure my GF was stunned at the way I instantly took to wearing bras. I LOVED everything about a bra: the feel of it hugging me and gently letting me know that it was never going to stop hugging me so-o-o sweetly! She soon said to me in words that she didn’t expect me to always be in a bra every waking moment, but soon she took me bra-shopping and would bring bras for me to try on in the fitting room – and she really did like it when I did wear bras every waking moment!
Oh, yes, she liked me in bras all right – about as much as I liked me in bras! Unfortunately, I wore bras two sizes larger iin the band than she did, so we couldn’t share.
Later, however, the young 26-year-old woman I worked with, did wear the same size as me, and so we did spend some lovely years on way-too-long lunch breaks and we would go to a lingerie shop and shop for new bras. She was my boss’ boss and so my immediate boss “had” to put up with my extended lunch hours with company management, in those days. The young lady and I used to quickly lunch at a good cafe, then spend most of the time in the lingerie shop(s). In later years and many adventures, I would call this lovely lass “Ms26-36”. as we became longterm close and private friends in our shared love of pretty undies…
Those were the years that I did not know how incredibly lucky I was, with my SO liking me in bras – and then the lady in senior management at work and me, taking our own good time “whenever we wanted” for extended bra shopping in working hours.
Looking back, it’s no wonder I amassed thousands of posts on the old MWB site. It took a year or two after I had left behind that so-perfect job (and Ms26-36), for everybody else on old MWB to catch up to numbers greater than my huge number of adventures of that special time.
Sorry, just started to reminisce of old times, and maybe got a bit carried away… Hope nobody minds too much…
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