It can really kill you!
Throughout the history of humans, the woman's body has been
squeezed and contorted into many different forms.
The breasts are certainly no exception.
The female bust has gone in and out of style many times (even more
times than John Travolta). At times it has been minimized to be
hidden from view. At others, it has been maximized to the fullest
extent.
For instance, if we take a look back to 2500 B.C., we will find
that the Minoan women that lived on the Greek isle of Crete
actually wore a bra-like garment that actually lifted their bare
breasts out of their clothes.
Years later, ancient Roman and Greek women took the opposite
approach. They actually strapped on a breast band to reduce their
bust size.
But where did the modern bra come from? And how can it actually
kill?
Let's find out:
As pointed out above, there have been many types of garments that
have appeared over the centuries to help enhance the human
form.
Many authors claim that the bra was invented by one Otto Titzling.
However, it turns out that this story first appeared in the book
Bust Up: The Uplifting Tale of Otto Titzling by Wallace Reyburn
(the same guy that wrote the humorous book that describes how
Thomas Crapper invented the toilet). The book claims that Titzling
invented the bra with the help of his assistant Hans Delving in
1912. They designed the bra for a Swedish athlete named Lois Lung.
Titzling then sued a Frenchman named Phillipe de Brassiere for
patent infringement in the 1930's. As you can see from these names,
the story is probably pure fiction (especially since, as we will
see below, Mary Phelps Jacobs takes credit for the first documented
use of the name brassiere in 1914).
If you check most current literature, you will find the following
story:
The first modern bra was invented by a New York socialite named
Mary Phelps Jacob way back in 1913 (I'm sure that a lot of women
want to believe that a man invented this torturous device, but it
was a woman).
Mary had just purchased a sheer evening gown for one of her social
events that poor people like myself will never get to attend.
She had a problem.
At that time, corsets that were stiffened with whaleback bones were
the accepted undergarment. Unfortunately, whaleback corsets and
sheer evening gowns just don't go together well.
In one of those great flashes of genius, Mary came up with a great
solution. Together with her French maid Marie, Mary took two
handkerchiefs, ribbon, and some cord and devised a simple backless
brassiere.
We can be fairly sure that Mary was the hit of the party, but the
real hit was her newfangled brassiere among the women in
attendance.
Mary was very happy to sew up a bra for all family and friends that
were interested. I guess you could say that she started the
currently male dominated tradition of giving sexy underwear for
those special holidays.
One day, she received a request for one of her contraptions from a
stranger, who had happened to enclose a dollar for her
efforts.
Mary Jacobs ran to the patent office with her sketches. In
November, 1914, she was awarded a patent for the "Backless
Brassiere".
Mary made several hundred of the devices (marketed under the name
Caresse Crosby), but due to lack of publicity, the business
collapsed.
One would think that this would have been the end of the bra, but
it managed to live on.
Mary sold the rights to the brassiere to the Warner Brothers Corset
Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut for a mere $1500. Just think how
much money that would be worth today.
This sounds like a great story, and is almost entirely true, except
for the fact that Mary Jacobs did not invent the first bra. Her
design was simply the first one to be widely used.
It seems that a man named Hoag Levins had too much time on his
hands and did an in depth study of all the sexual devices ever
patented by the United States Patent Office. In the book American
Sex Machines, Levins presents quite a few patents on bra-type
creations.
Levins' conclusion is that a woman named Marie Tucek patented the
first brassiere in 1893. This "breast supporter", as she called it,
looked very similar to the modern brassiere. The device included
separate pockets for the breasts, straps that went over the
shoulder which were fastened by hook-and-eye closures.
In comparison, Mary Phelps Jacobs device was patented on November
3, 1914 and was called a "brassiere". She may have had the name
correct, but she didn't have the design. Her patent was for a
device that was lightweight and flattened the breasts. Her bra did
not have cups to support the breasts.
Of course, many innovations were later made to the brassiere: use
of elastic, standard cup sizes, and the development of the
strapless bra.
During the 1920's, the flat chested "flappers" that my grandmother
always reminisces about were all the rage. A Russian immigrant
named Ida Rosenthal decided to buck the trend. With the help of her
husband William, they founded Maidenform. Ida was responsible for
grouping women into bust size categories (cup sizes) and developed
bras for every stage of life (puberty to maturity).
Of course, the 1960's was famous for its bra-burnings. One would
think that this would have been the end of the bra, but it wasn't.
Gravity and aging were on the side of the brassiere
manufacturers.
The bra has made a great comeback ever since.
We have the Wonderbra. The 18 hour bra. Cross your heart (and hope
to die?) bras. Training bras (training for what?). Jogging bras.
Dangerous breast implants that need added support. Madonna walking
around in her underwear. Victoria's Secret (she's not very good at
keeping her secret - everyone seems to know about it).
So what about bras killing you? (I thought this would get your
attention).
In the 1994 book Dressed to Kill by Sydney Ross Singer and Soma
Grismaijerin, they suggested that wearing bras may inhibit the
normal function of the lymphatic system in and around the breast.
The result is a decreased removal of toxins from the breast and an
increased occurrence of breast cancer.
Based on a sample of 4,730 women, they concluded that women that go
braless have a 21 times less chance of developing cancer.
The study was torn apart by critics because the authors failed to
incorporate the lifestyles (smoking, alcohol, exercise, weight,
etc.) of the women into their results. However, it does bring up
some good questions.
To end this little discussion on brassieres, I thought that I would
mention one documented case of death by a bra.
It seems that a woman named Berbel Zumner was killed at age 23
while walking through a park in Vienna. You see, Berbel was one of
those women that many refer to as "well endowed". She wore a bra
with metal underwire to support her ample frame. As we all know,
metal wire and lightning just don't go together. As a result,
Berbel was zapped and killed.
They better start putting warnings from the U.S. Surgeon General on
these contraptions.
Useless? Useful? Ill leave that for you to decide.
from http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/brassiere/
