By Elisabeth Dale

It was hard to miss this week’s big news about a study claiming that wearing bras may be harmful to women’s breasts. Internet news headlines screamed, “Bras Make Breasts Sag More!” Fox News accompanied this piece with a stock photo of a pink-bra clad, cleavage-baring woman, oddly cupping her right breast. Other outlets favored an investigative angle: “Do Women Need Bras? French Study Says Brassieres Are a ‘False Necessity.” Those reports paired their articles with images of Victoria’s Secret models in provocative lingerie poses.

Good Morning America took a more medical approach, calling their segment “Saggy Breasts, Back Pain: Is Your Bra to Blame?” It led with footage from a Katy Perry music video with the singer sporting a chesty cupcake bra. Colorful graphics underscored the French study’s main points. The cartoon image of a young woman tossed her bra aside and broke out in a wide grin as the words “firmer, perkier, breasts” filled the screen. The voice-over added: “each year women didn’t wear a bra.”

Reaction to the news was split along gender lines. Women were terrified that they might be forced to go without a bra and doubted the researcher’s conclusions. They said they depended on their bras for comfort, style, and support. Men, on the other hand, seemed thrilled at the thought of women going bra-free. But their reasoning was a bit more self-serving. Male anticipated viewing pleasure, and not women’s better breast health, led men to accept and celebrate the study’s findings. Even when doubting the science, they expressed interest in measuring and assessing women’s breasts.

And what of the study? It wasn’t published in any medical journal. Mass media coverage was based on excerpts from a French student radio interview with sport specialist Jean-Denis Rouillon, in Besancon, France. Over the past 15 years, Rouillon recruited 330 “sports” women between the ages of 18 to 35, and asked them to go without a bra. Rouillon used calipers and a slide ruler to record changes to the women’s breasts. He made no mention of the women’s weight, height, bra sizes, or whether a control group was enlisted to test his thesis. Professional breast movement specialists were at a loss to critique Rouillon’s results without access to such details. But that didn’t stop a multitude of reports from branding Rouillon’s research as worthy and legitimate.

It doesn’t matter whether the French study’s conclusions are valid, or not. One woman’s perkiness may be another’s droopy. Published research on the bio-mechanics of breast movement (led by women researchers) cite the reduction in pain and discomfort as the reason female athletes should wear sports bras – not to gain nipple movement further up their chests. Plastic surgeons know what contributes to skin in-elasticity  yo-yo weight gain and loss, cigarette smoking, and multiple pregnancies. They put their patients in bras after augmenting, lifting, or reducing breasts. Even the term breast ptosis can be an arbitrary definition used to help define ideal post-surgical breast shape and size.

Will women heed these headlines and stop wearing their bras? I doubt it. Going without a bra isn’t an option for most of us, either personally or professionally. Even when women go bra free in public, we are criticized for some bad fashion sense or told we are flaunting our sexuality (nursing mothers included). The reports of the French study may make a few of us question our desire to wear a bra. We may doubt our own judgment. We may feel less comfortable in lingerie fitting rooms, trying to hide what we consider are “less then” perfect breasts. It could make women more self-conscious with sexual partners, wondering whether our breasts are acceptably perky or unacceptably saggy. Yes. Publicizing irrelevant but titillating pseudo-scientific breast studies doesn’t serve the needs of women — or men — very well.

What’s your opinion? What do you think of the media coverage of the French study?

By Elisabeth Dale

Lingerie mannequin photo goes viral, but does it make a difference?

Guess even a photo of two lingerie clad mannequins will go viral on the Internet. This one featured two mannequins on display in an H&M Store. The picture turned out to be two years old and wasn’t snapped at an H&M. Instead it was shot in a Swedish department store. These plastic female replicas were a bit different than usual. News reports of the viral image used adjectives such as “curvy,” “realistic,” “full-figured,” “plus-size,” and “real women.”  Reviewers agreed that the public response to the photo was positive. Readers’ comments seemed to approve of increasing diversity when it comes to representing women’s body types.

Most negative objections to this body-image news story were directed at the use of terms like “full-figured” or “real.” It does seem odd that reporters refer to anything larger than a size small model as plus-sized. After all, the average female in the United States wears a size 14 and weighs 160 pounds. (Not exactly Victoria’s Secret model dimensions.) On the other hand, all women are “real” regardless of dress or bra size. Given the positive public response to the photo, should lingerie manufacturers change the shapes of the models and mannequins used in advertisements?

The body image debate is straightforward: more diversity will lessen negative self-esteem in young girls and women and could lower incidence of anorexia and other body-image disorders. This is based on research showing that female self-esteem plummets when young girls and women are exposed to unrealistic (the “real” word again) body shapes. But another study found that ‘real beauty’ ad campaigns don’t work because women feel worse about their bodies after viewing images of models their own size. No one seems to have a definitive answer on how best to combat negative self-esteem in young girls and women.

It may have more to do with the product and the stories attached to specific lingerie models. Many full cup bra brands embrace their target market’s dimensions. Curvy Kate’s Star-in-a-Bra campaign started in Europe and has now been launched in the US. This promotion encourages everyday women to send in their photos as part of a search for a new “Star In a Bra.” Curvy Kate’s D through K cup models don’t fit the stereotype of plus size or full figured but do appear real, youthful, and curvy. Their brand has found success by highlighting a different set of measurements.

What do you think? Would more varied shapes of mannequins alter a woman’s self-esteem?  Should they?

By Elisabeth Dale

Who hasn’t read this statistic? Breast cancer strikes one in 8 women during their lifetime. News outlets cover every little study or personal story about the disease. The media reports on various efforts by charitable group working to find a “cure.” The pink ribbon is synonymous with raising money to benefit women’s breast health (although men represent about one percent of all cases). Two decades ago breast cancer was a disease suffered in silence. Now we designate October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Some argue that breast cancer gets too much attention: heart disease alone kills more women each year. But keeping breasts healthy is a bigger mystery to science than keeping hearts healthy. No one knows what causes breast cancer. … Read more

By Elisabeth Dale

Is the medical community failing breastfeeding moms? A recent Time Magazine article claims that doctors and nurses know little about potential lactation problems, or how to treat them, beyond the “breast is best” motto. While the recently enacted Affordable Care Act does reimburse women for the cost of breast pumps and lactation consultant services, these small steps don’t make up for the lack of education and knowledge on the subject of breastfeeding. And as the author of the Time Magazine piece points out, there are seven times the number of research studies devoted to erectile dysfunction as there are to those focused on lactation failure. Nursing may be as “natural” as childbirth but that doesn’t mean it’s easy, simple, or without challenges.… Read more

By Elisabeth Dale

It May be Time for a New Line of Male Lingerie

Less than one percent of all breast cancer cases are found in men. It’s a rare disease, striking one out of every 1000 versus one out of 8 women in their lifetime. It’s still relatively uncommon for males to be diagnosed with this “pink” or female disease. Yet what men seem to experience more often is the struggle women commonly have with their own breasts: finding the right fit in a bra.  No, it’s not some sexual fetish creating a kinky fashion demand. There are lingerie lines available to meet that need. Rather it is men developing female-like mounds on their chests and discovering that they need to contain and … Read more

By Elisabeth Dale

Are designers meeting the needs of breast cancer patients?

This October’s Breast Cancer Awareness month saw the launch of a new educational initiative to make women more aware of their surgical options after mastectomy and lumpectomy.  This new BRA (Breast Reconstruction Awareness) Day was created because surveys showed that few women knew about their choices. And only one out of 4 women decide on breast reconstruction after a mastectomy.

This may be due to a lack of information but not all patients are medically eligible for such procedures. Radiation or other therapies that damage skin make some poor candidates for implants. Others don’t have enough extra body fat to rebuild lost tissue. Some women don’t want to risk the uncertainty of additional … Read more

By Elisabeth Dale

Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Surprising News

Whether you look forward to or are weary of the plethora of pink that marks October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, one thing’s for sure: I can’t avoid it. It’s hard for me to walk through a store aisle, read a magazine, or surf the web without being asked to purchase a product or participate in some event in the name of “awareness.” Even opponents of “Pinktober” (as it has been dubbed by its critics) might be surprised to find that the Hard Rock Café has trademarked the term and has created a line of official merchandise under that brand.

Objections to this crass charitable commercialism have been building. Two books questioning their effectiveness, Pink Ribbons, Inc. … Read more