Have you ever wondered whether or not bras serve any purpose whatsoever aside from differentiating
between getting from getting to first and second base? I have all of the answers to
all of the bra-related questions that you might have. Since we are speaking in baseball
terms I'd call that a homerun.
Up until the bra came around women had to wear things called corsets. Super unhealthy
for our rib-cages and our intestines that were being squeezed. As Victorian era fashions
began to give way in came the brassiere. For you grammar nerds out there the term brassiere
entered the English language in 1893 when a lot of people started filing patents for
breast-supporters that lifted ye olde boobs from the shoulders via bra straps as opposed
to from the waist up as corsets did. Now in terms of who invented this foundation garment,
this bra is actually the work for a lot of peoples different patents for things like
underwire, round cups, different types of shoulder strap adjustments. All of these different
things that we probably take a lot for granted these days. So let's get down to some bra
basics. First of all, what is up with the letters? The 'A' in an A-cup might stand for
arbitrary because in 1932 the lingerie manufacturer SH & Company decided to just start labeling
it's cup sizes using letters of the alphabet. The letter corresponds to the cup which corresponds
to the breast size, the number though corresponds to the circumference of your rib cage. Now
the follow-up question is, 'Well Cristen what bra size do you wear?' None of your beeswax
but I will say that the 'A' in my book stands for 'awesome'. Can I high-five myself? The
next question is scientifically speaking do bras serve any purpose? And the quick answer
here is no. Bras do nothing to stop breast ptosis. Boob sag. And guys. You also have
breasts. Don't forget about that. Ptsosis can happen to you. There is one kind of bra
that does serve a very important purpose for protecting the breast: the sports bra. In
1977 two women got together and invented the sports bra, such as the kind that I'm holding
up here. Don't mind the deodorant stains. The sports bra was invented by sewing two
jockstraps together. Scientists have done all of this research on how boobs move when
we job, play badminton, tackle football, lacrosse, and they have found that breasts can go up
and down with such force that it can break our clavicle. You can break your own breastbone
with your own breasts. I don't know if that would be an example of irony but I feel like
it has a touch of it. Guys also wear sports bras when they are running to avoid something
wonderfully called 'jogger's nipple'. If you are running and you're wearing a shirt and
you start to sweat and things start to chafe you can get bloody nipples. So guys if you're
experiencing some nipple chafe you might want to consider a sports bra. Finally what does
the future of bras hold? Three words: Bigger, bigger and bigger. In the United States according
to statistics from the company Playtex the average bra size has gone up from a 34B to
a 36C in the past ten plus years. If you want to take that as good news, go ahead, all I'm
saying is for smaller-chested women finding a good-fitting bra might be getting a little
bit harder. Guys if you feel like bras are some kind of conundrum and you can't figure
them out you are not alone. 8 out of 10 women are wearing the wrong-sized bra. That probably
means that I'm sitting here in an incorrectly-sized bra that's making my boobs look really stupid.
So clearly when it comes to bras everybody has a little something to learn. And it's
a good thing that you came here so I can answer all of your questions even though I realize
now that I should probably go out and get measured for a correctly fitting bra.