Breast Implants

1. A History of the Breast“… intend to make you think about women’s breasts as you never have before”

3. Breast Implants • 1992: FDA, worried about negativity about silicone implants, restricted them • Women getting surgery after breast cancer, or whose breasts shrunk after breastfeeding, are eligible. • 2005: FDA again allowed silicone (visual complaints about saline) • “Implants made me feel whole,” said one woman • “Implants ruptured, and strings of silicone came out of my nipples, eyes and ears,” said another woman • “Silicone seeped into my breast milk and sickened two of my children,” said yet another woman

6. Media Reports • The Wall Street Journal (1988) announced that “Breasts are back in style” • New cosmetic treatments, growing demand for more bosomy models • Journal limited itself to economic evidence: the breast business was enormously profitable • Self magazine (1990) had an article titled “Breast frenzy: America’s New Obsession that’s a $300 Million Business” • After two decades of fashionable flatness, a new era began: “the new Amazons” with their “amazingly firm, round, perfect breasts” • Female psychologist called implants a “status symbol,” implying that women could buy the perfect body, “the same way she can buy anything else”

8. Cindy Sherman, Untitled #225, 1990 Parodying Renaissance paintings of the nursing Madonna, Cindy Sherman straps a prosthesis to her own body and poses her hand on a false breast exuding a drop of milk

9. Annie Sprinkle, a performance artist, created the hilarious Bosom Ballet • mimics the movements of classical dance – arabesques, glisades, and jetés – and debunks the traditional “ivory orb” vision of breasts. • Wore long black gloves that contrasted with her white skin and painted red nipples • Pulled and twisted her breasts to the tune of the “The Blue Danube” for a 1980 video, theater tour and posters.

11. During the `80s and `90s, a new nude was introduced • The post-mastectomy nude • The Warrior (1980), a portrait of Deena Metzger, offered one of the first truly beautiful pictures of a one-breasted woman • A naked Metzger stretches out her arms to the sun, clearly exposing her asymmetrical chest with one intact breast and a tattoo over the scar where the other one had been • A stunning and life-affirming gesture

12. Deena Metzger This photo on posters and calendars has given heart to thousands of women Breast-cancer photography tries to save lives. Photos that try to take fear out of breast cancer and losing a breast. Convince women that the loss of a breast – however harrowing – is not the same as the loss of a life.

13. Shocking self-portrait (1993) that revealed a mastectomy scar and produced emotional responses. Half the comments expressed outrage and shame, while the other half praised her and the Times for their anguished truthfulness.

17. Breast Obsessed Culture (Woman with Small and Big Breasts) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7k6_etXUwI • Breast Obsessed Culture (Cancer, Enlargement, Enhancement, Reduction, Surgery) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnbYX7Lkg-M • Breast Obsessed Culture (Breast feeding, bra and public) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kPQ7QSElJg • Boobs: An American Obsession • https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/library

18. The Bra • Just over 100 years ago, the bra was exciting and new, even revolutionary.   • It freed women from the suffocating corset, allowing them to move, breathe, and express themselves. • Visual interconnectedness of fashion and flesh • “veiled erotic” • Clothes that come into direct contact with the naked body are often seen as sex objects • Creating the breast image that will raise women’s sexual and professional stock

19. Christian Dior’s oft-quoted statement that “without foundations there can be no fashion” has been meaningful for 700 years • Foundations (namely corsets and brassieres) provide a “second skin” or a “second skeleton” aimed at constructing the preferred form of one’s time, place, and class • Early 14th century, women abandoned loose tunics, and undergarments began as necessary fashion • Stiff, clinging bodice defined the new thin ideal • Large-busted women bound strips of cloth around their chests to acquire the popular small-breasted look   • Other women sewed pouches in their dresses to lift them as high as possible   • Thereafter, some kind of breast support was considered essential to the wardrobe of any self-respecting lady

20. Bodice

21. As long as fashionable women used the viselike bodice in late 1800s, looser and more flexible substitutes made no gains • Some women who wanted to shed the corset were deterred by the social idea of being a “loose,” uncorseted woman   • Unfettered clothing had an all-too-close association with prostitutes • Breasts were supported mainly by corsets or a corps (body), which were made out of cloth, wood, leather, metal, and whalebone • Before bras, corsets performed functions such as lifting breasts that had become pendulous and raising firm breasts to artificial heights  

23. As women moved into work force (domestic service, agriculture, factories), they needed underwear that allowed free movement • When leisure activities and sports became acceptable for women, this also favored the acceptance of the brassiere   • Golf, tennis, swimming (not in clumsy bathing dresses), horseback riding   • Bicycling craze in the 1890s: an activity whose vigor and bent-forward position practically precluded wearing a standard corset   • Athletes needed bras that were unconfining, but reduced uncomfortable jiggling   • Underwear had to move with the body  • Corsets pushed up breasts from below   • New idea: suspend the weight of the breasts from the shoulders • The breast supporter made its debut in 1863, when Luman Chapman, living in Camden, NJ,  patented his corset substitute   • Its innovative “breast puffs” and “elastic shoulder-brace straps” were designed to eliminate “friction” on the breasts • Cracks or fissures of the nipples caused women severe pain and could lead to infection.  Resulting inflammation represented a serious complication, believed to lead to breast cancer in later life  

24. Chapman’s breast supporter Marie Tucek: 1st push-up brassiere with separated cups

25. In 1904, the Charles R. De Bevoise Company first labeled its product a “brassiere,” which was the French word for an infant’s undervest or woman’s bodice or upper arm   • Its first bra resembled a tank top, with just a few bones to stabilize its shape and control the position of the breasts • By 1930s, “bra” was the going expression, just as p.j. was substituted for pajamas • Madeleine Gabeau, also in 1904, came up with the underwire concept and soft cups as she separated the breasts • This clashed with the prevailing fashion of the silhouette, an ample monobosom without perceptible cleavage • Using ribbons and two handkerchiefs, New Yorker Mary Phelps Jacob created the first-modern bra in 1914 • “Backless Brassiere”: device was lightweight and soft • An improvement, but did not supply much support, and is recognized today as a breast flattener  • She patented her creation, but when she was unsuccessful at marketing it, she sold the rights for $1,500 • Women held almost half of the more than 1,230 U.S. patents awarded for breast supporters between 1863 and 1969

26. silhouette and monobosom

28. 1920s • Bras laced up the side to flatten out the chest like women wanted   • For 1st first time in centuries, clothes were not designed to emphasize a woman’s curves, but to eliminate them   • the flat-chested flapper look was so popular that one bra company even named itself “Boyishform” to show how serious it was about making flattener bras

30. 1930s • Returning to a preference on curves   • Breasts gradually arose where flatness had prevailed • Women wanted to lift and separate their breasts   • Round contour of 1930 was succeeded in 1932 by a pointed look, a shape referred to as the Belle Poitrine • The decade of the measurement of the bust (32 to 40 inches) and the alphabetical classification of the size of the bosom • “Medium,” “large,” and “stout” were the initial options, while a designer wittily nicknamed the options as “nubbins,” “snubbins,” “droopers,” and “super-droopers” • Later: A, B, C, D - or, as they were known by manufacturers: “eggcup,” “teacup,” “coffee cup,” and “challenge cup” • Padding and wiring were introduced, and pink and peach were popular colors (until then, bras were the standard white) • Silk, satin, and lace also new options   • Movie stars wore lingerie on film, but hid cleavage - still a no no  

31. 1st breast profiles to illustrate cup size by letters

32. 1940s • An aggressive breast profile, dubbed the “torpedo,” was in vogue • Bullet-shaped bras reflected the aggression of the era   • Torpedo bras made breasts look like projectiles about to be launched • Maidenform’s “bullet bra,” introduced in 1949, sold almost 90 million units in over 100 countries during the next 30 years • In 1948, Maidenform introduced its “I Dreamed” ad campaign, one of the most memorable of the 20th century • Ads depicted women wearing only a bra from the waist up and declaring “I dreamed I went shopping in my Maidenform bra” or “I dreamed I walked a tightrope in my Maidenform bra” or “I dreamed I took the bull by its horns in my Maidenform bra”   • The “dreams” made women seem secure and independent, but the sexual imagery shocked many Americans

36. 1950s • The Sweater Era • Continuing to wear their missile-shaped bras, but now under sweaters for a tight-fitting curvaceous look • Playtex: 1st to advertise on TV • More bra options: • push-up • strapless (for shoulder-baring dresses) • padded • front-closure • adhesive (two cloth cups and some glue; strapless, wireless, backless, and painless)

39. 1960s • Fear of the brassiere • Bras were seen as objects of repression   • Freedom Trash Cans   • Feminists accused lingerie designers of “packaging breasts according to men’s, rather than women’s, specifications” • “We don’t want rigid torpedo shells, we need comfortable bras for a living person” • The movement was so prevalent that bra manufacturers thought they might go out of business • Women called for “Braless Fridays,” encouraging women to come to work untethered • Doctors warned women of the effects of not wearing a bra   • Going braless would stretch breast ligaments, something called “Cooper’s Droop” (after British doctor Sir Astley Cooper, who drew attention to the condition)

41. 1960s, continued • In response to the new unisexual ideal, manufacturers created bras that were as light and as discreet as possible   • Invisible Bra came close to the wish for no bra at all   • “No-Bra Bra,” by Rudy Gernreich (inventor of topless swimsuit):   • a very lightweight bra, which gave support despite the transparent effect that one was wearing nothing underneath • The “birthday suit” - a seamless garment made of Lycra that fit the nude look of the sixties

43. 1970s • With Title IX: strong thighs, abs, and arms were in • Breasts were no longer the main attraction: the entire body was in focus • Disco, roller-skating, and exercise fads helped women get muscles   • Creation of Lycra (a miracle fabric): ideal for bras, swimsuits and dance leotards   • Victoria’s Secret started with its trademark matching bras and panties • Brought sexy and affordable underwear to the masses • In the jogging craze, two runners demanded underwear that could “go the distance” • stitched together two jockstraps and called it the Jogbra   • sports bras offering “motion control” quickly became a big part of the underwear business

45. 1980s • Bras no longer existed just for wearing underneath clothes; they became clothes themselves   • The person most responsible was Madonna • Her singing and acting took second place to her black lace bra, which set bra companies’ stock soaring   • Madonna took this underwear-as-outerwear concept even further with the conical bras for her Blond Ambition Tour • Breast enlargement became the second most popular type of cosmetic surgery (the face-lift was number one) • Increasing the demand for bigger cups, like DD   • Statistics show that the average bra size increases by one inch per decade • Corset was revived - this time as outerwear, to reflect that bras could be trendy just like clothes   • In June 1989, LIFE magazine devoted its cover story to the bra, celebrating the history of the garment.  The story was titled “Ooh, la, la! The bra”  

48. 1990s • Women’s magazines were marketing the sexy bosom • Cleavage-producing bras were deemed to be at “The Cutting Edge” of the new femininity, said Vogue • Women were told: “Don’t be shy - it’s fashion! and you want to show some cleavage!” (“The Bra … Meant to Seen!” in Cosmopolitan)   • After years of de-emphasizing breasts, it was no longer considered bad taste to display them ostentatiously   • By now, males were supposed to be able to work along women with obvious female chests   • By now, women should not have to hide their breasts for fear of jealously of other women  

49. 1990s, continued • Cleavage reached new levels of hype with one of the most heralded episodes in underwear history • Designed to extremely enhance • Type of push-up underwire brassiere with worldwide popularity • Goal: have women see their Wonderbras as a cosmetic - a beauty enhancer - rather than a functional garment • The bra delivered, truly making women look as if they had been surgically modified • Advertisements with lines like “I can’t cook, who cares?” captivated women