Women usually either absolutely love or absolutely hate wearing a bra. Either you don’t feel complete without your over-the-shoulder boulder holder on, or you can’t imagine caging the ladies unless you absolutely have to for some reason.
Kaitlyn Juvik is a young woman who falls into the latter category. She went to school for almost an entire year brassiere free and made it to just one week before graduation without anyone demanding that she put those things away, until May 25 of this year. The reason? It was making her male teacher uncomfortable. So she got a bunch of her friends together and staged a booby revolt.
More:Superhero mom takes on daughter’s kidnapper — and wins
The Montana teenager decided about a year ago that she was entirely done with upper decker flopper stoppers for good; she told a local news outlet that she finds them restrictive and uncomfortable. She’s not alone. Anyone who has ever felt the unyielding sting of a wayward piece of steel underwire attempting to poke a hole in their soft tissue can tell you that it’s not a particularly pleasant sensation. Even science is starting to fall on the side of going top deck commando, since it’s looking less and less likely that booby baskets do anything except speed up the sagging process.
No one seemed to have an issue with Kaitlyn’s newfound freedom. In fact, it’s the definition of a nonissue, since it’s not like she was wearing fishnet body stockings to school. She was wearing T-shirts and nipple stickers, including on the day she was asked to go batten down the hatches. Pretty modest stuff. Still, the male teacher had a problem with it, so Kaitlyn got a tutting. She responded in kind by staging a protest with a bunch of other classmates, a sizable portion of which were her male peers who gathered at lunch, wearing bras on the outside of their clothing.
More:I know exactly what I need to tell my sons about rape
The school’s administration said that it doesn’t make a habit of checking students’ undergarments. The larger issue is what it always is — someone else was uncomfortable with Kaitlyn’s body, so Kaitlyn had to fix that for them at the expense of her own comfort.
While we’re on the topic, though, do you know what’s really uncomfortable? Realizing that you’re being singled out because one of your adult dude teachers took a good, long look at your chest and sleuthed out that you were not currently in possession of a double-barreled slingshot. That’s uncomfortable.
Bras are one of those damned if you do, damned if you don’t pieces of underclothing. For one thing, they’re crazy expensive. Even small cups will run you $50 if you don’t want them falling apart. For another, you could just as easily imagine Kaitlyn being dress-coded for having a bra strap showing. Not wearing an expensive demi cup, push-up, perfect-curves, semi-sheer bra is immodest, but if someone can tell that you are wearing one, that’s also slutty and puts you at risk of being called out.
Bras: We mustn’t see them, but we mustn’t not see them either.
More: School bans boy’s hat because bullies can’t handle it
It might not seem like such a big deal. It’s a bra, after all, not a crisis. But it becomes a big deal once you’ve thoroughly ingrained the message that is really at the core of this mammary tissue issue. Girls learn from a very young age that there is a long list of people who are allowed to have feelings about their bodies — including their breasts — but they themselves are at the very bottom of that list.
Frankly we’re thrilled that the teens rallied. They did it with the kind of adolescent flair for drama that borders on the precious, sure. But it’s always humbling and a little encouraging to see the next generation figuring out things like this while we olds stand around stuttering about distractions and boobies. Get it, Montana youths.
Leave a Comment