10 Reasons Why I Gave up Wearing Bras

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I love keeping up with internet trends and watching YouTube in my spare time.

The 10 reasons I stopped wearing bras.
Photo by Mubariz Mehdizadeh, via Unsplash

The Decision Should Be Ours

If you don't want to go braless, you enjoy wearing a bra, or it enhances your life, that's fine. But for many women, bras are holding us back. If someone wants to give up bras, it should be socially acceptable for them to do so, which is why I'm giving a list of reasons why giving up bras can be a good thing. It has improved my life. I will never wear them again.

1. It Improves Circulation

The tipping point for me, when it came to giving up bras was when I was becoming winded walking around wearing them. They were just squeezing my rib cage so much that they felt like a vise and were hindering my movements.

Granted, maybe if I got a bra that was a different size, that could have fixed some of this, but I was tired of being held back physically by something I didn't deem necessary.

I had stopped wanting to leave the house anymore because it meant putting on a bra and suddenly having breathing difficulty again. I didn't want to stop living my life because of a piece of clothing. And I was scared it was cutting off my circulation in a way that wasn't healthy for me.

While this point won't apply to everyone, I think not wearing a bra can improve circulation in the body for a lot of people.

2. Self-Acceptance

Society judges everything about a woman's chest. It's not big enough, small enough, round enough, high enough. They make bras to minimize, squeeze, pad, and shape all these problems. But what if we just choose to accept our bodies how they are instead of hiding them shamefully? Not wearing a bra, at least for me, is a way of proudly accepting my body the way it is and not forcing it to conform to the shape everyone else wants it to be.

3. It Saves Money

Bras are expensive, especially the larger your bra size. For me, bras were costing $50–80 per bra. None of the rest of my clothing was that expensive, so giving up wearing bras is saving me a lot of money.

4. Bra Sizes Are Confusing

Our tatas seem to change size regularly. Lose five pounds, gain five pounds, or even just have your period and you are a different size. I got measured "professionally" a few times and the people measuring seemed confused when the bras they measured me for didn't fit. Many of the people doing the measuring don't seem to be properly trained. I also tried measuring myself and just wound up confusing myself.

I'm pretty sure the entire time I was wearing bras, I was always wearing the incorrect size. And even if I had landed the size right once, it changes so much that it probably wouldn't have been the right size for long.

Bras are at their best when they're fitting, which I feel they rarely do.

5. No One Notices a Difference

I thought everyone would notice that I no longer wear a bra. I felt ashamed the first time I stepped outside without one. But if they do notice, they don't say anything and no one stares either. So maybe it's not as big of deal as everyone says it is.

6. It Feels Empowering

Yes. I am a feminist and not wearing a bra feels like I'm flipping off the patriarchy. Don't get me wrong, though, you can wear bras, too, and be a feminist. That's the whole point of all of this. Bra wearing should be about what's comfortable for the woman, not what's comfortable for society. That's the part that is empowering.

7. Comfort

Nothing feels better to a woman than taking her bra off at the end of the day. Why not feel that way all day, every day?

It's like wearing headbands. I used to like wearing them, but it wasn't worth the tight squeezing headache I'd get at the end of the day from it. Maybe eliminating a piece of clothing that clings to the body this hard could make life a little less annoying and help improve your mood. It can be really uplifting to spend your day actually feeling comfortable.

8. There Are Alternatives

Even if you kind of like aspects of bras and what they cover up and shape, you can replace those things with less restrictive clothing. There are shirts that comes with cups that help holds things in place and cover things up, without squeezing so hard. Loose fitting clothing and hoodies can sometimes hide things as well, but they are so much more comfortable than bras.

9. It's More Hygienic

Let's face it: people who wear bras rarely wash them. This is not because they're gross people. It's because of a combination of factors, like that bras are too expensive to own very many and it's too much work to wash an item of clothing every day that you wear every day. We can't let bras sit in the dirty clothes like regular clothing does when we own so few pairs of them.

Combine this with the fact that bras rest so tightly against the skin that they get covered in sweat every day. Not wearing bras is more hygienic and probably smells better as well.

10. Bras Produce Too Much Heat

Wearing restrictive clothing like this, when it's the middle of summer and already suffocating, is too much. If you're already sweating, a bra makes things that much worse. It can get so bad that some people use deodorant underneath their bras. Wouldn't it also make sense to just give up wearing bras altogether?

No One Has To Give Up Wearing Bras

I think every woman should make the decision whether or not she wants to wear bras for herself. I'm just saying that it's a healthy alternative to go without them if it's what makes you more comfortable.