Push-up bras, sports bras or no bras at all — for many Urban students, bras are more than just a clothing choice. They are tied to self-expression, social norms and femininity.
Lucy Cervarich ’28 prefers to wear a bra. “The reason I wear a bra comes down to my own body image and my confidence walking around school. … [When I wear a bra,] I feel supported,” she said.
Wearing bras often impacts students’ self-image. “I do think it’s a confidence thing. I think girls feel more confident [not wearing a bra] because their body type is different,” RaeLynn Smith ’27 said.
For Gabby Schaefer ’27, going without a bra can be liberating. “Not wearing a bra [reveals] the complexity and differences in each woman’s anatomy. It feels more natural, empowering and freeing,” she said.
Schaefer still remembers purchasing her first-ever bra. “It was a little training bra from Target. It was Fourth of July themed,” she said. “It was this tiny piece of fabric, and it had red, white and blue stars on it.” Buying a bra for the first time can be a coming-of-age experience for many young people, but that doesn’t necessarily determine one’s decision to wear a bra in the future.
As her relationship with bras has shifted, Schaefer has noticed that not wearing a bra can bring judgment from others. “I do feel pressure to wear a bra,” she said. “[But] I feel like there would be more pressure if I identified as a straight female. [However, since I’m] not a straight female, I’m already breaking the norm.”
Some students believe that public decency standards can vary depending on a person’s gender. “How is it that men are allowed to walk on Haight and in the Castro with nothing on, … but the minute women breastfeed in public, it’s like, ‘Oh, you should be doing that in private’?” Charley Roberts ’27 said.
Katina Papson-Rigby, director of service learning, discussed the connection between the social significance of wearing a bra and the garment’s history. She explained that Herminie Cadolle, an early feminist and French fashion designer, invented the first modern bra in 1889 as a more compact and comfortable replacement for a corset.
“[Bras were] originally marketed for health and comfort … but then became associated with femininity and appropriate dress,” Papson-Rigby said.
Bras have also become associated with beauty standards, especially because of social media. “Magazines, the internet, movies, TV shows and models characterize bras as beautiful or sexy,” Cervarich said. Body image issues among high schoolers are often linked to the media.
By the 1960s, there was a resistance against bras entirely — the most famous instance of this was the Miss America 1968 protest, where women threw away bras and other items of clothing they deemed to be oppressive.
Not wearing a bra became a rebellious gesture against beauty standards and oppression within high schools. “We need, as a society, … young people to push back, ask hard questions and force us to wonder and reevaluate. As an educator, I absolutely believe that high schools should be [one of] those places,” Papson-Rigby said.
On the other hand, bras are not always connected to social statements. For many students, it’s an individual choice based on comfort rather than a symbol of resistance. “It’s a little bit more normalized at Urban [to not wear a bra],” Roberts said. “I honestly think [you should] do whatever you want to do. It’s your body.”
As well as not granting judgement, Cervarich emphasized that the choice of whether or not to wear a bra varies from student to student. “I would never, ever have an opinion on somebody else’s [choice],” she said. “You shouldn’t be considered stripped of that femininity if you decide to not wear a bra.”