“I don’t like that you can see the nipples.” with or without a bra: the questions of 40-year-old women.

“I’m afraid everyone will notice. There are still many prejudices against women who do not wear bras. It takes courage to take that on.” Linda, 45, discovered the comfort of a bra-free life thanks to the arrest. However, today he does not plan to go out without it. If a number of very young women now, it seems that they have taken that step. you just have to slip into a party of twenty-one to see it, their elders, until now, rarely considered it. It’s hard to keep your shelves in the closet when you’ve grown up when the question didn’t even come up.

Marie, 42, had a good laugh as she started a debate with her sister, who hadn’t worn it in a long time, and the manager of the store where they went shopping, a woman in her fifties with generous breasts. “In the middle of the store, she took off her bra. So I started too, it was really funny. It’s true, it’s nice, and one can wonder if you don’t keep it out of pure habit or by dictation.”

“I always thought that bras were useless, that they were another directive from the patriarchy, joins 50-year-old Mathilde, who abandons them only in the summer or on weekends. However, I don’t like that you can see my nipples, it has a sexual side to it that bothers me. But I have a feeling that it is being accepted more and more by the younger generations.”

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Back to the 1980s

These women grew up in the 1990s or 2000s, when the bra was one of the defining features of femininity. Mothers of families ran to buy bras for their 12-year-old daughters, to hide the budding breasts. Victoria’s Secret models were international stars, and pubs with Eva Herzigova forced teenage girls to combine babysitting by affording plenty of underwear.

The fashion at the time was to let bands of color show more or less subtly under his tank. Those who didn’t dare put on bras with underwires so tight you couldn’t turn around without twisting. Others wore inelegant clear silicone straps that left red welts on their shoulders. Therefore, it is with a curious look mixed with envy that forty-year-olds now watch their younger daughters, who no longer hesitate to put aside the good old “bra”. “While feminist movements in the 60s and 70s called for getting rid of them to liberate women’s bodies, the bra made a comeback in the 80s., recalls Frédéric Moneuron, writer (1) and sociologist of fashion. The years of AIDS caused distrust towards eroticism. desire suddenly became suspicious. But it was also, paradoxically, the era of the Wonderbra, a sexy bra that accentuated the breasts.

“My mom quickly forced me into bras when I was 11 or 12. A sports doctor I went to at the same age with scoliosis also asked me to wear them. So I realized it was the thing to do, says Pauline, 36, an executive in the luxury hotel industry in Paris who no longer wears a bra “since the end of her detention, except for work, sports or dancing. . “Today, when I go out, I’m still a little shy, I’m ashamed of other people’s eyes. So I’m going to fit my handbag a little differently so it doesn’t show too much.

Today, when I go out, I’m still a bit shy, I’m embarrassed by the looks of others

Pauline, 36, luxury hotel industry executive

See naturally moving breasts

Pauline isn’t the only one trying to be “adventurous,” especially after the telecommuting revolution. There have also been feminist movements demanding greater bodily freedom. Seeing “naturally moving breasts” on the street, or at the urging of a friend or colleague, several forty-somethings have decided to stop wearing bras. Until you reach the feeling of freedom, when you no longer have the impression of nakedness.

Obviously an easier approach for small breasts. A heavier chest puts more stress on the back and there is a risk of bending over without support. As for the effect of gravity, it also damages generous breasts. Weight, but also skin quality and age do not help breasts to maintain a high position. Lawrence, 49, a pharmacist and nutritionist in Bordeaux, is well-informed, reading several studies and asking a doctor friend for advice. Today, she only wears a bra “if the outfit of the day calls for it”, but still “finds it hard to do”. “Before it was unimaginable, I was afraid of other people’s eyes, of my chest falling. But I saw that my best friend wasn’t wearing it and I didn’t find it shocking, quite the opposite. Several men have also told me that they prefer women without bras.

I spent money, damaged my skin, heated it, in vain.

Navy, 36 years old

Driven by “her feminist reflection” and desires for freedom, 37-year-old Manon, a librarian, has reached the halfway point. The rest of the time I just wear pretty lace pieces with no underwires. Maybe at 50 I won’t care. “Marine, he doesn’t even ask himself a question. At the age of 36, she doesn’t even have a bra in her closet anymore. The arrest was a “revelation”. It doesn’t do any good for me other than giving my breasts a standardized, round, high and immobile shape that isn’t even a natural shape. He probably admits to being influenced by the twenty-one colleagues at his communications agency. “The new generation has tamed our eyes. it becomes common to see moving breasts. It no longer attracts attention like it used to, it is smaller and makes the process easier. Besides, no one but two boys gave me a slight remark one day when I was running to get to the cinema on time. Even my mother never told me anything.

(1) Frédéric Moneuron is the author The Sociology of Fashion, published in Que sais-je?128 pages, 10 €.

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