Ladies, why wear a bra?

How can anything that leaves these types of marks every day be good for you?

There is an excellent website called http://www.007b.com/ and this site challenges women to review their relationship with their breasts with one of the articles on the site dealing extensively with the question of wearing bra's.

From the 007b site:

Over 90% of North American women wear a bra, many without ever asking why. This article talks about different reasons women give for wearing a bra. Interestingly, bra wearing is not a necessity for most women for their breasts' sake; it is worn for cultural reasons.

That's an interesting statement I thought that the bra was needed to support breasts?

According to the site:

This is largely a myth: "...wearing a bra... has no medical necessity whatsoever", says Susan M. Love, M.D in her "Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book". This is similar to the myth that women supposedly need corsets to support their stomach muscles.

Now, large-breasted women may need the support from bras. Jogging and other active sports may be painful even for medium-breasted ladies. This is, however, an individual thing, so do what is comfortable for you.

In one study, large-breasted women removed the weight of breasts from their shoulders for two weeks, either by going braless or by wearing a strapless bra. Only one woman chose a strapless bra and all the others went braless. The researchers monitored the women for muscle pain and tenderness. Seventy-nine percent of patients decided to remove breast weight from the shoulder permanently because it rendered them symptom free!
(Ryan, EL, Pectoral girdle myalgia in women: a 5-year study in a clinical setting. Clin J Pain. 2000 Dec;16(4):298-303.

So again we have been conditioned that clothing or certain items of clothing are a necessity when really it is just a societal construct!

This site does women in particular and the population in general a great service by presenting a large number of photographs that demonstrate, what Naturists have discovered by practicing our lifestyle, that there is a huge range of breast shapes and sizes and all are normal.

In our clothes compulsory society where the body is constantly hidden from view, except in the hands of advertisers and pornographers, people have lost the idea what is a normal body shape.

We, as a society, have allowed the the female body and body parts to be sexualised and objectified all primarily in the name of profit.

Ladies, it is time to reclaim your body!

Sex on the beach

These thoughts have arisen after reading and watching a post on The Diary of a naked wombat blog and then seeing the following NZ article that said:

"Residents between Te Hapua Rd and Peka Peka beaches have complained about increased "aggressive" nudity pushing locals off their beach.

The beach has been known as a gay meeting place for many years, with locals describing nude men "popping up like meerkats" in the sand dunes.

Residents say naturists, exhibitionists and voyeurs have added to the mix, resulting in couples copulating in public view, and other exhibitionist behaviour."See full article here.

I think that any sexualising of clothing optional beaches is a concern because it plays into the hands of those members of the public that are gymnophobic and want to see the few clothing optional beaches that we have, closed. They equate nudity with sex and therefore where there is nudity, in their minds, there are rampant sexual orgies.

What do I mean by sexualising? This is where any overt sexual activities take place on or near a designated clothing optional beach.

This whole perception is not helped by the fact that if you "google" Nudism or Naturism you pick up a lot of porn sites.

I remember reading in one of our Australian Naturist magazines an article about a naturist sailing through our beautiful barrier reef. He asked a young lady to join him as crew and she was happy to do so.

Then he added that he was a naturist and asked would that be a problem. She went away and did some research on the Internet and declined his offer because the majority of the sites she looked at were pornographic.

Therefore we must do what we can to decouple the idea of Naturism and sex.

Social Nudism in the past was primarily conducted at clubs that lay down a set of agreed rules that included appropriate behaviour and set clear boundaries of what was and was not acceptable.

When clothing optional beaches were legislated these same rules of behaviour, although largely unwritten, were adopted.

The Free Beach Association does have on its website:

. . . FREE BEACH ETIQUETTE . . .


The Naturist/Nudist community is a fantastic caring group of people from a diverse range of back grounds who are aware of the fragile balance and scrutiny their textile free family lifestyle attracts. This common sense approach to ‘free beach etiquette’ has been developed to ensure the growth, the safety and to facilitate a balanced acceptance of the textile free family lifestyle within mainstream society.

Stay out of dunes and re-vegetation areas
Obey regulations - National Park, life-saving, fire, fishing and parking
Don’t wander from established nude areas – this may risk the areas closure
No overt sexual activity - be nude not lewd – this just undermines our objectives
Don’t litter – carry out more than you brought in
Respect the property of others – ‘if your bum is bare cover the chair’
No unauthorized photography of others, especially children
Respect the privacy of others – allow others to have space – don’t stare
Come prepared & be sun smart – bring water, food, towels, sunscreens etc
Speak up for standards – carry copies of Free Beach Etiquette – report criminal activity to police

This guide should be on all clothing optional beaches right next to the "Nudity Permitted" official signs to ensure that all visitors to the beach know what behaviour is expected and what will not be tolerated by the other beach users.
 
I am not deluded enough to think that such a sign will be taken notice of, but a least it takes away the excuse that they did not know that what they were doing was in appropriate.