The Competition Bra
- mayadorazio
- Dec 2, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Dec 6, 2020
By this title you make think this podcast cast will be strange, but in fact it's quite relatable to many people who have to wear special bras for showcases or events. For this interview I chose to ask my best friend Alyssa on what piece of clothing holds a lot of nostalgia and memory for her. She had chosen to talk about her competition bra as there are always so many malfunctions with them and the fact that she had to wear that particular bra all though out her competitive years of dancing.
Podcast:
Concluding Thoughts
Through interviewing my friend Alyssa I've come to learn a lot about what clothing means to her and it is so interesting to find that something as simple as a bra holds so much meaning to someone. I remember calling her up asking if I could interview her on something that holds meaning and nostalgia for her and the first thing she said was "comp bra!" because we spent so much time in it when competing it became a large part of the routine at competitions. Beyond the competition bra which is a bra that comes in different skin tones and has a clear plastic strap going across the back of the bra and two clear straps, the bra did not offer a lot of support. It was very hard for people with chests bigger then a size C to have a bra that properly fit them to dance in and something that would give support. I remember a lot of the girls would complain because they couldn't fit into the bras from the dance store that sold the specific bras we had to buy so they would go to Victoria Secret and buy the strapless bra and add clear straps to it. The only problem with this was that the teachers did not want to see your bra and the clasp at the back was showing. They claimed that it was "too sexual" to see the bra at the back of the costume, however this was unfair to the girls with larger chests because the tiny bras from the dance store did not fit as they should and resulted in getting taped into the bras, having straps break or losing straps on stage. This incident made me think of the article "How I Learned to Look Believable" by Eva Fisher. Although this article is about sexual assault and what women "should and shouldn't" wear according to society I felt that this related to the dance bra as it was something that the teachers saw as a sexual thing opposed to something that shouldn't be seen because of the costumes on stage. In the article, Eva recounts having to show as "little skin as possible" by wearing a turtleneck, this took me back to that moment with the comp bra because the teachers did not want the bra to be seen because it was "inappropriate" however some girls just did not have a choice (Fisher, 2018). It's really disheartening how women's necessities are always sexualized even by other women because of the "norms" in society and how it would be seen as "a little too much" (Fisher, 2018). When in reality most women have to wear bras because they need that support, it shouldn't be something that is so sexualized because it is part of everyday life. Even though Alyssa has some amazing memories attached to this bra because of all the dances she has worn it for, at the same time she had this negative stigma attached to something that should have been filled with good memories. As of today, the dance store that we used to buy dance bras from are slowly increasing their size range which is a step into the right direction however much more change needs to be made to help these young dancers who have. no choice but to wear bras that show a little bit from their costumes.
Again, a big thanks to Alyssa for sharing her thoughts on a nostalgic piece of clothing to her. Alyssa and I got on to discussing and reminiscing on our dance days and how much we wish we could go back to the go old days of dancing in the studio for hours upon hours. It's really interesting to discuss with others the story their clothes tell and the meaning behind them. After ending the podcast Alyssa had related to her dance bra as a second skin as Professor Jenkins had brought up in week 10 and how she will never get rid of the bra despite all the issues she had to go through because it holds so much meaning to her, just as much as her dance costumes do.
References
Fisher, Eva Hagberg. "How I Learned to Look Believable." The New York Times.
Last modified January 3, 2018. Accessed December 2, 2020.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/03/style/
dressing-for-sexual-harassment-hearings.html?mtrref=www.google.com&assetType=PAYW
ALL.
Jenkins, Kimberly. " What Fashion Makes Possible." FSN 223: Fashion Theory. Class Lecture at Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, November 17, 2020.
Pinterest. Accessed December 2, 2020. https://pin.it/4jAONKB
Comentários