Article: Brassiere

Brassiere

A garment made to cover, contain, and support women's breasts, the brassiere has long been identified with femininity, female sexuality, and even female oppression. Invented during the early 1900s, when women were beginning to gain some independence, the brassiere, or bra, represented freedom from much more restrictive undergarments, such as tight corsets, a tightly fastened body suit designed to push up or flatten a woman's breasts or to hug her waist until her figure assumed an "hourglass" shape. By the second half of the century, the bra itself had come to represent restriction and many women rebelled against wearing it.

As the era of the stiff corset came to an end in the ...

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