Letters to the Editor
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Speedo
I'm a large C (natural) and swear by these.
Of course one of the happier days of my life was when bras met spandex.
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Mammogram smoosh
Okay, that was pretty funny, mainly because it was right on target.
I had a fitness instructor tell us once that if you were having trouble catching your breath while running, pull out the middle of your sports bra to allow your self to get a deeper breath.
I tried it and it worked.
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Barely a B!
I'm barely a B (all natural!) and my pitiful excuse for ta - ta's shake and shimmy and are pretty damn saggy.
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This story is bad, even for Salon
I'm a man. I work in marketing. Would the editorial staff of this blog please, please, please actually think once in a while before publishing junk like this? Here's how the world really works, ladies:
1) The problem: If you're female, and you have large breasts, high-impact sports cause your breasts to flop around, which is eventually painful. Here's a concept: maybe if you're built like this, you should find some other form of exercise. I'm in my forties, and when I run, my knees are beginning to give me trouble. Solution: I don't run as much. The reality here is that if you're built like Pamela Anderson, you don't have the physical assets you need to run. You just don't. Where exactly is it written that you ought to be able to?
2) Overlooking Point 1, there are already several companies that I would guess make hundreds of different kinds of sports bras that address this problem. However, that's not good enough.
3) The reason there aren't even BETTER sports bras on the market is that: "Plus, as Scurr told the BBC, "Sports science has always been dominated by men and for them, studying breasts is seen as slightly laughable."
Right. Blame those men, again. This story reminds me of that joke news headline: "World comes to end: Minorities, Poor Suffer Most."
Women, especially the white, upper middle-class women who buy sports bras are the biggest consumers and the most brand-conscious humans the world has ever seen. It's breathtaking. If there's a market for it, we men will happily manufacture, market and sell you all kinds of useless shit, and you will lap it up. Cigarettes, makeup, fashion, the list is endless. And you buy it by the hundreds of billions of dollars.
The reason there aren't better sports bras out there is that THERE ISN'T ANY DEMAND. Believe me, if we thought we could sell $100 space-age sports bras in quantities sufficient to make a healthy profit, we would have done so, long ago.
But in the real world, where most people who don't work for Salon spend much of their time, women with large breasts don't tend to engage in high-impact sports. My girlfriend is a runner, and she's built like a 14 year-old boy -- almost no breasts at all. Long legs. Hence, she runs.
Is there no problem or situation you shrieking harpies will not try to blame on us? Give it a rest.
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Aced it
"The original athletic bra, after all, was made out of two jockstraps."
That's funny - I thought the original sports bra was made of an Ace bandage.
I appreciated reading all the letters from the well-endowed ladies (and, Mr. Doppelganger, if you don't care for brassiere articles, then just don't read them. Were you hoping for pictures, or what?) The original sports bras were, I'll bet, designed for women who could get away with an Ace bandage - the willowy long distance runner type.
As aerobic sports - and that includes a lot more than just jogging - have gained more participants, it's inevitable that less willowy women will begin to get involved. And this has meant fundamental redesign of sports bras. The "mammogram squeeze" type is just not practical - or bearable.
Sports bras designed by women, for women. Why not? You bouncy guys can do your own "bros" or "manssiers."
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New developments all the time
There are new developments in sportswear and equipment all of the time. Look at bathing suits that competitive men and women athletes wear today, nothing like what they wore 20 or even 10 years ago, is it? And it's not necessarily due to fashion or having the newest thing. Look at bicycles, they get better every year, too.
I personally welcome any developments they make in the sports bra department, I love the damn thing so much more than traditional bras and if they can make it better, I'm all for it.
As for improtance of issues, the headline of this article didn't snooker anyone here into reading an article they felt was beneath them, it didn't mention Iraq, Petreaus, etc.
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there's no need for women's sports bras? and large breasted women just shouldn't run?
doppelganger, are you kidding?
if you'd read the article closely, you'd note that the researchers said that ALL women's breasts bounce when they work out, regardless of the size, and that large breasts bounce no more than small breasts. so there's that.
as for the directive that women should find some other form of physical activity wherein their breasts DON'T bounce: this would rule out many traditionally female sports such as cheerleading, dance, more vigorous forms of yoga, step classes, gymnastics, tennis, and badminton.
it would also rule out running, pole vaulting,martial arts, triathlons, mountain biking, calisthenics, some forms of powerlifting, soccer, basketball, hockey, lacrosse, parkour, badminton, volleyball, and raquetball.
i guess we'd still be able to swim, row, lift weights, and do spin class though. wowee.
and, last:
there is plenty of demand for women's sports bras. According to Runner's World magazine, as of 2006, 40% of Americans that identify themselves as "runners" are women, as are 30% of triathlets. 36% of the athletes at UC schools are currently women, and because of title IX, roughly 50% of the high school athletes in california are women.
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Straw that broke..
Doppleganger, you angered me enough to post. How can you possibly say there is no market for a comfortable bra, sports or otherwise? I'm a large breasted woman who has suffered since I was a teen with uncomfortable, useless, and badly designed bras. So you are a male in marketing? Well, isn't that adorable? Maybe you should be a male who actually knows what they are talking about? I'm sorry, that would remove you from posting about the design or lack thereof in bras.
I want to exercise, any exercise I feel I can handle. Why should I say to myself that because of my breasts I should be restricted to light walking or ...wait that is it. I thank all the women who posted about the comfortable bras they wear, it is a great help. I challenge anyone who claims bras are just a fluff issue to let me pick an undergarment they must do without or must do with some painful poorly designed versian of. I'd be tickled to see how your marketing days go then.