Did anyone else do a double-take this morning upon reading the news about the woman who was extremely indignant about the scrutiny she received after the underwire in her full-figure bra set off the metal detector?
No, there weren’t any pictures. And yes, I thought of Jane Russell, too, but that’s probably unfair either to Nancy Kates (the lady in question) or Ms. Russell…. Anyway, back to the subject at hand… Hey! Boys! Over this way… Pay attention…
Ms. Kates said she would "talk to her family lawyer as well as the American Civil Liberties Union
and the National Organization for Women and decide how to pursue the
incident."
The ACLU I can understand. But isn’t the NOW historically opposed to bra-wearing? Or am I remembering that wrong? Maybe so.
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>Or am I remembering that wrong?
I think it just may be a mammary problem.
(doing my best Southern drawl..)
I think she has a good case. After all they didn’t target all the men who were wearing bras.
According to NOW’s Web site:
“In September 1968, New York NOW members and other women’s liberation activists picketed the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and though no bras were actually burned that day (some were thrown into a trash can), this is the event from which the myth of the bra burners evolved.”
NOW’s so-called historic opposition to bra wearing, then, ought to be understood as a symbolic feminist statement against the misogynist beauty culture that judges women on the basis of their physicality rather than their intellect.
Of course, this “opposition” to bra wearing bears no relevance to Ms. Kates’ case – in which she was unnecessarily humiliated and surveilled – effectively rendering Mr. Warthen’s patronizing barb (“But isn’t the NOW historically opposed to bra-wearing?”) moot.
Men don’t wear bras — they wear bros.
Heck, ever since civil engineer and knitting hobbyist Otto Titzling invented the durn things, brassieres have been nothing but trouble: Women complain that they can’t find one that’s comfortable and make’s ‘em look good, and men have, er, been confounded by them in more ways than one.
That poor woman could have sent a clear message by burning her bra right there at the TSA screening station, but the screeners probably took away her lighter too.
This happens to me every time I fly. Is it annoying? Yes! Usually it’s not humiliating because there’s a woman there to scan my bra and you can always joke to the guys that they should at least buy you dinner first.