No Bra, No Problem

Earlier this week I visited Helena High School, in Helena MT, to join in a movement called "No Bra, No Problem" / #nobranoproblem. The movement was started because a young woman, a senior at HHS was dress coded by administration and sent home for not wearing a bra. She was not wearing anything that should have ever caused any issues with other dress codes (too revealing, too tight, too short, etc.) and there is NOT a section or rule in the HHS handbook that says ANYTHING about females being required to wear bras or like undergarments. Female students of HHS (and other females that are not students) then created and joined a Facebook event which encouraged women to go bra-less in support of the young woman and women's rights in general. The movement was also designed to encourage women of all ages and body types to be comfortable in their own bodies and with the way they look. A local news station covered the story and within hours, several news stations across the state and country had also covered and published the story.

Now, I want you all to know that I do believe this country has come very far in just a matter of years concerning women's rights and respect for women. However, I do believe we have further to go and this instance is just one example of how and why. I understand that there are people who don't believe the same way I do and I respect that, but I would ask you all to please state your opinions and beliefs in a respectful manner, rather than bash myself and females like me.
I have heard and seen horrible things about this movement posted all over Facebook, in private messages, and other social media sites. I have seen things like, "this is why rape happens," "you're all just uneducated and ignorant," "this is just another excuse to be sluts," "why do you think women aren't taken seriously," "this is a waste of time," "there are bigger issues," and other extreme variations of these. I'm sorry, but I will not put up with that. At all, ever. SO, let me take the most common arguments and offensive comments and address them one at a time.

1. "This is why rape happens"
     False. Rape does not happen because women choose not to wear a bra. How ignorant are you? Rape happens because a lack of morals in society. Rape happens because men (and yes, sometimes women) lack humanity and are filled with simple evil that leads them to committing a heinous crime that is rape. Rape is not, and never will be, the victims fault. Rape simply is the act of FORCING an individual to have NON-CONSENSUAL sex. If rape was the victims fault and was something that simply not wearing a bra could effect, or dressing a certain way, or being around certain people, it would no longer be rape, but simply sex. Because if I acknowledged that by not wearing a bra I was asking for individuals to attempt to have sex with me, or have sex with me, it would be consensual and no longer rape.

2. "Women should wear bras. Young women should be made to wear bras as it is modest and polite, among other things"
     False. Again. Women did not typically wear bras until after the 1930s. Even then, very few did through the 1970s-2000s and yet modesty and social acceptance was well maintained by a vast majority. Bras have also been shown to be very unhealthy for women and any woman knows how uncomfortable they tend to be. What is a bra? And what does it achieve? To shape breasts? To hide nipples? Because if that is the only purpose you can offer me, than I feel that men with visible breast tissue and nipples should be required to wear a bra as well. Also, how "modest" are bras? How many of them are designed to lift and present cleavage in sexual ways? All of them. So how modest is that? People frequently enjoy getting into debates over how they can never really trust a woman's breast size because of the ways a bra can manipulate the appearance of breasts. First of all, why is that any of your business? And secondly, not wearing bras would solve this problem and you should be thanking us.

3. "You're all uneducated and ignorant"
     I am an 18 year-old, mixed-ethnicity (white/American Native) woman who was raised in a lower-middle-class family. I have worked since the age of 15, I graduated high school with a 4.0, and I am currently in college pursuing a PhD in Political Science and a Masters in Psychology. After I achieve these degrees I plan on furthering my education in Law. I belong to the Honor's Society at my college and along with being a full time student, I successfully work more than one job. I have worked for the State of Montana, and have received acknowledgments for my academic, athletic, and artistic achievements. I consider myself WELL educated and WELL informed, nowhere near uneducated or ignorant. I have spoken to many of the individuals that are closely related to the NBNP movement, and I would not consider any of these women anything close to uneducated or ignorant. I personally believe that anyone foolish enough to say that such a movement -encouraging women to uplift each other and stand up for themselves- to be full of uneducated and ignorant participants, would be beyond uneducated and ignorant and would be just down-right stupid.

4. "Why do you think women aren't taken seriously"
     I sure hope this wasn't designed to be a rhetorical question. Women aren't taken seriously because of misogynist pigs like yourself. Women aren't taken seriously because parents have not been teaching their children to respect or take women as seriously as they take men for decades. Women aren't taken seriously because we have been pushed aside and taken for granted for the better part of everyone's life and we are slowly starting to work against that. Women aren't taken seriously because we have massive political figures like Donald Trump that are set on making women less than human beings and take sport in treating them like such. Women are not taken less seriously because we refuse to wear bras, or fit into your social misjudgments about how we should behave or act simply because it'll please you. Women aren't taken less seriously because of what we don't do, but because of what society isn't capable of being, and that would be: respectful toward women.

5. "This is just another excuse to be sluts"
     You are a prime example of two things I have already covered in this post: rape and why women aren't taken seriously. Need I go further? No, but I will. If I (or any female) needed or WANTED an excuse to dress or act like a slut, BELIEVE ME, not wearing a bra wouldn't be the first place we started. There are plenty of other, and more effective ways, to be slutty and girls would actually be violating dress codes that actually exist.

6. "This is a waste of time"
     I am sorry that you believe that women's rights (which fall under people's rights) is a waste of time. I didn't realize that I am part of a communistic society... Oh wait, I'm not. If you honestly believe this is a waste of time or "below you," go find something else to do or some other piece of news or happenings to follow. I would rather have you far away from this business than being an annoying commentator. If you truly believed it was a waste of time in the first place, you would have moved along and never would have said something in the first place. So next time, just keep your mouth shut and move along.

I believe I have covered most of everything that I was most bombarded with over the past few days. If there is anything any of you would like to say or add, feel free to comment or message me. I am always up to a good discussion or friendly debate. I encourage you all to support this movement, as I see it as an excellent opportunity to stand by women as they fight for the right to be comfortable and confident in their natural bodies as well as all young individuals to see that they do not have to be bullied into rules that don't exist simply because someone says they do. If you simply cannot, I respect your decision, but ask you to not make rude, degrading, and shaming comments about myself or others. Remember, everyone is entitled to their constitutional rights, even if you do not agree with them yourself. Thank you for your time, best wishes, and until next time.