Myth 7) Women burnt their bras in the 1960s and 70s
It’s a powerful image: fired up female protesters burning their bras as part of a demonstration against the oppressive influence of modern beauty culture. It would have been symbolically fitting too: setting alight an increasingly sexualized item of lingerie, an item that had come to embody the sexual objectification of women; and what’s more, doing it outside the Miss America Pageant of 1969 (an event misleadingly held in 1968). Unfortunately, however, it never happened.
There are a number of reasons why the bra-burning myth came into being. One was the conflation of draft card burning in protest against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and early 70s and of women throwing their bras—and other objectifying items like “Playboy” magazines and hair curlers—into garbage cans. Another was the misunderstanding (or misrepresentation) of contemporary news stories. A New York Times article, written by Robin Morgan and published on September 8, 1968, described a “symbolic bra-burning” in an effort to dispel rumors of destructive or vandalistic acts (the key word being “symbolic”).
Then there was another piece. Given the title “Bra Burners and Miss America,” it was written by Lindsy Van Gelder and published after the event in the New York Post. The article actually set out a comparison between the burning of draft cards in protest of the war and the Miss America protest. But people paid more attention to the title than the content. And alas, the myth was solidified.
The reason the myth has stuck is slightly more complicated. Perpetuating the myth that women were militantly burning their bras was in the interest of groups who wanted to trivialize their cause. Focussing on the theatrics of the feminist movement took attention away from the real, political issues: equal pay, the repeal (or end of) oppressive reproductive legislation, more readily available help with childcare etc.
Ironically, going braless in the 1970s was something of a catch 22 for many feminists. While liberating a new generation of women from the discomfort of their brassieres, it also stimulated a new sexual excitement in men who saw their newfound mammary emancipation as a welcome change from the cone-shaped brassieres of the 50s and 60s. Ultimately, the bra-burning myth tells us less about the militancy of feminist movements at the time than it does about the enduring potency of collective, false, and often convenient memories.