H-Women Feminist Myths: Bra-Burning Discussion (June 1998) Page published by Kolt Ewing on Thursday, June 12, 2014 Feminist Myths: Bra-Burning Discussion (June 1998) Query From Alison Woo [email protected] 22 June 1998 I am doing research work for a media project on the American women's movement (1963-1978). I wanted to get some feedback on what some of the greatest myths of that time were. Myths, that on the surface, seemed to define the era, but if fact were false. The biggest myth of all was the whole bra-burning legend. Thanks and I will look forward to your responses. Responses: From Barbara Winslow [email protected] 23 June 1998 According to the NY Times reporting on the Miss America contest, Robin Morgan was quoted as to saying that women were going to burn bras. Whether or not women burned a bra in the freedom trash can, or burned their bras other places has been hotly disputed. I personally know women who were not at Atlantic City in September 1968 who swear they saw women burning bras. It's similar to the myth of anti-war protestors spitting at returning Vietnam vets. From Debbie Ann Doyle [email protected] 23 June 1998 I recently read the New York Times coverage of the 1968 Miss America protest in connection with my dissertation research, which I think shows the origins of the bra-burning myth, at least in part. Asked if the Atlantic City government had objected to the protest, Robin Morgan told a reporter the mayor had been worried about fire safety, but "We told him we wouldn't do anything dangerous--just a symbolic bra-burning." This article made clear that no fires were set, but by Sept. 28th the _Times_ refers to "bra-burnings" as if they happened. This issue has come up on the list frequently lately. I think the interesting question here is why this particular myth seems to have such resonance both to anti-feminists and to the feminists who take such pains to debunk it. Is it because it implies a total rejection of the demands of beauty? Because it implies slovenliness, being "out of control?" Do we want to counteract this myth because it seems to trivialize the goals of the Women's Movement? Does anyone have any thoughts? Citation: Kolt Ewing. Feminist Myths: Bra-Burning Discussion (June 1998). H-Women. 07-15-2015. https://networks.h-net.org/node/24029/pages/31319/feminist-myths-bra-burning-discussion-june-1998 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-Women From Maria Elena Raymond [email protected] 23 June 1998 I think, for me, the most important reason to debunk the bra-burning myth is that it isn't true. As historians we have a responsibility to keep the record straight. From Anya Jabour [email protected] 23 June 1998 Debbie Doyle has asked an excellent question. I teach U.S. women's history and I always mention the myth of bra-burning, but I had not previously examined my reasons for doing so. I think that revealing the false basis of this myth serves several purposes. First, and perhaps most importantly, it shows how biased portrayals of feminism have been from the outset. Second, from a pedagogical angle, it catches students' interest and perhaps quells more conservative students' fears. Third, it shows the organizational abilities of the radical feminists, thereby demonstrating some unexpected common ground with liberal feminists. I'll be interested to see others' thoughts on this matter. From Tom Heaney [email protected] 23 June 1998 I think Debbie Doyle's query about the myth of bra burning raises some interesting issues. I was quite surprised myself when I learned (only recently) that the bra-burning was simply a myth. (Indeed, my first reaction was that the idea this was a myth was myth itself.) I think one reason why the myth has retained such power among anti-feminists (and post feminists) is that it trivialized the demands of the women's movement. Bras appear utterly mundane, and not overt symbols of patriarchy. To those opposed to the women's movement, the idea that these female rebels felt it was necessary to "burn" their bras just "demonstrated" how out-of-touch or radical they were. There is also the comparison to the burning of draft cards by Vietnam War protestors. Burning one's draft card was not only an act of defiant protest, it was also against the law; this is what gave that particular act its power. So, the act of "burning" one's bra, something completely legal (depending on local ordinances regarding open fires anyway) seemed ridiculous. It was this farcical quality of the myth that I think resonated so strongly with those who opposed the movement or were at least apathetic to it. The image of the "bra burner" was useful to anti-feminists because it marginalized [the] feminists. The image of the "bra burner" has mutated into the more generic "radical feminist." Back in the '70s, women who wanted social/political change were concerned about speaking out for fear of being viewed as one of those "crazy bra burners." In a class I co-taught last summer, many of our female students admitted wanting reproductive freedom, the end of gender-based discrimination, equal pay, restructured gender roles, more employer flexibility on family issues, etc, but were more worried about being seen as a "radical feminist" (one older student actually said "bra burning feminist"). When asked, what was it that "radical feminists" wanted that they didn't, they weren't able to articulate it. Thus, I would argue that the myth of "bra-burning" marginalizes feminism and silences those women who might otherwise voice their support. Debunking the myth by itself isn't very useful; we have to demonstrate how such a myth functions to restrain political or social action that might be considered feminist. Citation: Kolt Ewing. Feminist Myths: Bra-Burning Discussion (June 1998). H-Women. 07-15-2015. https://networks.h-net.org/node/24029/pages/31319/feminist-myths-bra-burning-discussion-june-1998 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 2 H-Women From Gael Graham [email protected] 24 June 1998 I'm doing research on the 'burning images' of the 1960s. When you think about it, all kinds of things were burning in that era. Tom Heaney's comparison to draft-card burning is an apt one, although I would point out that although it WAS illegal to burn a draft card, this was also a symbolic gesture, since it in no way affected one's draft status and very few men were prosecuted for it. I think in part burning bras helped link radical feminism to all of the other radical groups and issues of the sixties, and contributed to the image of the era as an 'inflammatory' one. That served to inflate the 'danger' of radical feminism even as it trivialized their demands, as others have noted. Here too we might look at the social evolution of the bra from being a sexy French (ooh, the implications of that in American society) gizmo that uplifted and emphasized the breasts, it had become, by the 1950s, part of the confining, conforming 'body armour' that women wore. [A 'foundational garment,' in the revealing language of lingerie.] Rejecting the bra thus could be a rejection of a whole slew of conservative ideas about women's place. Burning an apron would have been similar, but without the shock value of the threat of women's unrestrained breasts (and hence sexuality). I'm still thinking all of this through, and hope to see more discussion. From Eve Rosenhaft [email protected] 24 June 1998 I am intrigued by the fact that most (all?) of the contributions to this thread have taken it for granted that the 'bra-burning' myth is negatively charged. It's clear that it has found currency as a basis for ridiculing feminism -- but then the ridiculing of feminists has a venerable tradition, even when they're doing entirely unridiculous things like demanding the vote. For me, as a junior member of the '68 generation (I didn't get to Atlantic City, busy organising the movement to win girls the right to wear pants to my high school), the image of burning bras has strong positive resonances. It is a reminder, first, that the feminist critique of patriarchy has always been conscious of the power of symbols and symbolic representation both in confirming and in subverting the social order; this insistence has often been the subject of ridicule or (as in the 'Political Correctness debate') demonization. I don't think the self-conscious analogy with draft-card burning is forced or trivial; as a symbolic act, both represent refusals to collaborate in other people's appropriations of one's body. Of course having to wear a bra/a corset/a gender/caste uniform in the form of highly sexualised clothing is of a different order from being sent to die on the battlefield. But I wonder whether thirty years on we have forgotten how tyrannical the dress code for girls and women was until the 1970s, what it took to resist - for example - the pressure to put a daughter into a 'training bra' at the age of 11 or so, and how much the everyday experience of women's liberation had to do with wearing what you wanted and feeling comfortable in your clothes.