An Introduction to the Church of the Free Boobs

Cerise expands on a previous post:

The Church of the Free Boobs

This new, universal Church is hereby established to further the acceptance and appreciation of unbound, braless breasts, in all their shapes, sizes, and forms.  The need for such a denomination is abundantly clear.  Not only are braless breasts maligned in the media, but braless women are attacked verbally and physically without cause or provocation.  Natural breasts are unappreciated, mocked, and abused.  This Church will offer a refuge and support for those who suffer from this abuse, and will espouse the cause of self-acceptance to all the world. 

Sacraments of the Church

1.     The sacrament with which neophytes should first acquaint themselves is the Revelation.  This is the actual removal of a bra from previously oppressed breasts.  For many postulants, this sacrament will be needed daily, as the wearing of bras is all too common in this tarnished world.  The Revelation may be performed alone or with the assistance of another member of the Church.  Sighing and singing generally follow the Revelation, but are not actually required. 

2.     It is a widespread misconception that the Burning of Bras is the principal rite of the Church.  This is not true.  Burning was never common, but its theatrical nature attracted much notice, unfortunately eclipsing many of the other activities of the Church.  Today this ritual is primarily observed for its historical significance, in honor or our courageous foremothers.  The Burning of Bras should only be performed carefully, with due regard for safety and environmental correctness, and on rare occasions.  Burning is not forbidden, but is not encouraged.  Many bras can be recycled, either to perform their original function or to serve other purposes (slingshots, kitten hammocks, skullcaps, etc.)  Paper effigies of bras may be burnt to prevent waste and avoid expense. 

3.     One of the highest sacraments of this Church is celebrated in dance.  Dance has long been associated with the sacred feminine and with the expression of ecstatic emotion.  As such, it is particularly suited to the rituals of our Church.  The particular sacrament performed during the liturgical dance is sometimes called the Shoulder Shimmy.  Although the sacrament appears to be centered on the breasts, the dancer will soon learn that the movement begins with the shoulders and is then divinely manifested in the breasts.  It is not necessary for this sacrament to be performed in the nude, although bralessness is encouraged. 

4.     Another sacrament dear to the maternal, nurturing heart of this Church is often maligned and attacked by the less enlightened.  This sacrament is the nursing of a child.  For obvious reasons, some members of the Church may never have the opportunity to perform this sacrament, but they can support and assist in the ritual by such actions as fetching drinks and pillows for the celebrant.  This sacrament may be performed in any and all places where there is a nursing mother and child present, and is protected by law.  Do not allow anyone to intimidate you or others in the celebration of this sacrament!  It is to be embraced and respected, not hidden.    

5.     A less well-known, but no less sacred, ritual is generally performed in private rather than public.  This is the rite of Self-Acceptance.  It varies with the needs of the individual celebrant, but it may include going naked, looking in the mirror, and positive self-talk.  Wearing perfume, jewelry and body paint may enhance the experience.  The neophyte is encouraged to embrace this ritual as the first step toward enlightened freedom. 

Clarifications

Breasts are defined as the area on the frontal side of the ribs.  There is no limitation on gender, sex, or size.  All breasts are welcome in this church, male or female, and all are equally beautiful.  No breasts are privileged above any others. 

The wearing of bras is not forbidden by the Church.  However, the requirement that bras be worn is anathema to the Church and violates the very principles upon which it is founded.  If breasts of all shapes and sizes are accepted as equal, then perky, firm, or motionless breasts are in no way to be favored over saggy, jiggly, or braless breasts.  It is a firm belief of this church that what you wear under your clothes is a personal decision and must remain your choice.  That choice is far more important than any shred of lace or scrap of elastic. 

It is important to remember that many members of the human race are not as enlightened as the members of our Faith.  Their ignorance should be met with patient forbearance.  For instance, if an ill-informed woman maligns the state of her own breasts, she might benefit from a patient statement of the core beliefs of this Church, but she should not be attacked just because she is not as far along the path to Enlightenment as some others might be.  Of course, those who attempt to interfere with the lawful and proper practice of any religious beliefs, including those of this Church, should be either ignored, scolded, or sued, as appropriate.  The Church does not encourage physical violence.  Two wrongs do not make a right, and winning a large settlement is so much more satisfying, anyway. 

Bras Empowering Women

Hi, everyone!

Earlier one of my co-authors here wrote about bras, and I want to do that today with a twist: bras that can help women.

Bras Donated to Free the Girls

I'm specifically referring to the Free the Girls Foundation, which has a program that collects gently-used bras and sends them to organizations where their sales can help empower survivors of the worldwide "illegal sex trade," sometimes called "white slavery."  Local collections sites for this project were the topic of a front-page article in my local newspaper two weeks ago. Currently there are two drop sites in my town for this, so on Tuesday, August 13, 2013, I dropped off three "not even worn more than once" fancy bras.  Just because companies can't seem to sell bras that aren't a standard size, so I'm constantly having problems finding them for myself, doesn't mean the bras can't help someone else, right?

As I understand it, this project, featured on a CNN three-part series about the "illegal slave" trade, employs survivors of the "illegal sex trade" and helps them earn an income while engaging in business where they primarily, if not exclusively, interact with other women.  Why is this important?

To understand that, we have to think about economics, illegal sex trafficking, abuse, and women. I don't want to make this a huge post, so let me just write out a few ideas and share a few facts about these issues.  At the bottom of this essay I'll list online resources I consulted for you to look at further.  Slavery is also a subject I've studied throughout human history, and for that background information the sources would fill a book, so please just bear with my basic statements.

You've probably heard the headlines that right now in 2013 there are more people held in slavery than at any other time in human history.  There is a big problem with this statement. There are more people held/doing/involved/almost any verb you want right now than in any other time in human history, simply because the planet has a much higher population than at any other time in human history.  While factually true in terms of raw numbers, the statement is misleading.  What about percentage of the population?  That involves the very tricky issue of calculating not just populations but parts of populations in the past.  It is better to simply say that even though legal slavery is no longer recognized in most of the world, illegal slavery is still going on.

What is "illegal slavery?"  Slavery is a condition by which a human being is reduced to the status of an object or animal that can be bought and sold.  Note that it does not require social or legal backing, but throughout most of human history slavery was legally and socially promoted — not merely accepted, but promoted.  So "illegal slavery" is merely slavery that continues to exist in a society that has outlawed it.

This creates several problems that you might not think about.  When legal, when socially accepted/promoted, slavery has built-in enforcement, which has both negatives and positives for the owners and the slaves. Yup, I just typed that ... both negatives and positives for the owners and the slaves. What "illegal slavery" lacks are the open enforcement methods that everyone knows about and can use, whether it is a requirement for how much a seller needs to reveal to a potential buyer, to what is considered cruel treatment of slaves, to a slave's right to ask for asylum in a church, to the regulations involved in freeing someone and integrating them into the society at large.  When someone today is rescued from "illegal slavery," we often do not know how to integrate them back into society, if they were ever part of society to begin with.  Similarly, those who are found guilty of illegally enslaving another live their lives either in the shadows, creating false stories about their maids or field workers, and face the choice of jail or running away before they are caught.  They have very little incentive to treat those they enslave as much more than a disposable tool, because the illegal slave is really a piece of evidence to be used against them.

Let me be clear: I am not supporting slavery, merely pointing out that "illegal slavery" lacks many of the social and legal protections and restrictions for the enslaved, the traders, and the owners.

Another headline you may have read is that illegal slavery is about sex trafficking or forced prostitution in which the victims are women and girls.  This is a flashy headline, and it's certainly the one that Free the Girls is focused on, but it is far from the full picture.  While the child or teen girl being forced to service clients in the back room of seedy bars is a heart-rending image, many illegal slaves are boys and men, too, and many, many of them do basic labor or work as domestic staff.   Claims of percentages that do any particular type of labor should be viewed with a pound of salt, because "illegal" means the true numbers must be hidden for the trade to survive.  But it may also be misleading to assume that one type of work does not bleed over into other types of work for the enslaved.   A maid tricked into leaving her country may also be forced to perform sexually, or the man picking crops in a field may have to get extra food through sex acts.  Sadly, we may best understand illegal slavery as creating objects from people, and there are no limits to how an object may be used.

How do people end up illegal slaves?  There seem to be three primary methods.

The first is trickery — they believe they have a job, and then it turns out they signed a contract that they didn't fully understand, or they have a debt but have been offered a chance to "work it off."  In these cases the company or individual owning them rigs the system so that they have a hard time working off the debt or they are guarded heavily, their passports, wallets, and other means of independence taken away.  In a way this is a more extreme form of the "company town," which operated and still happens quite legally around the world.  When you need money to survive, you may have to do whatever you think is necessary, and people will take advantage of you if they can.

The second is family sale — it is not uncommon for parents to sell children, either for debt or for what they believe is job training.  Now we might say this is trickery, like the first method I mention; however, I also know that stories of "rescued" children given back to parents often end up resold.  To say that the parents or family are unaware seems difficult to believe in many cases.  Of course, once you are a child slave the role models that you have for what your life can be like are very limited, and it is likely easier to keep someone enslaved if they were acquired as a child.  Truly insidious, and very much like the generational slave systems of the past around the world.

The third method is straight-up kidnapping or forced co-dependence — this can involve drugs, beating, forms of brainwashing, and lies about families being dead or having sold the victim.  This seems to be the most popular "media" version of illegal slavery, though it can paint the victim as a bad person who made poor choices, versus the child slave or the tricked slave who just wanted to make a living.

In none of these cases is the survivor of illegal slavery to blame for their treatment.  Those of us looking at this from the outside may like to think we could see through the lies or not get caught up with "those sorts of people," or that our families love us enough to take care of us.  Slavery has been around for thousands of years, and the methods and means of enslavement are tested over and over, proven to work time and again.  That you are not an illegal slave may be a matter of luck more than a matter of how clever and loved you are.

So I've been rambling, and I apologize. Slavery, illegal or not, is a huge topic, and I'm certain I'll return to it again and again.  Let's get back to the connection between bras and the "illegal slave trade."

Free the Girls is one organization trying to fight against the very profitable and widespread "illegal slave trade" by using bras, an item that was very likely controlled by their illegal owners. Think about it.  Most of the survivors they held were used in the sex trade and even if they had other jobs we know that it is very likely they were also exploited sexually.  In many, many societies, the breast and anything associated with is often sexualized or connected to the woman's ability to reproduce. In both cases women's bodies are often subject to the control of men either directly or through the desire to seek their approval. If you fall victim to the "illegal slave trade" you are even more controlled and your body ceases to be under your ownership.  I don't know if Free the Girls is making this connection but I find it very powerful that they are helping women reclaim their bodies and decide what they wear in this way.

If you have some extra bras and want to help empower some of the female survivors of it, look them up and see if there is a drop-off spot in your town.  Please do check the resources below, because they all offer other ways to help and more specifics you might find useful, if horrifying.

1: Free the Girls
2: NJ.com article
3: NY Times Bits article
4: The Guardian article
5: Pravda article

Free the Boobs!

Cerise writes:  

            It has been over ninety degrees this week, so I feel this post is especially timely.  I won’t mince words:  I hate bras.  Now, I don’t have a problem if you want to wear them, collect them, or decorate them.  I just don’t want to wear one.  And some people have a big problem with that.  Especially since I am a 46 DD.  But, you see, I feel very strongly that I should be free to go braless, regardless of my size and shape. 

            Why would anyone else care whether or not I wear a bra?  I think I missed the day in school where they explained why women’s bodies should be subject to the control of others.  Because I totally don’t see why that should be the case.  Now, I admit, going braless is not as big a deal as, for example, being able to choose birth control, but I do think it is symptomatic of some rather awful things going on in our society. 

            One of these awful things is called “slut shaming.”  This is the pressure put on women to tamp down their sexuality, shut their mouths, and generally conform to the patriarchy.  If you embrace your sexuality, speak your mind, or rebel against traditional gender roles, you must be a slut.  And, apparently, being a slut is bad.  It means you deserve to be raped, beaten, or even murdered.  That you asked for it.  This slut shaming says “Well, of course she was raped.  She was alone.  In a bad neighborhood.  And she was dressed sexy.”  WTF?!?  I think a woman should be able to saunter down a dark alley at 2 am stark naked and the only thing anyone should say to her is, possibly, “Are you cold?  Would you like to borrow my jacket?”  Slut shaming not only denies women the right to flaunt their sexuality, it also robs them of their voice.  It says that if you are a slut, you don’t deserve to be heard. 

            So, does skipping the bra make you a slut?  Silly me, I think that how you dress has nothing to do with your sexual behavior.  I think they are two totally different things.  I think that they are both NO ONE ELSE’S BUSINESS.  And, really, even if going without a bra did make you a slut, who cares?  If you want to be sexually promiscuous with other consenting adults, that’s none of my business.  If you think that running around with my boobs free makes me a slut, I really don’t care.  That is a matter for me and my sexual partners. 

Oh, you think that my braless state implies that I am sexually available to you?  Um, no.  If you are the type of person who would think less of me because of my underwear choices, then I really don’t think I would ever be interested in engaging in any type of sexual activity with you.  No, not even if you look like George Clooney or Olivia Wilde.  You are definitely not my type, sweetheart. 

Equal Opportunity Gratuitousness, Olivia Wilde

Gratuitous George Clooney Picture

Perhaps you think my husband should tell me to cover myself?  Or that he might be embarrassed by my boob bouncing ways?  Allow me to digress with a little story.  A friend of mine wears hijab, the head scarf worn by some Muslim women.  She has worn it for years and has an assortment of cute, fashionable scarves to match various outfits.  Her husband gently suggested that, at least while they lived in the US for grad school, she might consider skipping the head scarf.  She was nonplused and asked him why.  He said that people might think he was oppressing her and that her choice to cover her head might make him look bad.  She snorted at him and gave him her unconditional answer:  “My head, my business.”  Being a smart man, he never brought up the matter again.  And, yes, my husband is also a smart man and he would never try to tell me how to dress.

Won’t men be distracted, though?  Even uncomfortably aroused, if they have to see my braless breasts?  How will they take me seriously at work, or even pay any attention to anything I have to say, if my breasts are just hanging out there, flaunting themselves?  Well, I do wear a shirt, for crying out loud.  It’s not as if the actual bare flesh is showing.  Also, breasts do not exist for the visual consumption and enjoyment of men.  Last time I checked, they were baby feeding devices.  The sexualization of the breast is just something our culture teaches.  If thinking of breasts as sexy is something you can learn, then you can just bloody well unlearn it. Or at least learn to contain your wildly rampaging sexual thoughts in the presence of my braless mammary glands. 

But they are so distracting, those oversized sweat glands.  Yeah, so is parsley stuck between someone’s teeth.  Or blue hair.  Or really cute skull-shaped rhinestone earrings.  But you know what?  Get over it.  They’re just tits.  Half of the world’s population has them. They’re everywhere!  Can’t you learn to think about something else?  Like, just maybe, what I am saying to you?  If you can’t, it really is your problem and not mine.   If you cannot control your body (and your brain), you have a serious problem.  Do you pounce on every bacon cheeseburger that goes by, even if it belongs to someone else?  Do you get out of your car and punch the driver who cut you off in traffic?  Do you scream at the radio when you disagree with the political commentary?  (Oh, wait, I do that sometimes.  Bad example.)  No, you control yourself.  You rein in your id and suck it up.  Because you are an adult human being. 

If it is my job to hide everything that might cause some man, somewhere, to think about sex, I am going to need to buy a tent.  Should I cover my ankles because some men have a thing for that body part?  Or maybe I should wear a veil to hide my lips, which are a much more erotic body part than breasts?  Or cover my hands?  Really?  Because that argument leads to a slippery slope that ends in wearing a burka.  And, even then, some man somewhere will find something to be aroused by.  There is a long tradition of poetry in the Arab world that glorifies things like a woman’s graceful walk, her delicate footprints, the whiff of her perfume—all things that are exposed by even the most concealing clothing.  Oh, perhaps I should just stay indoors, where no man might see me or even smell me, so I don’t risk arousing a man.  Otherwise, I am just asking to be raped.  Wait, where is the SarcMark on this keyboard? 

Disclaimer:  I don’t really think that all men have a problem with braless, outspoken women.  I hold up the generic “men” because they are cited by those who think I should wear a bra.  What will “men” think of you?  How will “men” handle it?   These imaginary ravening beasts fortunately do not represent most males of my acquaintance.  Thank heavens. 

Next time it is my turn to post, I plan to address droopy boobs and public breast feeding.  No, all my posts will not be about tits, I promise.