Ah the long lost by-gone 90s! Give us a decade and we all wax poetic about the good old days. You made my day!

“History major” indeed.

As I said back then, I do no think the Daily Texan would have published an article that was equally demeaning to, say, a racial or religious minority.

There’s also the fact that former ‘real’ soldiers of ‘real’ wars were often contemptuous of the Viet Nam soldiers, especially when they allied themselves with the anti-war movement.

Who would it make more sense to conclude did what spitting that actually occured? Old soldiers who were conservative, devoted to the war, and might have access to military airfields? Or the hippies who knew soldiers were potential allies?

Hm.

And count me in for burning some bras. They’re designed to make your tits look bigger for male titilation, not for your comfort or support. Fuck ‘em.

I think the bra burning myth might have taken off precisely because it was such a strong symbol of feminists’ desire to attack the very foundations of culturally constructed “femininity.” It was actually a better symbol than the ones being provided by the movement. And if it was used to scare people who were heavily invested in the status quo? Well, they were right to be scared.

Or, to sum this post up in one sentence: If you’re going to throw a bra in the trash, why not go ahead and burn the motherfucker too?

This should be a band name!

Areolae of Societal Collapse, playing at the Commodore Ballroom this Saturday.

Short form: “I’m not a bra-burning feminist” = “I’m a radical feminist, not the fun kind” Accent on the NOT FUN heh. (thanks, Andrea Dworkin RIP)

I’ve often wondered if what’s so potentially threatening/offensive about women burning their bras has to do with it being an act of rebellion and high defiance of the pornulation of women. I mean, what are women anyways, if not plucked, hair-died, high-heeled, shaved, contained/contorted, embra’ed? Why, too much like a human being.

Who was it here that used to refer to feminine clothing as “drag”? Yeah, that.

In any event, you would think that there would be one photograph from the 60s or 70s of bra burnings. After all, these were supposedly demonstrations. There are plenty of photographs of lots of demonstrations of various sorts and for various causes. Yet the bra-burning image is the one in your mind, not the one that you saw, because you didn’t. The fact that you did NOT (meaning all of us did NOT) ever see such an image makes it harder, not easier, to defeat the myth, because each of us is the author of the image in our own heads.

Replace bra burning with any other favorite urban or non-urban legend: peace activists in the 60s and 70s spitting on returning soldiers from Vietnam, which occurred at most extremely rarely and probably never. Ever see a photograph, an arrest for assault? No. If you recall an visual image of such an incident, the image is one you created in your head (after descriptions, references, discussions, etc. of this urban legend.) Have you heard a returning Vet say, “I got spat on 12 hours after my transport plane landed at SFO from Japan, June 12, 1969?” No.

Everything negative written about feminists or feminist activism needs to be carefully fact checked. There is a film of women throwing the underwear into a freedom trash can in 1968, no fires at all. So there is film documentation. It is men who perpetuate this, and scared straight women who have always feared being “labeled’ lesbians.

Assume that if it is negative, it is suspect. If it is empowering, keep searching.
I am suspicious of ANYTHING men write about feminism, and I do mean anything and everything!

One of my favorite games is to watch a TV show and I am able to determine within the first 3-10 minutes whether women or men wrote the show about 95% of the time. It is not a TV show, it is about whether men are putting words into women’s mouths or vice verse. Just another aspect of undetected patriarchy at work brainwashing everyone in America. I digress here…. think of it as riffing on the old feminist theme… :-)

It’s important to know what the woman’s voice is compared to the male dominant voice.

But I believe the real fear of “bra burning” was that women really would put the make-up and fashion industry out of business. The catholic church still talks in fear about radical feminists; I don’t think women really know how close we are to overthrowing patriarchy, hense it’s hand tipping overreaction to women claiming power over their clothing and bodies.

We came so close! Scare tactics keep straight women in line, and that’s what the male progaganda machine is doing now with rap music, music videos and child porn. Think about it.

“It was the way he was dressed your honour. I thought he wanted me to assault him.”

“Yes, he had been drinking, and seemed very intoxicated. I thought he was working of the courage to ask for the beating that he really wanted. Anyway, he never withdrew his implied consent, so I thought he was into it.”