TO BRA ORNOT TO BRA
Art by Max Weinstein
Before the invention of silk, paper money, the number zero and gunpowder, one important human innovation was already old news: the bra.
In 2025, some people consider bras a thing of the past, or a restriction imposed by a sexist society. Others use them as a tool to find gender euphoria or feel comfortable during a workout. With movements like Free the Nipple and pop culture moments like Kim Kardashian’s Skims Nipple Bra—a bra with fake nipples attached to it— bras are a controversial topic.
For Syracuse University senior Alaina Keipert, a self-proclaimed “annoyingly big feminist,” bras are not worth the hassle. She stopped wearing bras at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and never started wearing them again.
“They should just be a tool. It should just be a clothing item, like, ‘oh, I'm more comfortable when I wear this’ versus when I don’t,” Keipert said. “Or an accessory like a belt. Like, ‘today I want to wear a belt because it matches my outfit.’”
Keipert said bras make sense as a useful way for plus-size women to feel comfortable, or for women with large breasts to work out in peace, but she described the expectation to wear bras as a symptom of the patriarchy. Men, even men with large chests, can go shirtless in public, while women can’t.
“We should stop forcing it into people's heads,” Keipert said, “that you have to wear a bra and that you can't go in public without one.”
However, bras aren’t all bad. Beyond functionality, some people make wearing them fun—a creative, sexy way to express their personal style or take charge of their sexuality.
For SU senior Jada Williams, bras are both a tool and an expression of femininity. As the president of the Syracuse Fashion and Design Society (FADS), and as an intern with fashion designer Elena Velez, she worked on designs that use bras in new, creative ways.
Fashion designers use mannequins called “forms” to fit their pieces to specific models’ bodies. Oftentimes, when a model’s body does not match the form, they adhere bras to the form and stuff them to create a more accurate shape. This summer, Williams used this technique for a wedding dress design with Velez.
Williams said Mean Girls was the first idea that came to mind when she thought of bras as personal style. The scene where the main characters cut holes out of their shirts and showed their bras— while meant to be funny—expressed femininity and female power, Williams said.
“People are getting so creative with bras,” Williams said. “I mean, skirts out of bras, I've seen a bra skirt before, people cutting up bras and putting the padding in a corset, I've seen that before. It's so many different things that people are doing with bras.”
Williams said bras don’t need to be scary. They can be a symbol of modernity and show that women have the power to defy the patriarchy through style experimentation. As bras continue to evolve, they take on new roles and significance. Some transmasculine people wear sports bras as makeshift binders to make their chests flatter, and new items like push-up pasties go viral online every week.
The beauty of bras in the 21st century is that we can take them or leave them. Whether you’ve never bought a bra in your life or you have an extensive lingerie collection, there is no wrong way to be a bra-abiding citizen.