IN THE ’50S, as the ad campaign went, you dreamed you stopped traffic in your MAIDENFORM BRA. In 1969, you stopped traffic by disposing of your bra in front of hundreds of men during lunch hour. The day before the MISS AMERICA PAGEANT, which feminists had disrupted the year before with A BRA-TRASHING PROTEST, a Chicago radio station invited women to drop off their encumbrances in a basket at Marina City Plaza. Fourteen women complied; 1,500 men showed up to watch, perhaps hoping the bras were going to be removed on the spot. (They weren’t.) Not quite the message the feminist movement was shooting for, but the event certainly raised awareness of foundation garments.
– Average bra size in 1990: 34B. In 2000: 36C.
– Aircraft designer/film producer who created a seamless underwire bra for actress JANE RUSSELL in the 1940s: HOWARD HUGHES.
– Percentage of women who believe the women’s movement has made their lives better: 65. Percentage who consider themselves feminists: 27.
Sources: Tribune archives, news reports, CBS News poll (spring 2006), Bettmann/Corbis
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nwatkins@tribune.com
