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HOW THE BREAST WAS WON
You've heard how this act upset some of the boyz, but why would it upset a woman enough to whine out a column of complaint? Mona Charen, right wing columnist and mouthpiece of the "Rychus Aunties" (Anti-choice, Anti-woman etc.) complained in a column entitled, "2 cheers for women's soccer -- sort of." She not only didn't get it; she didn't get that she didn't get it. Moan on, Mona.
After complimenting Brandi on her skills, she wrote, "Three cheers for Chastain? No, perhaps only two. Here's why. Though she showed herself a great athlete, and certainly made the feminists in the TV audience swoon, she seems to have some trouble sorting out what it means to be a feminine, female athlete.
'Gappers can't resist a "We told you so." Right from the pen of a mainstream columnist, the F-word strikes again, this time with a triple body slam. Right out of a course called, How To Discredit 403: Give a movement a name and reputation, and then insist that they live up to it. It mandates that all those so named and everything they do can be tarred with the same brush because the dictionary and the media are with the Monas of this world.
Lucky for us there are the Lisa Lindahls IN this world. In 1977 Lisa and her sister were discussing their jogging and "that uncomfortable bouncing" that accompanied it. They joked about the need for a woman to have something like a man's jockstrap and laughed at the image it put in their heads. Lisa soon forgot about the jockstrap reference.
Later, she thought that creating a special jogging bra wasn't such a silly idea. She drew some sketches and enlisted the help of a friend, Polly Smith, a childhood friend and costume designer. Together they designed and sewed several unsuccessful prototypes.
A suggestion from Lisa's husband, made in jest, produced a breakthrough. "Why not use a jockstrap," he asked her. Males, accustomed to the irritation of jiggling and bouncing appendages, had long ago been commercially provided with the solution to their problem.
As Lisa looked at the article he held out to her, she remembered the conversation with her sister. She took the jockstrap, turned it upside down and pulled it over her head. The cup embraced her breast. She looked at Polly and said, "You know, add another cup and rearrange the straps, and this may work." At this point, Hinda Schreiber joined them and was given the task of buying two jockstraps.
These were cut in half and sewed back together in the configuration they had designed. The test run was encouraging as to the mechanics of their creation (bounce was controlled!), however the fabric and elastic was too rough and chafed. They settled on poly/cotton/lycra using different elastics and threads.
Following successful test jogs -- the Jogbra was born. Now Hinda became an even more important teammate. Her family loaned the women start-up money to commercially produce their creation, and she also got the product manufactured.
There is much more to the story of this invention and these women. We do know that their company flourished and that they ultimately sold it. Their "Jogbra" became the "Sportsbra" of today.
Lisa writes, "Twenty-two years ago my vision was to make exercising more comfortable -- and therefore more accessible and inviting -- for myself and other women. Those long hours of running through Burlington, Vermont's hill section inspired a breakthrough for aspiring women athletes everywhere. I am proud of the influence the existence of sports bras exerted, and the influence that it has had on women's sports. To Brandi Chastain and all her teammates I'd like to say: "Well done!"
Most
of us would gratefully say, "Well done to you too, Lisa. A thousand,
thousand cheers to you and your team for your invention, and to Brandi
and her team for their excellent demonstration of it. Truly, you
all have contributed much to the continuing self-definition of women --
women who are no longer destined to be the pale-lady clones of a bible
belt mentality.
As for the columnist and her ilk with their sour, disapproving countenances, we quote a line from a subscriber, Susan, that seems apropos: "Well-behaved women rarely make history!"
:-( Jesuit-run Boston College has terminated Professor Mary Daly. She has filed a lawsuit alleging unfair removal. You may e-mail the president: leahy@bc.edu
[ ! ] A Jim Borgman cartoon shows a woman with three patches on her arm explaining them to another woman. "This patch keeps me from smoking... this patch keeps me from getting pregnant... and this patch keeps me from committing to George W. Bush."
1999-032
Copyright 1999 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: twanda@ConnRiver.net.
G e n d e r G a p p e r s T M
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