Free the Nipple

Why are women on social media intentionally letting their nips slip? Cristen and Caroline discuss the history and celebrity-fueled rise of the Free the Nipple movement and what bare nipples have to do with gender equality.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff Mom Never Told You from how Supports
dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Carolina,
I'm person. We're continuing boog Week this week with Free
the Nipple. We're looking at the Free the Nipple movement.
It's also a movie, it's a hashtag. It's really like
a multi media experience, including the ones on your chest.

(00:26):
You have them too, I have nipples. Yeah, Yeah, it
turns out that we all do and that they are
currently your nipples are swept up in a political movement
known as Free the Nipple. And this is we're jumping off,
of course, from Monday's episode on toplessness and the legalities

(00:47):
and the rules and regulations in our country sort of
around the world too, when it comes to women bearing
their breasts and the implications of that. Yeah, because, as
we talked about more in depth in our episode why
Can't Women Go topless? Breast did have a big moment
in Western fashion because, especially in the mid to late

(01:13):
seventeenth century and eighteenth century, very low cut dresses were
in vogue for women. Um some might even let a
little bit of their nips slip, and because of that,
nipple rouge was a thing and it did not signify
that you were some kind of prostitute, but rather you

(01:33):
were a high class woman. Well yeah, but I mean
it was part of pop culture, and just the way
that pop culture trickles down today, it was the same
thing all the way back then. Yes, you had queens
and ladies at court wearing these incredibly low cut dresses,
but you also had prostitute sporting the fashion. And just
because it didn't necessarily symbolize sexiness, and of course, I

(01:59):
mean exposed your nipple didn't necessarily indicate sexiness or sexuality,
it doesn't mean they weren't part of the sex cells ethos.
And I thought this was really interesting. I've never read
about this before, that there were woodcut images of women
with bare breasts that appeared on ballad sheets to illustrate
the text as a selling point. So even though nipples, yeah,

(02:20):
they weren't a big deal, it was like maybe if
you were wore a miniskirt. Now it's not like a
huge deal, but they were still considered attractive enough to
be part of a sales pitch when trying to sell
these ballad sheets. So in this era, exposed nipples could
suggest high class uh prostitution. Chastity, sexiness, maternity, and love. Yeah,

(02:43):
that makes that's it's so clear cut, it's so clear cut. Yeah,
I'm really glad we're having this easy, breezy conversation. But yeah,
I mean, if you look at art from from back
in that era, I mean, a woman could have her
breast exposed to symbolize here, she's a mother, she's taking
care of these children, but it could also be provocative
and sexy too, just oh my god, just the same

(03:04):
way that women are complicated beings in real life. So
if we fast forward quite a bit from the eighteenth
century to today, there's a lot of conversation and protests
and activism and social media ing going on around female
nipples in particular, and it runs the gamut from people

(03:25):
like the radical feminist group found it in Ukraine called Femine,
which uses topless protesting to call out not only the
idea of the male gays, but more specifically to try
to confront and take down repressive regimes and religion. But

(03:45):
then you also have the less intrusive in a way
they're they're certainly not running up and trying to attack
the pope like Femine. You have hashtag free the nipple,
which is a viral social media hashtag which is calling
for female nipples specifically and brass to be normalized. Yeah,

(04:09):
I mean, I think that's great. We talked a lot
about normalizing the female body, specifically the female breasts in
our episode on toplessness, and I don't think that's off
the mark. I think that's a good idea. But there
is something about how very social media cool girl viral
this free the Nipple movement is that has lent itself,

(04:29):
I think, to being criticized by all of the think
piece writers out there, especially when a lot of the
proponents of it are celebrities. It reminds me, Caroline of
the Period Pride podcast, where a lot of that is
social media driven, of um intentionally posting photos on Instagram

(04:51):
suggesting or outright showing menstrual blood, only to have it
taken down and then start a conversation that way. It's
the same thing, only instead of used champons, we have
unused nipples. Unused nipples. I mean, it's not like we're
not used to seeing nipples to a certain degree. I

(05:12):
mean we're certainly okay with them in in fashion, for instance.
I mean, it's not uncommon to open a fashion magazine
and see both editorial content and ads featuring women's boobs.
But it's almost the same attitude. It made me think
of how in our Toplessness episode we talked about how
it's okay for men to go into a strip club

(05:35):
willingly or women know and pay to see topless women. Like,
that's okay legally, where everyone's comfortable with that, But the
minute that woman walks outside and her boobs are out
on the street, yea she and she leaves to go
take a smoke break. It just doesn't put on a shirt.
But I like how boobs out on the street makes
me think, like her boobs and their high heels just

(05:57):
like walking along the booth, need a break, I got
to get some air. But it's kind of the same
concept almost that like, and we're so accustomed to seeing
that in high fashion. We're so accustomed to seeing nipples
being out all aggressive and out there rouged, even in
our fashion magazines. But it's that's where we expect to

(06:19):
see them. We don't expect to see nipples necessarily outside
in the real world or on social media. So we
see it in the high culture and the low culture.
But what about in between. Well, because of celebrity culture,
we have been seeing them more on red carpets. I mean,

(06:40):
Rihanna really in terms of celebrities, Rihanna has I mean
freed her nipples. I mean, she's kind of led the
charge in terms of freeing the nipple because she just
doesn't care and kind of an amazing way. Um. She
used to actually post pretty niptastic photos on Instagram all
the time until Instagram removed so many of her photos.
She was finally like, well, screw you, Instagram, I'm gonna

(07:02):
be leave. And then famously in she arrived at the
cfd A Awards and accustom made Adam Salman gown that
showed everything. It was basically like, uh, a crystal chain
mail dress. It was just like a gem encrusted mesh

(07:25):
dress and she she was wearing like a flesh toned
g string, but she had her nipples out and Vogue
was like, oh wow, you know, or have nipples completely
lost their shock value? We weren't even looking at them.
We swear we were looking at the dress and the
dress was amazing. I mean it's true. If you do
look at images of her in that bedazzled dress, there's
so much going on in the detailing of the dress

(07:48):
that once you get to her ariel and you're like, oh, snipples, Okay,
now let's look more of these gems. Yeah, exactly, there's
something shiny. It's so distracting and over the fashion spot.
Also in June, the writer points out that fall fashion
shows saw a quote actual nipple trend and that all

(08:10):
of the sheer tops led to a nipple extravagance, nipple extravaganza. Um.
She She says that Kendall Jenner, of all people, normalized
the nip extravaganza. She says that when Kendall made her
now infamous breast revealing New York Fashion Week debut on

(08:31):
the catwalk at Mark Jacobs Runway, boobs were here to stay.
But we we gotta give a quick throwback though to
the nineteen four Mono Kenny. I mean really Rudy Gernreich,
who designed the monno Keny and also the thong um
and you can learn more about that and the stuff
I never told you video or thongs. Anti feminists um

(08:53):
tried to make the Mono Keny happen because of a
very similar free the nipple etho, saying lady split your
free form flow here there. It's basically a brief with
tiny suspenders to to hold it up. Um, but the
suspenders go between your boobs. And he was raised in

(09:15):
more of a German nudist culture, so you can imagine
it did not go well in the United States. But
I was also fascinated to learn a mid all this
research speaking of Germany, that it's the East Germans who
were all like nudity, it's cool, it's Wednesday, let's get naked,
take off your top. And it's the West Germans who
are who are a little more scandalized by it. But

(09:37):
I can only imagine that Americans are even more scandalized
than any Germans by this. I mean we, oh yeah,
Americans are amazing fruits when it comes to some exposed nipple.
Oh yeah. We we believe that our entire community and
our community standards will somehow crumble if a woman's nipp

(10:00):
look at us, if they are pointed in our general direction,
what do they wink at you? Yeah? I know that's terrifying. Um,
that is terrifying if if a nipple were to wink
at you. But hey, in the last episode we talked
about them screaming. So you know, we're just on a
role hysterical nipples, like all of all stuff I've never
told you in in one piece of anatomy. Um. So

(10:24):
there is Free the Nipple, though, is not only a hashtag,
but it's also a movement, Caroline. It is a movement,
and it's not a movement of anthropomorphize boobs and high
heels and down the street. Um yeah. Actress Lena Esco
actually launched the hashtag free the Nipple movement a couple
of years ago, um, which she says is meant to

(10:47):
be playful but controversial. She says, there's no way the
wheels would be turning unless something was going to spark it,
something controversial, and that was Free the Nipples. So it
starts with a movie. She back in twenty ten, got
the idea for a Free the Nipple movie, got financing
in and she wrote, directed, produced, and start in the film,

(11:07):
which is a political comedy, not a documentary as I
initially thought, which came out in December. And it seems
like it's around this time that like the whole free
the Nipple thing really explodes. Yeah, because I've been the
most exposed to free the nipple on social media as
confronting Instagram's policies regarding breastfeeding or any kind of female

(11:33):
nipple exposure. Facebook, Twitter the same thing, and social media wise,
it does seem like images of breastfeeding paved the way
for this more general call to free the nipple, because
I remember, I mean for a number of years now
a Facebook and Instagram have since updated their policies. But

(11:53):
when you would have the story go viral about the
mom who had a really sweet photo taken of her
baby breastfeeding, and she would post it somewhere for everyone
to see in comment and like, and then Instagram or
Facebook would take it off for being inappropriate, and so
that really started a conversation which has since though broadened. Yeah,

(12:15):
I mean, if ESCO's name sounds familiar, it could also
be because in summer, before the movie came out, she
actually created a p s A called Everybody has Got
to Eat in an effort to normalize breastfeeding in public,
and it was part of an effort to get Facebook
to drop its breastfeeding photo ban. And on the Free

(12:35):
the Nipple website it does mention breastfeeding. They write the
issues where addressing or equal rights for men and women,
a more balanced system of censorship and legal rights for
all women to breastfeed in public. It's the very simple
idea that women should not be shamed for breastfeeding their kids.
And that's certainly nothing new either. I mean, the ability

(12:58):
to breastfeed in public with out censure or even worse
risk of arrest or fines is something that groups like
l J League, for instance, have been advocating for since
the nineteen fifties, which is wild when you think about
how long nipples in public have been, you know, such
a hot topic. Yeah, and writing about that hot topic

(13:21):
about why breastfeeding might skip some people out. Jamiel Goldenberg
and Tommy and Roberts wrote a chapter in the book
Handbook of Experimental Existential Psychology that for the nipples secrete
milk and our hints reminders of our creaturely mammalian nature. Um,
so it's they're they're basically writing that it creates this

(13:43):
taboo in society that like, we're reminded that women's boobs
aren't just there for men's sexual pleasure. So nipples freak
us out because they're reminders that we're all animals. Is
that what's going on humans are a weird Caroline, so
weird when I want to just go take a nap.

(14:04):
But I mean, it's this, it's this greater conversation about
women's bodies and women having control over their own bodies
and not being freaking thrown in jail or arrested or
penalized for things like breastfeeding or going topless. That's behind
Esco and other people's push for the movie because the
film's premise, which she says was inspired by true events.

(14:28):
They basically follow a group of young women who take
to the streets of New York City topless to protest
the archaic censorship laws of the United States, and they
say that it explores the contradictions in our media dominated
society where acts of violence and killing or glorified while
images of a woman's body are censored, so trying to

(14:49):
point out that people consider nipples almost to be more
obscene than bloody, gory killing and case in point, During
the filming of Free Then Nipple, New York City police
threatened to shut down production, so instead of getting permits
for the second half of the movie, she shot when
she could, and so when the scene called for a

(15:11):
topless protest, in public. She held an actual topless protest
in public, because female toplessness in public is legal in
New York State, and so the cops cannot rust them.
So this is like an endless chain of art imitating life,
imitating art imitating life. Well, because the police mistakenly thought
that they were walking around topless to be intentionally prurient, right,

(15:37):
because when people see naked female breast they think sex, right, Well,
unless there's a baby attached to that breast, and then
they think sex. Oh no, wait, that's breastfeeding. Yeah, in
which case you should go hide yourself because you're an animal. Yeah,
because you're uncomfortable because you might still think sex. But
then you're also like, oh no, maternity, Oh no, what

(16:00):
are we really animals? Right? And then yeah, and then
your your brain explodes. Yeah, But I do think it's
interesting that they are these women are being sort of
hassled by the police in New York, whether their protest
was for the movie or whether it was an actual
protest stage by topless women. Because in a paper that
we talked about a lot in our first episode by

(16:21):
Rena Glazer about sort of the legal issues surrounding women
going topless, Um, there was one particular case where there
were some women in New York who, as part of
a protest of unequal regulations of men's chests versus women's,
they went to this kind of secluded New York City
park almost sort of baiting the police to arrest them

(16:41):
in any way, to gloss over a whole lot of
legal and judicial wrangling. Uh, the legal stuff dragged on
for years and years, and on one of the appeals,
the court basically said, hey, these women are cool because
they were protesting. They're not just like aimlessly top lists.
They were using their chests as part of speech almost,

(17:06):
and so they were protected under the First Amendment. And meanwhile,
the women are tearing their hair out, going, no, we
don't want just women who are protesting while topless to
be protected. We wanted to be okay for any woman
to have her nips out, which is a cause that
celebrities have now taken up, and we're going to talk
about that when we come right back from a quick break. Well,

(17:40):
Kristen mentioned celebrities taking up the mantle of hashtag free
the nipple, and this is another part where Carol gets
irolli because reading about celebrities like Scout and rumor Willis
or even Russell Simmons supporting the free the Nipple movement,

(18:00):
I almost don't trust it because it seems like they're
not really actually that concerned about those bigger issues of
women being penalized for breastfeeding in public, or women being
penalized unjustly for going topless and states where it's legal.
It almost it's very easy to dismiss celebrity participation in
this because it's like, oh, where are you just met
about Instagram? Yeah, Instagram has been ground zero in a

(18:25):
lot of ways for free the nipple, especially the celebrity
side of this so called movement. Um because you mentioned
Scout Willis, for instance, who in May decided to test
the toplessness laws in New York City is part of
activism and protests, and so she put on a pretty

(18:47):
skirt and nothing else and took a walk down the
street and took a photo of herself doing so and
posted it on Instagram and also Twitter. I believe, basically
so that it would get taken down because once you
post something on social media and that social media company
removes it because of its you know, decency policy, then

(19:10):
you have a viral story. On your hands, and she
was right. So this whole thing blew up, and she
said at one point, quote matters like the taboo of
the nipple. In the twenty one century, public breastfeeding, slut shaming,
fat shaming, breast cancer and wareness, body positivity, general equality,
and censorship have found their way into mainstream discussion. So

(19:32):
with that quote, though, Caroline, it sounds like Scout does
get it. It sounds like she gets it. But there
are still plenty of women out there who are saying
that putting your boobs out or putting your nips out
is not doing feminism right, I mean, there's plenty of critics. Yeah, yes,
Kristen is rolling her eyes super hard, and I think

(19:54):
it's it is, like I said, it's easy for a
lot of people to dismiss the actions of celebrities. They
don't trust them to actually be part of the movement.
But but like you said, it does sound like I mean,
it sounds like Scout. I mean, does it feel sometimes
like activism and feminism is being commodified through celebrity culture

(20:16):
in these instances? Yes, I had my oh here we
go again moment with it all when Chelsea Handler, who
I like, please don't send me letters about how great
Chelsea Handler is. I like her, she can be funny
at times. Um. But when she posted her topless photo
of her riding on a horse, very very gallantly on Instagram,

(20:42):
of course immediately got a ton of attention. And she said,
I mean, the whole contrast slash joke was like Putin
read posted an identical photo of himself, and she was like,
well Putin can do this, then why can't I? What's
wrong with women's bodies? And at that point, to me
being a little bit of a cynic, I suppose it
seemed like a media attention grab. Yeah, but it's also

(21:05):
to the same conversation that comes up with empower tizing,
of using female empowerment and feminist the slogans to sell
goods as well. I mean, it's the question of, well,
is it such a bad thing that celebrities are hopping
on board, because maybe that signals that this is going
mainstream right to get people talking about it for sure,

(21:28):
And definitely, uh, the topless child of two really famous actors,
I mean, that does get people talking, for sure. And
I am glad that what came out of that was
a quote like, hey guys, We've got all of this
stuff we need to talk about, and now that you're
looking at my boobs, let's hear what I have to
say about it too, So like at least that came
out of it. And model and actress Kara Day Levine

(21:49):
joined the conversation as well. She posted a picture, although
her nipple was exed out, I believe she posted a
picture of her naked chest next to a man's naked
chest and they drew a little diagram, which is very helpful,
again if you're a visual learner. I love diagraphs. I
love like infographics, but on skin, um drawing around like
here's the nipple, here's the areola, here's the breast tissue,

(22:11):
and basically saying like this is fine in the world
and on social media, and this one over here that
belongs to a woman is not. Like we want equality,
We want the same abilities to go topless as anybody else,
which led to one of my favorite free the nipple
off shoots, which were these male nipple image pasties of

(22:34):
sorts um that someone I forget who it is who
made them, that you could if you were a woman
and you wanted to post a topless photo of yourself,
but not have it taken down from social media. You
could simply superimpose these male nipples on top of your
female nipples so that the photo would no longer be indecent.
Oh yeah, there are blogs out there that have done

(22:55):
it on the female nude, like sculptures, paintings from history,
you know, very famous works of art pasting a male
nipple on top of it, like hey, well this is
okay now right, this is fine well, and then on
the flip side of that you have orange is the
New Black Star Matt and mcgoory, who photoshopped nipples of
Miley Cyrus and Christie Teagan onto his pecks um and

(23:20):
he wrote on the Instagram caption, it's not just about
getting an even tan. It's one piece of the puzzle
of creating deep change in the way our society objectifies
women and creates these different standards for men and women
and other genders. Yeah. I mean Matt mcgory has been
super vocal lately about issues relating to women and feminism,

(23:42):
and it's really refreshing to see because he also doesn't
seem like he's just jumping in and pointing his finger
a people and being like here's what I think, and
this is why you should believe it too, and blah
blah blah. He seems to be listening just as much
as he's joining in conversations. But it is funny that
he's literally, I mean, it just highlight it highlights the
ridiculousness of all aspects of this that here's a man,

(24:06):
an attractive man, who takes nipples belonging to ladies and
he puts them over his own. And it's fine because
he was still a person with a male body. But Caroline,
because this exists on the internet, not everybody loves it.
Not everybody want to free the nipple. You mentioned earlier

(24:28):
a number of think pieces that have thumbed their nose
at the whole thing. Yeah, one was by Chica Dalmia
over at the Week in June, and she was not
having it. She is not having it. She calls the
movement ham handed and shocked jockey, which is actually the
new nicknames for Kristen and me. He was ham handed, Fine,

(24:53):
well now I'll be shocked jockey. All right, here we go,
let's read the nips um. But yeah, she says that
few real women outside of college campuses can relate to
it other than publicity hungry celebrities. So she is a
total skeptic. She does not believe that the Willis Sisters
or any other celebrity could possibly have any good intentions

(25:15):
behind this at all. She goes on to say, hey,
why not try to eliminate all double standards and do
away with all public and decency glass, Hey, why not
start a free the balls movement? Well, ladies, you you
know be super comfortable with that, right. You know what.
Mark Dupless, by the way, who is the He's in
um the League and is also in uh he created

(25:37):
and stars in Togetherness. He and his brother have talked
about how there needs to be more testicle equality on
film because you know, we see full frontal females all
the time, but where those testicles? Yeah, she uh, Dalmia
would would totally. She's definitely not in agreement. I think
she's definitely like, uh, nobody wants to see balls and

(25:59):
so therefore also hyd your nipples. Yeah, and I don't
really want to get on my Instagram fee and seed
nothing but scrowt um. But she also says something um
interesting that we we sort of talked around this and
about this in our last episode. She says, Look, women's
breasts are sexual in a way that men's are not,
and I am not willing to de sexualize myself. But

(26:24):
I think it's interesting that she does again tie breasts
completely all the way back to sexuality, uh, not seeming
to really leave room for that idea of like, I'm
just a lady on my front porch not wanting to
wear a shirt because it's hot outside. It seems like
she's not even okay with that idea. Yeah, I think

(26:45):
that perspective removes contexts out of sexuality and does speak
to more of an objectification perspective. Are we aren't where
our bodies aren't part of our collective person, but rather

(27:05):
our person is a collection of body parts, whole sack
of meat. But there is some critique of Free the
Nipple that really has gotten my brain wheels a turn in,
and it does have to do with the sexualization of
the breast and also the kinds of breasts that we

(27:27):
see most prominently in Free the Nipple. And it reminds
me a lot of conversations that arose a couple of
years ago when slut walks were happening a lot, Because
there are very particular colors at least and sizes too,
but largely colors of breasts that we're seeing, they're all

(27:47):
for the most part white. All for the most part.
Is it's not to qualifying all totally incompletely many of
them are white. It does seem like a conversation where
women of color are marginalized, if not completely invisible. Yeah.
Writing over at Bustle, Georgina Jones points out that this

(28:07):
is an ego boost for those comfortable enough to participate,
essentially a new beauty standard for women to be judged
on in the Who's the Best Feminist Olympics. She also
says that it's just for women with quote unquote sellable
breasts like the ones that are that that type of
more quote unquote quantified breasts that are featured on the
Free the Nipple shirt itself, like promoting the film. Yeah,

(28:30):
I mean, but I and I can understand though, why
in imagery for that film they would use the more
stereotypically sexy boobs, because that's the whole point of the thing,
is it examining the sexiness factor? Yeah, but Jones laments
the fact that sort of this bigger movement that we

(28:53):
talked about, especially in our first episode on toplessness in
the legal issues surrounding it. She says that it's been
sort of co opted in order to create another impossible
beauty standard when the only people we see in this
movement are basically white, able bodied, sus gendered women, particularly
like actresses and upper class women in the media. Well,

(29:16):
maybe I've just seen different breasts, but I have seen
a diversity size shape wise of breasts that have been
so called freed through this whole thing. And I understand
what Jones is staying. But rather than trying to throw
dynamite on the whole thing, I think that it's maybe

(29:38):
more instructive to consider how our perception of bared breasts
perhaps does change when you add layers of disability, or
ethnicity or socioeconomics to this. How does it you know,
how how does sex work interact with all of these things?

(29:59):
Like there isn't an element of privilege to it. But
I think that that's caused for maybe more conversation and
analysis rather than just stop feministing in this way, because
I really I think it's unfortunate when things devolved into
that often on social media. It's all it's all fueled

(30:21):
by social media. Yeah, it's all yes, it's blog posts,
it's thing pieces, it's hashtags, pointing fingers at each other.
And so I like, I mean not to just be
like and the man is doing it right, But I
like Matt mcgory's tactic, for instance, of being like, hey, like,
here's this thing I'm going to point out and and

(30:42):
and you know, thoughtfully question it, um, just as other
women have done. UM. I think that's a good way
to go about it instead of necessarily pointing fingers and
saying stop doing this. Because I mean, like we pointed out,
Scott Willis was able to get a conversation started, although Caroline,
there was an intersection of this topless conversation we've been

(31:06):
having and women of color at a protest in May
in San Francisco for Black Lives Matter, where women black
women were protesting without their shirts on to call attention
specifically to uh institutionalized violence toward black women and black

(31:30):
women's bodily integrity as well. So, I mean, that's why
I think that these conversations are still important to have
and not just to say you know what, I don't
that's that's not right, But how do we broaden it?
I think that we just need to I mean, just
continue removing all of the layers so to speak, literally, figuratively, conversationally. Yeah.

(31:53):
So I wonder is this the future of protests, that
women are just taking their shirts off to draw attention
to their cause US or is it social media? I mean,
we talked about social media activism and our Social Justice
Warriors podcast, and the fact of the matter is it's effective.
At the very least, it's starting conversations, yeah, and helping

(32:14):
people to organize around an idea. Yeah. But whether Middle
America is anywhere close to seeing a female and nipple
and not freaking out a little bit, I think we're
a long way from that. But I'm really curious though too,
to hear from international listeners as well, because, um, I know,

(32:37):
the US isn't the only country that has boob hang ups.
So I'd love to get as diverse a perspective on
this as as possible, because I do think it's something
that is different for everybody and something that everyone has
an opinion on because a lot of people have nipples,

(32:57):
as it turns out. Yeah, So send us all of
your free the nipple thoughts mom stuff at how stuff
works dot Com is our email address. You can also
tweet us at Mom's Stuff podcast and use the hashtag
for the nipple if you like, or messages on Facebook,
and we've got a couple of messages to share with
you right now. So I have a letter here that

(33:25):
does relate to boobs, Caroline and also to waste. This
is from Heather about our episode on waste training. She writes,
high ladies, I just discovered your podcast. Thanks for a
recommendation from my friend. I enjoy it immensely. Keep up
the good work. Thank you, Heather. I just listened to
your podcast on waste training, and I can so relate

(33:47):
for my wedding last year, I bought a corset bra Hey,
I'm a double D and had a straplest dress girls
needed extra support. It had the boning and didn't seem
to be that tied on me. Well, then I had
my brie maids do up my corset back wedding gown
really tight and o MG, my boobs and booty looked amazing.
But I couldn't eat any of my dinner at the reception.

(34:10):
I almost passed out at the ceremony, and when I
finally took it off for the night, my rib cage
was so so so sore and t m I. I
ended up being constipated the whole night from it. The
only way I could relieve the horrific stomach cramps I
was getting was to apply pressure to my abdomen. It
was not worth the pain, So, Heather, I'm so sorry

(34:33):
to hear that, but cautionary tail, especially on your wedding day.
I want to be able to eat my cake. I
want to have my cake and eat it too. Yeah,
wedding stretchy pants. Here we go. There we go, solving
all the problems and at leisurely wedding. Okay, Well, I
have a letter here from Caitlin Um, also about our
Waiste training episode. She says, I just tried using a

(34:53):
corset for the first time as part of my postpartum regime,
and I thought i'd share my experience with you. I
decided to dry using a course it for two reasons.
After I had my first child, I felt so weak
in my core for the first week or two after birth,
it seemed impossible to stand up straight. I thought, of course,
it might provide me with some core support until I
actually had my own core muscles back in working order again. Additionally,

(35:15):
I thought the course it would help my post pregnancy
pucci belly disappear faster. I actually asked my O B
g U I N about it, thinking he wouldn't have
any objections, and was surprised when he did. While he
thought it wouldn't be problematic if I were it for
a few weeks, he was concerned that if I were
it for a long period of time, it wouldn't allow
my core muscles to recover and do the job they're
meant to do, which is one of the ideas you

(35:36):
mentioned in the podcast. Despite my doctor's lack of enthusiasm,
I bought one. It was a little hard to decide
what to buy because there are a bunch of different
brands and types. I settled on a model that had
boning and several rows of hooks and eyes that allow
you to continually cinch the thing tighter and tighter. It
wasn't cheap, around eighty five bucks. I started using it
for two days after I gave birth, and more at

(35:57):
daily for six to eight hours a day for roughly
two weeks. It was less uncomfortable than I feared, but
there were a few problems that finally led me to
abandon it more quickly than I had anticipated. First, it's hot,
especially in Hawaii in the middle of summer. Plus it
was too long for my torso, so it would dig
in under my breast or into my thighs when I
sat down, not comfortable, especially when breastfeeding. Finally, it was

(36:19):
a pain trying to use the bathroom while wearing it,
and this is particularly true since I was dealing with
post birth lady issues in the bathroom. However, I swear
that it did help my belly shrink faster than it
would have without it, and it helped me where non
maternity clothes right away, which was nice considering I was
so sick of all my maternity clothes by then, and
it was no small thing to hear, Wow, you just

(36:40):
had a baby. You look great. When I was out
wearing it, Even though it wasn't perfect, I would and
have still recommend it for new moms. The only thing
I would do differently is order a few different options
and try them on in order to find the one
that fit better. I think I would have worn it
longer if it had. Looking forward to your next episode,
your sides and banter with each other always make me
l O l really well. Thank you, Caitlin, and thanks

(37:03):
to everybody who's written into us mom stuff at how
stuff works dot com is our email address and for
links to all of our social media as well as
all of our blogs, videos, and podcasts, including this one
with our sources. So you can learn more about bringing
the nipple head on over to stuff mom Never Told
You dot com for more on this and thousands of

(37:26):
other topics. Is that how stuff works dot com