Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stuff
Speaker 1: I'll Never Told You, a production of iHeartRadio, and today
Speaker 1: I wanted to bring back a classic about sports spras. Interestingly,
Speaker 1: I wanted to bring this back to revisit what is
Speaker 1: going on in the world of the Women's World Cup.
Speaker 1: But you beat me to it, Samantha with the Monday Minnie.
Speaker 1: But we have been talking a lot about sports and
Speaker 1: about sports uniforms, which we did talk about in that
Speaker 1: episode we did with Whitney about women's soccer and women's
Speaker 1: shorts in particular, and this was an episode I remember
Speaker 1: editing in being my mind being blown. I didn't realize
Speaker 1: so much of this, and definitely during the pandemic. If
Speaker 1: I wear a bra, it's a sports bra almost always.
Speaker 2: Gotta be comfortable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, But there's also a lot of talk. I
Speaker 1: know I mentioned this before, but there's a lot of
Speaker 1: talking here. And there has been a lot of talk
Speaker 1: recently about so called gintimidation for women and feeling like
Speaker 1: they can't go to the gym and feeling like they
Speaker 1: need to look a certain way if they do go.
Speaker 1: And me, when I was in middle school and all
Speaker 1: of the boys giving his names based on mountainous states
Speaker 1: and the size of our boobs. So I just remember
Speaker 1: editing this episode and being like, yes, yes, So please
Speaker 1: enjoy this classic episode.
Speaker 3: Welcome to Stuff Mom Never Told from houstuff Works dot com.
Speaker 4: Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Kristen and I'm Caroline,
Speaker 4: and today we're talking about.
Speaker 2: Boobs in motion, boobs, sweating boobs, bouncing boobs, exercising, boobs.
Speaker 4: On the move, boobs on the move and on the
Speaker 4: move they are.
Speaker 5: Because we're gonna get I don't want to, I'm not
Speaker 5: gonna spoil it, but there is a factual tidbit in
Speaker 5: this episode that involves the car and it's blowing my
Speaker 5: mind and I can't wait to blow y'all's minds too.
Speaker 5: Because boobs when you move, they move even faster.
Speaker 4: Breasts are incredible.
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna go ahead and say they're incredible. But
Speaker 2: they can also make exercising incredibly challenging, oh for sure.
Speaker 2: And this episode was inspired by research that I just
Speaker 2: mumbled across of how there are now two and only
Speaker 2: two studies looking at how breasts and our breast size influence.
Speaker 4: Women and girls' likelihood to exercise. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Well, I it's funny that we had like boob research kismet,
Speaker 5: I think because just further proving that you and I
Speaker 5: are somehow connected at the brainstem. Because around the same
Speaker 5: time that you were stumbling across this research, I was
Speaker 5: separately having a conversation with someone else about how lady
Speaker 5: golfers frequently have to change their stance or have a
Speaker 5: different stance than male golfers because of their breasts getting
Speaker 5: in the way of their swing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was this golf commentator who was quoted in
Speaker 2: one of the pieces I was reading from like nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety five, where during an LPGA.
Speaker 4: Event he said on television, yeah, how women's boobs just
Speaker 4: get in the way, just like straight up said it.
Speaker 4: And the thing entirely rong.
Speaker 2: I know, the thing is like cringe reading that, But
Speaker 2: then at the same time it's like, well, you mean
Speaker 2: you do have a point, And the thing is it
Speaker 2: is time we pay a lot more attention to our breasts,
Speaker 2: whether we are exercising casually just for health and fitness,
Speaker 2: all the way up to professional sports like a professional golfer.
Speaker 2: And by pay attention to I don't mean, of course
Speaker 2: just aggling breasts, because that is one deterrent of people
Speaker 2: not wanting to exercise.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's already, we've got that covered.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the oggling of boobs, it's already.
Speaker 4: We're good. Yeah, we're good on that end.
Speaker 2: But it's time for us to pay closer attention to
Speaker 2: figuring out how to vault over exercises boob barrier because
Speaker 2: there's a there's a breast barrier there.
Speaker 4: And as a small.
Speaker 2: Woman, I think this is why the research was so
Speaker 2: surprising to me. Not that I couldn't imagine how that
Speaker 2: was a barrier, but it's just something that I don't
Speaker 2: have to think about all that much.
Speaker 4: I jog and I can.
Speaker 2: Wear a compression sports bra and I'm good. But not
Speaker 2: the case for women who have more than my acups.
Speaker 5: Yeah, boob bounce is one of the more painful things
Speaker 5: that I have felt. And I don't think you have
Speaker 5: to be like a double h to feel that way.
Speaker 5: I mean, I think boobs of any size bouncing hurts.
Speaker 4: It's uncomfortable.
Speaker 5: Literally, if I see a woman jogging down the side
Speaker 5: of the road and there's a lot of boob bounceage,
Speaker 5: my first thought is like, oh God, the pain, the pain.
Speaker 5: I can like feel it it's like telegraphed onto my body.
Speaker 4: I can feel it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and if I'm not wearing a bra and I'm
Speaker 2: running around, which you know what it happens sometime times people.
Speaker 4: Yeah, extureing you just running in a circle in your apartment.
Speaker 2: Pretty much, that's how I get my feminist rage out.
Speaker 2: I'd throw my bra off and just run in circles.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean, my even my very small breaths
Speaker 2: will experience that kind of pain too. I mean, boob
Speaker 2: bounce pain I think is pretty universal.
Speaker 5: I mean, if there's one thing we do not need
Speaker 5: as women and girls, it is another barrier to exercise
Speaker 5: and to physical activity. Because there's some pretty disheartening stats
Speaker 5: out there.
Speaker 4: For instance, by the age of fourteen.
Speaker 5: Girls are dropping out of sports at twice the rate
Speaker 5: that boys are.
Speaker 2: And a lot of times the explanation for that, the
Speaker 2: go to explanations are, oh, well, girls become a lot
Speaker 2: more self conscious with puberty. They are not as interested
Speaker 2: in becoming like fit and potentially muscular, but they're more
Speaker 2: concerned about like beauty appearance.
Speaker 4: And that might be the case.
Speaker 2: But looking at the study we're about to I think
Speaker 2: there's more boob to it. Than that, and outside of
Speaker 2: organized sports, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease
Speaker 2: Control and Prevention, less than twenty percent of high school
Speaker 2: girls are getting their recommended amount of daily physical activity.
Speaker 4: And even that is half of what boys are getting.
Speaker 2: So like across the board, boys are exercising more.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and this is not only bad for just general
Speaker 5: health and establishing healthy, happy habits when you're a young person,
Speaker 5: but it also stinks because exercise is good for our
Speaker 5: breast health as well. It's not just making sure that
Speaker 5: you're a healthy weight and that you're fighting anxiety and
Speaker 5: depression with some good old physical activity, but your boobs
Speaker 5: could benefit from some moving around as well. And that's
Speaker 5: according to the Cleveland Clinic, women who get plenty of
Speaker 5: exercise are twenty five percent less likely to develop breast cancer.
Speaker 5: Because good solid exercise, getting your daily recommended exercise can
Speaker 5: boost your immune function, it can ward off obesity, and
Speaker 5: it can lower levels of both estrogen and insulin, and
Speaker 5: not to mention, it strengthens our bones and our hearts,
Speaker 5: which is very important for our holistic health as well,
Speaker 5: since women suffer far more from osteoporosis and heart disease
Speaker 5: is the number one killer of women, right, And so
Speaker 5: while exercise can help your mental health, your obviously your
Speaker 5: physical health, it can help improve body image when you
Speaker 5: feel stronger and more empowered. Your body image and your
Speaker 5: confidence can suffer if you feel like you can't exercise
Speaker 5: well or enough because your boobs are.
Speaker 4: Bouncing too much.
Speaker 5: And I mean that sounds silly, but like like we said,
Speaker 5: boob bounce can be painful, and more than being painful,
Speaker 5: it can also just draw unwanted attention, especially if you're
Speaker 5: one of those younger girls who's already a little bit
Speaker 5: self conscious.
Speaker 2: Well yeah, I mean, and girl in general are developing
Speaker 2: larger breasts earlier and at higher rates than they used
Speaker 2: to be. So this is something I mean, as soon
Speaker 2: as you become like aware of your developing body and
Speaker 2: how our developing body particularly are breasts are so immediately
Speaker 2: sexualized that can become a source of shame. And if
Speaker 2: we look though, just at the biomechanics of breast, it's incredible.
Speaker 2: This is what I mean when I say that breasts
Speaker 2: are incredible. And Caroline, please share your car fact.
Speaker 4: This is my favorite little tidbit.
Speaker 5: So you know, Kristin did mention that boobs and their
Speaker 5: movement and how they move has not been studied overly
Speaker 5: much yet, but one more recent study found that nipples
Speaker 5: on a c or decup breast, when you as a
Speaker 5: person are moving, they can accelerate up to forty five
Speaker 5: miles per hour in one second, which, my friends, is
Speaker 5: faster than a Ferrari.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's my favorite boob related car fact or car
Speaker 4: related boob fact.
Speaker 2: It's like a mashup of stuff Mom never told you
Speaker 2: and our family podcast car stuff never before seen together
Speaker 2: in an hour of moderate jogging. As Amanda has noted
Speaker 2: over in ESPN magazine a couple of years ago, our
Speaker 2: breasts will bounce several thousand times. And if you have
Speaker 2: large breasts, even if you have small breast and they
Speaker 2: aren't supported. While obviously that can be painful because when
Speaker 2: we think of breast bouncing, we think of them just going.
Speaker 4: Up and down.
Speaker 2: In fact, they move in a figure eight motion, and
Speaker 2: large breasts can oscillate up to eight inches. And this
Speaker 2: is why, like, this is an extreme example, but this
Speaker 2: is also why if like, very large breasts in motion
Speaker 2: can potentially even.
Speaker 4: Break your clavical because they know that they move with
Speaker 4: that much.
Speaker 5: Force Oh, that sounds terrible, but it makes sense because
Speaker 5: before this podcast, I was talking to Holly from History Stuff,
Speaker 5: and she was talking about the very real divergence that
Speaker 5: happens when you are growing up and developing breasts of
Speaker 5: whatever size between the girls who go on to pursue
Speaker 5: ballet and the girls who, for instance, go on to
Speaker 5: pursue like hip hop dance or modern dance. And she
Speaker 5: then she of course made a joke because she's also
Speaker 5: a runner, made a joke about as she was developing
Speaker 5: her boobs popping up and hitting her in the face.
Speaker 2: Well, and I'm assuming that you know, ballets obviously associated
Speaker 2: with smaller breasts. That's probably why I did ballet for
Speaker 2: quite a while into high school.
Speaker 5: But then she also Holly also brought up an interesting
Speaker 5: point which I had not thought about before researching for
Speaker 5: this episode, that she was so threa thrilled when she
Speaker 5: was in college and sports bras finally came out in
Speaker 5: full force on the market.
Speaker 4: Because I just think of sports bras as.
Speaker 5: Like, sure, they've always existed the way.
Speaker 4: That bras have existed for a long time.
Speaker 5: No, like having good support bra wise, and like knowing
Speaker 5: enough about your boobs and about sports bras to support
Speaker 5: them correctly, Like that's kind of a new thing.
Speaker 4: Oh, it's still developing.
Speaker 2: Sportsbra technology has not caught up to the biomechanics of
Speaker 2: our boobs and their figure eight patterns. And I realized
Speaker 2: as we were researching for this episode that we should
Speaker 2: do a whole separate one on the history of the
Speaker 2: sports bra because it begins with a couple of ladies
Speaker 2: getting fed up and actually like tying two jockstraps together.
Speaker 4: Interesting. I hope they were clean.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I mean, you know, jockstraps are essentially like
Speaker 2: men's sports bras, like testicular sports bras, right.
Speaker 4: The sports bro Yeah. So if we.
Speaker 2: Look though at this issue of developing breasts and girls
Speaker 2: exercise and sports participation, the fact of the matter is
Speaker 2: we need better broad ducation.
Speaker 4: And I would.
Speaker 2: Also argue, and I'll get into this a little bit more,
Speaker 2: I would also argue that girls in public schools or
Speaker 2: in low income areas need more affordable, well made sports
Speaker 2: bras if we want to close that competitive sports gap,
Speaker 2: you know, with a drop off after they turn fourteen
Speaker 2: at twice the rated boys.
Speaker 4: Sports bras are a big factor do this. They're so
Speaker 4: expensive they're so.
Speaker 2: Expensive, similar to you know, the whole tampon free tampon
Speaker 2: Tech's initiative, And how now in New York public schools,
Speaker 2: I believe they're going to be provided for free, which
Speaker 2: is fantastic. And this is all sparked by a very
Speaker 2: recent study and the only study of its kind, which
Speaker 2: came out in February twenty sixteen in the Journal of
Speaker 2: Adolescent Health. The studies titled the Influence of the Breast
Speaker 2: on Sport and Exercise Participation in school Girls in the UK,
Speaker 2: and in terms of pain, up to seventy two percent
Speaker 2: of women and girls experience exercise related breast discomfort.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, no surprise, I am no stranger to that. Yeah.
Speaker 2: But when they were talking to girls about their breasts
Speaker 2: and how their breasts influenced their exercise or sports participation,
Speaker 2: seventy three percent of them cited at least one breast
Speaker 2: related concern, and the number one was embarrassment over bounced.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, oh yeah, Okay, are you ready for a
Speaker 5: sad Cara story?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 2: Because yeah, also again because this is something I mean,
Speaker 2: I had zero boobs when I was like thirteen, fourteen
Speaker 2: years old.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I was a little bit chebby when I
Speaker 5: was growing up, and as I was entering my pre
Speaker 5: pubescent phase and I was sprouting the first hint of Brestus's,
Speaker 5: I was getting a little bounce and it was uncomfortable.
Speaker 5: Suddenly pe was painful. It was painful to go to
Speaker 5: the gym and do my lap around the track.
Speaker 4: Like I was supposed to. And so I went home
Speaker 4: and I asked my mom, and I can't.
Speaker 5: Remember, this was in like fourth grade, fifth grade, and
Speaker 5: I asked to get a sports bra. And I mean,
Speaker 5: I was kind of excited by the idea, but also
Speaker 5: kind of the opposite of excited because it's like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 5: y bra, but also like.
Speaker 4: Oh crap, I'm growing up in a bra.
Speaker 5: And so you know, she was more than willing to
Speaker 5: take me shopping, and I went and I got a bunch.
Speaker 4: Of very basic white sports bras, and I wore it
Speaker 4: to school.
Speaker 5: Because we had pea every day. And I remember so
Speaker 5: distinctly getting like stares because you know, if you're wearing
Speaker 5: a white shirt, you can see that you're wearing a
Speaker 5: white bra underneath a white shirt.
Speaker 4: And I distinctly remember the popular girl.
Speaker 5: Walking by me and being like, are you wearing a bra,
Speaker 5: and I was just like, yeah, I mean, she couldn't
Speaker 5: say anything after that. She bra shamed you, She bra
Speaker 5: shamed me all because I was just developing differently. And
Speaker 5: I even remember so fast forward to about seventh grade.
Speaker 5: I'm in science class. My teacher is this amazing guy.
Speaker 5: He's like so funny, he's everybody's favorite teacher. I think
Speaker 5: this might have been eighth grade.
Speaker 4: And he starts like making this.
Speaker 5: He starts telling the story where he is talking about
Speaker 5: his own high school career or whatever in middle school
Speaker 5: career and talking about this girl who developed early and
Speaker 5: had to wear a bra, and he was making fun
Speaker 5: of her. And I remember turning bright red because I
Speaker 5: was one of the if not the earliest, to wear
Speaker 5: a bra in my class, simply because I just didn't
Speaker 5: want to have the bounce pain when I ran laps
Speaker 5: in the gym.
Speaker 4: I am shaking my head at that teacher.
Speaker 5: Well, I know, I'm shaking my head at both of them,
Speaker 5: because clearly there had not been enough education on that
Speaker 5: popular girl's part to understand that people developed differently, and
Speaker 5: that if you have more tissue or fat on your
Speaker 5: chest than someone else, the bounce is gonna hurt.
Speaker 4: And on the teacher's part.
Speaker 5: Like, what are you even thinking You're talking to a
Speaker 5: co ed classroom full of girls who are now, presumably
Speaker 5: at this age, all wearing bras or most of them,
Speaker 5: So like what is the making fun of and the
Speaker 5: shaming purpose?
Speaker 2: Yeah, also just inappropriate on a bazillion level.
Speaker 4: Should we be talking about that?
Speaker 2: And I wonder with this study and the embarrassment that's cited,
Speaker 2: whether it's more just sort of an internalized thing of
Speaker 2: when your breasts are moving, you just.
Speaker 4: It makes your body feel really obvious.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and when you are twelve, thirteen, fourteen years old,
Speaker 2: at least in my recollection, the last thing you want
Speaker 2: to do is be super obvious. So, whether it's something
Speaker 2: more personal like that, or if it's the experience of
Speaker 2: having their breasts being aggled by boys and let's face
Speaker 2: it also men. Because this reminds me. Your school stories
Speaker 2: remind me of high school when in ninth and tenth grade,
Speaker 2: our class would go on a retreat at the beginning
Speaker 2: of the school year and we would go swimming.
Speaker 4: And there was a girl in my.
Speaker 2: Grade who was very petite, and she had very large breasts,
Speaker 2: and I remember when she went swimming, she wore a
Speaker 2: T shirt and everyone was like, why is she wearing
Speaker 2: a T shirt? And they were like, oh, it's because
Speaker 2: she's got those big boobs. And then when she finally
Speaker 2: like braved taking off her shirt because she was so
Speaker 2: tired of people giving her a hard time for wearing
Speaker 2: a shirt, the guys lost it, you know, and and
Speaker 2: even the girls were like, oh my god, do you
Speaker 2: see her boobs as is so big.
Speaker 4: Because she's like doing something to you on purpose. Yeah, Like, yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean there's so much. I mean, and this is
Speaker 4: what I mean by the.
Speaker 2: Broducation, like we have really, I mean, we stigmatized.
Speaker 4: Girls breasts a lot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's no surprise that that embarrassment factor is
Speaker 2: the number one.
Speaker 4: And it's not just yeah, not just inflicted by you know.
Speaker 2: People in public, you know, attention, unwanted attention from boys.
Speaker 2: But also the number two reason were embarrassment that the
Speaker 2: girls sided in his study was having to change in
Speaker 2: front of other girls.
Speaker 4: And I remember this too when I.
Speaker 2: Was taking ballet, speaking of ballet boobs a few minutes ago,
Speaker 2: you know, we all changed together and you quickly had
Speaker 2: to get like comfortable getting naked in front.
Speaker 4: Of girls, and.
Speaker 2: For me it wasn't too embarrassing because in ballet you
Speaker 2: were like expected to be flat chested. But if it
Speaker 2: hadn't been like these these girls who I was also
Speaker 2: like very close friends with, there were maybe like six
Speaker 2: of us.
Speaker 4: You know, it's a safe space to have to get naked,
Speaker 4: but in.
Speaker 2: A locker room, oh no, I would have been embarrassed too.
Speaker 2: You know, if you're already feeling awkward in your body
Speaker 2: and maybe you are developing faster than other girls.
Speaker 4: Oh good. So the final pieceo of braducation.
Speaker 2: Is that the number three concerned they sided was at
Speaker 2: fifteen percent of the girl said that their boobs were
Speaker 2: simply too big to exercise, that it wouldn't be healthy.
Speaker 2: And that's, you know, a common fallacy that we think
Speaker 2: where it's like, yeah, I mean, if I run around,
Speaker 2: that's gonna be it hurts, Therefore it must be bad
Speaker 2: for my breast. But in fact the problem is that
Speaker 2: we don't have supportive enough and accessible enough sports bras
Speaker 2: because a lot of them also weren't wearing sports bras
Speaker 2: at all.
Speaker 5: Yeah, meanwhile, I was wearing like the same type of
Speaker 5: sports bra.
Speaker 4: I don't know when I first.
Speaker 5: Got a real quote unquote bra, because I mean, dude,
Speaker 5: like those sports bras, like for when you're like kind
Speaker 5: of pre booby, you're not totally booby yet.
Speaker 2: Yah, the breast buds, which I know that's the correct
Speaker 2: anatomical term, but.
Speaker 4: It squaks me out. It squicks me out too. I
Speaker 4: don't like that either.
Speaker 5: But in this study too, they found that forty six
Speaker 5: percent of girls between eleven and eighteen said that their
Speaker 5: boobs did influence their sports participation. And that was true
Speaker 5: for sixty three percent of larger breasted girls compared to
Speaker 5: forty five.
Speaker 2: Percent of girls with smaller breasts. So obviously more common
Speaker 2: for larger breasted.
Speaker 5: Girls too, but not uncommon for girls with smaller breas.
Speaker 4: Exactly, That's what I was about to say.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is like an issue across the board,
Speaker 2: and like I said, not many were even wearing a
Speaker 2: sports bra. Only ten percent wore a sports bra every
Speaker 2: time they exercised.
Speaker 4: And I wonder, this is something that didn't come up
Speaker 4: in anything that we read.
Speaker 2: And I was like kind of shaking my hands at
Speaker 2: my computer because hello, like bras are expensive. I mean
Speaker 2: I grew up in a family without much money and
Speaker 2: I remember that, like I got my first like set
Speaker 2: of bras, and those.
Speaker 4: Were like the bras that I was gonna have to use.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I had a sports bra, but it was
Speaker 2: like a kmart sports bra. And thank god I didn't
Speaker 2: have larger breast because of course it would not have
Speaker 2: been able to support me well.
Speaker 4: And there's also the embarrassment factor too.
Speaker 5: Thank god I had a mother who was like super
Speaker 5: ready at any point to take me shopping for whatever
Speaker 5: I needed, because I'm sure, I'm I'm sure like her
Speaker 5: as a grid woman was like, you don't need a
Speaker 5: sports bra, but she was willing to be supportive as
Speaker 5: supportive as that sports bra. But I'm sure that there
Speaker 5: are people with other, you know, different family situations where
Speaker 5: it would be horrifically embarrassing to have to ask your
Speaker 5: parent or your guardian or whoever to take you sports
Speaker 5: brash off.
Speaker 4: Their single dad. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Oh, and in this study, again, for girls who exercised
Speaker 2: the most.
Speaker 4: They worried the most about how sports bras.
Speaker 2: Fit and also how their breasts looked while exercising. So
Speaker 2: we are pretty much immediately like kind of scrutinizing and
Speaker 2: feeling nervous about the appearance of our breasts almost as
Speaker 2: as soon as we get them and hammering home again
Speaker 2: my broaducation platform. Eighty seven percent of those girls wanted
Speaker 2: to just know more about breasts in general.
Speaker 4: They hadn't been taught that much.
Speaker 2: And I have a feeling that kind of like the
Speaker 2: sex ed talk at home, you probably don't get a
Speaker 2: lot much breast education at home because it's one of
Speaker 2: those things where it's like, oh, we.
Speaker 4: Don't need to you know, fast forward your development too.
Speaker 5: Much, or it's like you know, oh you're getting them good,
Speaker 5: yeah good, yeah, all right.
Speaker 2: Well, and there's a lot that adult, grown up women
Speaker 2: don't know about their own breasts. Have I ever been
Speaker 2: professionally fitted for a bra? No?
Speaker 4: I haven't.
Speaker 2: I'm sure I'm wearing the wrong size bra.
Speaker 5: I have side note, okay, you know how like sometimes
Speaker 5: on the podcast we'll talk about a health issue and
Speaker 5: we're like, maybe get a second opinion. Don't be afraid
Speaker 5: to get a second bra opinion as well. So I
Speaker 5: took a friend's advice and went to a particular department store.
Speaker 5: This is for regular bras, not sports bras. That will
Speaker 5: remain nameless, and it will remain nameless because It was
Speaker 5: a horrific experience. The women were nice enough, I mean,
Speaker 5: they were fine, but they were essentially telling me, and
Speaker 5: based on my experience as a person with breasts who
Speaker 5: identifies as a woman and is alive, I've worn bras
Speaker 5: for a long time, and I know what fits and
Speaker 5: feels good, and I know enough to know that you
Speaker 5: shouldn't wear a bra that is so tight that it
Speaker 5: feels like it's cutting off your blood flow. And these
Speaker 5: women at this department store were essentially telling me that
Speaker 5: that's what I needed to do. I needed to wear
Speaker 5: a bra that was so tight that it was going
Speaker 5: to then stretch out and then it would fit. And
Speaker 5: I was like, I that's not a thing, but I
Speaker 5: am now naked in this dressing room with you, so
Speaker 5: I can't tell you that you're full of it. So
Speaker 5: they basically said that I needed to wear a bra
Speaker 5: that was significantly smaller than the size that I.
Speaker 4: Was wearing comfortably on a normal basis.
Speaker 2: Smaller cup size are smaller, much smaller band size, and
Speaker 2: much bigger cup size.
Speaker 5: I was like, okay, well this is I'm just going
Speaker 5: to This isn't right. I won't walk you through my
Speaker 5: entire mental process, but I was like, this is this
Speaker 5: is so wrong. And then I went to another store
Speaker 5: and was fitted by a nice, elderly woman who essentially
Speaker 5: told me that, yes, you're exactly right.
Speaker 4: The size that you're marrying.
Speaker 5: But it's still good to go through that process of
Speaker 5: getting sized and fitted by someone who has been trained,
Speaker 5: knows what she's doing, and don't be afraid to get
Speaker 5: a second bra opinion.
Speaker 2: Well, and even just basics about our breast health and
Speaker 2: how our breasts work, and concerns about how our breasts look,
Speaker 2: whether it's you know, being shy.
Speaker 4: About aerola size or.
Speaker 2: A random mole or hair, you know, all of these
Speaker 2: things that we have just sanitized from girls' educations because
Speaker 2: you know, forty four percent of the girls in that
Speaker 2: study too wanted to know specifically about you know, breast
Speaker 2: in sports bras as it applies to to exercise, and
Speaker 2: women could also use some more support as well. And
Speaker 2: again this is something that's been really under study. There's
Speaker 2: there are only you know, a couple of studies looking
Speaker 2: at this. One of the most recent ones was in
Speaker 2: twenty twelve in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Speaker 4: Which studied London Marathon competitors.
Speaker 2: And you might think, huh, well, that's a pretty uniform,
Speaker 2: you know, sample population there, but in fact, that encompassed
Speaker 2: a range of shapes and sizes, including fifty six different
Speaker 2: bra sizes from double as to double h's, and band
Speaker 2: sizes from twenty to forty inches. So the methodology is sound,
Speaker 2: and they found that more than a third of those
Speaker 2: women reported breast soreness. But the correlation between breast soreness
Speaker 2: and exercise is not.
Speaker 4: So clear cut, because hello.
Speaker 2: You know what makes our breaststore our menstrual cycles, and.
Speaker 4: That is something I can attest to.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So, like before I had an IUD, I never
Speaker 5: got breast soreness. Ever, I really never had PMS before
Speaker 5: I had an IUD.
Speaker 4: And suddenly I'm, you know.
Speaker 5: Like a thirty two year old woman breaking out and
Speaker 5: crampy and also like wanting to murder other drivers on
Speaker 5: the road, and my boobs hurt. And it's crazy because
Speaker 5: my boobs get so big right before my period and
Speaker 5: they hurt, and I'm like, oh, it's coming because period
Speaker 5: related breath soreness.
Speaker 4: The struggle is real.
Speaker 2: The struggle is real, and I've had days when they're
Speaker 2: just like so sore that. Yeah, I'm like, okay, it's
Speaker 2: gonna be a yoga day. We are not going to
Speaker 2: go jogging. Why I'm referring to myself in the Royal wey,
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 5: Well, no, you're encompassing all three of you. Oh yes,
Speaker 5: me and uh Lucinda and Lucille.
Speaker 2: Well, I was trying to think of, you know, some
Speaker 2: rad ladies maybe like me and Glorious Steinem and Flow Kennedy.
Speaker 4: It's my my little triumvirate.
Speaker 2: And that London Marathon study though, found that in fact, my.
Speaker 4: Breastworness is real. Even acups gets sore.
Speaker 2: Twenty five percent of ACUP women in the study reported soreness.
Speaker 4: And having a baby.
Speaker 2: Can influence this because, as we talked about in our
Speaker 2: last episode on the science of saggy breast pregnancy, structurally
Speaker 2: like changes our boobs.
Speaker 5: Yeah, hormones don't discriminate. No, it doesn't matter what size
Speaker 5: your boob is. Your hormone is probably gonna make it hurt.
Speaker 5: Your singular hormone.
Speaker 4: I don't know why so is one hormone.
Speaker 5: But so the result of all of this pain, this discomfort,
Speaker 5: the self consciousness, well, you've got a lot of women
Speaker 5: in this study who ended up training less intensely or
Speaker 5: skipping training altogether.
Speaker 2: And we're gonna get to this in just a little bit,
Speaker 2: but do not be disheartened because there is a surprisingly
Speaker 2: effective remedy for a lot of that pain, and that's
Speaker 2: called a well fitting sports huh.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But more on that and just a little bit, because
Speaker 2: there was a more recent study from April twenty fifteen that,
Speaker 2: like the British study, which was actually I think inspired
Speaker 2: by this study, looked at the correlations between women's breast
Speaker 2: size and exercise participation and it found that seventeen percent
Speaker 2: of women avoid exercise for boob related reasons, specifically lack
Speaker 2: of a comfortable support of sports bra.
Speaker 4: And here we go again.
Speaker 2: Bounce embarrassment, Yes, excessive bounce.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, I know because people are already staring at
Speaker 5: boobs all the time, and if they are then boobs
Speaker 5: in motion, people are going to be like, even if
Speaker 5: it's not literally to augly you in a sexual way,
Speaker 5: if it's just like, oh, look at those boobs bouncing,
Speaker 5: you know, you get tired of drawing attention to your boobs.
Speaker 4: And listen, not.
Speaker 2: To get too TMI about it, but we've already talked
Speaker 2: a lot about our own breasts.
Speaker 4: I'll go ahead, not another fact of my boobs.
Speaker 2: An exercise obviously, the excessive bounce thing not so much
Speaker 2: an issue for me, but one reason why I am
Speaker 2: hesitant to go jogging, especially on a busy thoroughfare and
Speaker 2: just a sports bra without a shirt tank top over
Speaker 2: it is.
Speaker 4: Because of nipples.
Speaker 2: The all if like if nibbles are visible, like at all,
Speaker 2: you know, the if the old headlights turn on, because
Speaker 2: that just happens, you will get looks. And yeah, I mean,
Speaker 2: of course, it's just like a thing, you know. I'm
Speaker 2: sure people's eyes are just kind of.
Speaker 4: Naturally drawn to it.
Speaker 2: But I have felt so self conscious before jogging and realizing,
Speaker 2: you know, in just a sports bra and initially being like, yes,
Speaker 2: I'm running in just a sports bra and embracing my body,
Speaker 2: no big deal. Oh got my nibbles really on parade?
Speaker 5: Well, I mean that's I The sportsra that I had,
Speaker 5: like my main sports bra, squeezes the life out of me.
Speaker 5: And part of that is that it flattens, not only
Speaker 5: flattens my boots to my chest so much, but it
Speaker 5: also flattens and camouflage is the nips as well.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm gonna have a couple follow up questions for you,
Speaker 2: okay about that when we get to our sports brah section,
Speaker 2: because the whole flattening thing is pertinent.
Speaker 5: Like like pert yes, breast like breast pertinent to your breasts.
Speaker 4: But in that.
Speaker 2: April twenty fifteen study on exercise and women's breast size,
Speaker 2: one major factor that correlated to higher exercise rates was
Speaker 2: not smaller breasts, but rather higher rates of breast health knowledge. Yes,
Speaker 2: be empowered educated, broad ducation of knowing about sports bra fits,
Speaker 2: knowing what should feel okay, and knowing that if we
Speaker 2: experience pain or soreness, it is not necessarily because exercise
Speaker 2: is bad for our boobs. But one thing that didn't
Speaker 2: come up in either of these studies we've talked about
Speaker 2: that came to mind as I was reading this was
Speaker 2: what about boob sweat? Yeah, because maybe there's an embarrassment
Speaker 2: factor around that. Although honestly, when I sweat a lot
Speaker 2: during when I'm exercising, I'm kind of proud of like
Speaker 2: all my sweat a little bit, But if you have
Speaker 2: larger breasts, boob sweat can be also a source of discomfort.
Speaker 5: Well, yeah, because not only is there again the risk
Speaker 5: of being oggled because like you got a sweaty chest,
Speaker 5: or possible discomfort because it's slipping and sliding down there,
Speaker 5: but also like for bigger chests, bigger breasts, you can
Speaker 5: potentially develop like a skin condition if you don't dry off,
Speaker 5: if you don't have a sports bra or a shirt
Speaker 5: that has wicking properties to get all of that moisture
Speaker 5: away from your skin.
Speaker 2: Yeah, breathability is an important thing to look for in
Speaker 2: sports bras because that underboob sweat, which apparently some people
Speaker 2: call swoob, can lead to chafing, possible rashes, and even
Speaker 2: yeast infections if that moisture hangs around long enough.
Speaker 4: And I became.
Speaker 2: Aware of this a couple of years ago when a
Speaker 2: breast anti persperant came out on the market and immediately
Speaker 2: sites like Jezebel.
Speaker 4: Jumped on it.
Speaker 2: And we're like, oh, here we go again, just pathologizing
Speaker 2: something else. We really need anti perspirant for our boobs now,
Speaker 2: this is ridiculous. Although I will say the brand name
Speaker 2: bust dust is fantastic.
Speaker 4: Baby powder can also work.
Speaker 2: And finally, some larger breasted feminists on the internet.
Speaker 4: Said, hey, skews. I see what you mean there, But
Speaker 4: for large arbrested women this is thing.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, better to wear boob deodorant or boob
Speaker 5: powder than having to go to the dermatologist and getting
Speaker 5: an anti fungal topical cream.
Speaker 4: You know, I mean, thank god that exists.
Speaker 5: But wouldn't you rather just wear boob powder than having
Speaker 5: to go go to the dermatologists because you have a
Speaker 5: boob east infection?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean and all. And that short sightedness to me,
Speaker 2: yet again, goes.
Speaker 4: Around to our lack of producation. I'm going to keep
Speaker 4: saying it. Should I just trademark it? I think so
Speaker 4: kind of like c literacy, you need some producation.
Speaker 2: Yes, but what happens when boobs go pro We're going
Speaker 2: to talk about that when we come right back from
Speaker 2: a quick break.
Speaker 4: And now back to the show.
Speaker 2: So, like said at the top of the podcast, Caroline,
Speaker 2: with your example of women's golfing, breasts can literally get
Speaker 2: in the way of competitive sports.
Speaker 5: Well yeah, and I mean if just look at mythology,
Speaker 5: if you talk about the Amazons, According to Amazon myth
Speaker 5: they just totally lopped off a whole boob so that
Speaker 5: they could be more effective with their archery, and there are.
Speaker 2: A lot of professional or elite athletes who have undergone
Speaker 2: breast reductions in an attempt to improve their athletic performance,
Speaker 2: although we should note that there is no study corroborating
Speaker 2: that that will reliably improve your game or your time whatever.
Speaker 4: Are we surprised? I mean there's been like all of
Speaker 4: like three.
Speaker 5: Boob sports studies, sports boobs sports sports boobs studies.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well, and also I think there you know,
Speaker 2: we just don't we just don't understand still, like how
Speaker 2: women's bodies work had to toe all that well. But
Speaker 2: in competitive sports such as golfing obviously, archery, hurdlers, gymnasts,
Speaker 2: tennis players, anything where you have a swing, water polo
Speaker 2: players apparently like keeping your boobs in the water.
Speaker 4: How many times have you jumped into.
Speaker 2: A body of water, whether it is a pool or
Speaker 2: lake or something and that top just flies right off.
Speaker 4: I know that they're in one pieces, but boobs, there's
Speaker 4: the risk of them trying to escape from the top. Yes, yes,
Speaker 4: which happens.
Speaker 2: And even Ronda Rousey mma fighter in the sports bras
Speaker 2: you know that the fighters will wear has had to
Speaker 2: contend with potential nip slips.
Speaker 5: Yeah, because wasn't it her first professional UFC fight that
Speaker 5: her opponent was like on her back trying to essentially
Speaker 5: break her neck, and so she was worried about like, well, okay,
Speaker 5: I've got to survive, but also my sports bra is
Speaker 5: slipping dangerously lower and lower and lower. So she fighting
Speaker 5: this woman with one hand and fighting with her.
Speaker 4: Sports bra with the other basically.
Speaker 5: But if her if she had experienced a sports bra
Speaker 5: malfunction during that fight, it certainly would not have been
Speaker 5: the first boob to.
Speaker 4: Be out at a sporting event.
Speaker 2: Yes, So Amanda Hess noted this in a piece she
Speaker 2: wrote over at ESPN Magazine, which I was so thrilled
Speaker 2: to see when it came out a couple years ago,
Speaker 2: because I was like, yes, sports boobs, Hello, No one's
Speaker 2: talking about that. She's sited this incident in nineteen ninety seven,
Speaker 2: when then eighteen year old Ritrean runner Nebuat hobbed to
Speaker 2: marry him had to run the majority of a five
Speaker 2: k meter qualifying heat with her boob out because she
Speaker 2: I don't know if she like left her sports bra
Speaker 2: at home or what, but she had to borrow one.
Speaker 4: No, no, just a camul.
Speaker 5: She borrowed a singlet, Oh my god, and didn't have
Speaker 5: a sports bra under it.
Speaker 2: Oh and so she started running and immediately and her
Speaker 2: boobs started running away too.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Well, because, as we've discussed in the first part of
Speaker 5: this episode, your boobs are on the move majorly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and hes noted in the article that understandably this
Speaker 2: athlete like didn't leave her apartment for a week.
Speaker 4: She was just mortified.
Speaker 2: Yeah again, thank god Twitter didn't exist.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, oh big time. But you know you mentioned
Speaker 5: that there's no real study to corroborate claims that smaller
Speaker 5: breasts or no breasts uh helps your game, but plenty
Speaker 5: of women have pursued this route. In two thousand and nine,
Speaker 5: Romanian tennastar Simona Hollop got a breast reduction to help
Speaker 5: improve her play, and her play actually did improve. She
Speaker 5: was a thirty four double D at the time before
Speaker 5: her reduction, But there was a petition that a bunch
Speaker 5: of guys circulated like asking her to not have the surgery.
Speaker 4: And there you go, there's the aggling factor.
Speaker 2: Thanks for nothing, because boob bounce embarrassment roots back to
Speaker 2: that kind of nonsense.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but the next year you have Australian hurdler Janna Rowlinson,
Speaker 5: who announced that she was going to get her breast
Speaker 5: implants removed to try to improve her chances of making
Speaker 5: it to the twenty twelve Olympics. She actually didn't make
Speaker 5: it because of a foot injury, not because of.
Speaker 4: Boobs or no boobs.
Speaker 2: And even though like we said, there isn't any firm
Speaker 2: data on this, plastic surgeons such as doctor ed Domanankis,
Speaker 2: who was speaking to the Orange County Register, assume that
Speaker 2: breast implants and larger breasts are a negative in sports
Speaker 2: like golf, tennis and track, although the doctor said except
Speaker 2: in boxing, they might help because they would quote soften
Speaker 2: the blow, to which I was like, okay, this man
Speaker 2: has never been punch of the boobs. We talked about
Speaker 2: this in our last episode we did, and some people,
Speaker 2: speaking of MMA and Ronda Rowsey, some have suggested that
Speaker 2: chest strikes aka boob punches should be banned in women's
Speaker 2: UFC fighting, but Rowsey's like, what, no, no, you just
Speaker 2: protect your chest.
Speaker 5: Well, there was an entire Reddit thread where somebody was
Speaker 5: trying to figure out how badly getting punched in the
Speaker 5: boob does hurt, and it was so fascinating to me
Speaker 5: to look at the responses because so many women were like, Oh,
Speaker 5: it's the worst, I will have to lie down on
Speaker 5: the ground to recover, and other women were like, no,
Speaker 5: it doesn't hurt at all.
Speaker 4: To me, A boob hit really hurts.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, a boob hit when you are like on
Speaker 2: the verge of a period.
Speaker 5: Oh, don't even I can't even like, I can't even
Speaker 5: touch them.
Speaker 2: There are so many Yahoo answers type Google results asking.
Speaker 4: Whether getting punched in the breast or.
Speaker 2: The testicles hurts more, to which I'm like, Internet finds
Speaker 2: something better to do with your time.
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter.
Speaker 5: Yeah I don't, yeah exactly, But okay, So back to
Speaker 5: boxing though, and punching everybody in their boobs in the ring.
Speaker 4: In two thousand and.
Speaker 5: Nine, British amateur boxer Sarah Bluden was not allowed to
Speaker 5: compete in the UK's Amateur Boxing Association events because of
Speaker 5: her breast implants.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and their defense was saying that it was because
Speaker 2: of risk to breast tissue, but plastic surgeons that the
Speaker 2: Orange County Register and reporting on this talk to disagreed,
Speaker 2: saying that our breasts take more of a beating so
Speaker 2: to speak, and just day to day life than her
Speaker 2: implants would And Bluden said, they're gel implants and so
Speaker 2: it's not like they could possibly rupture that was I mean,
Speaker 2: that's just something you would rarely see of an athlete
Speaker 2: intentionally enlarging her breasts.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I would also imagine too that this is
Speaker 4: a factor for beach volleyball.
Speaker 2: Where you know, I mean, the Olympics is happening as
Speaker 2: we are recording this podcast, and you know, a lot
Speaker 2: of uniforms are essentially like sports bras and briefs, and
Speaker 2: that is one of the reasons why it's a really
Speaker 2: popular sport for a male audience.
Speaker 5: Oh have you seen the meme circulating about beach volleyball.
Speaker 5: It's showing a woman in she's got a hit job
Speaker 5: and she's completely covered. She's on one side of the
Speaker 5: volleyball net, and then there's I don't know if she's
Speaker 5: American or Australian on the other side in her what
Speaker 5: is basically bikini but sports bra and briefs.
Speaker 4: And they were like.
Speaker 5: Now, tell us that one country isn't more empowered than
Speaker 5: the other, meaning that like, look at this white woman
Speaker 5: in her bikini. She's clearly, so much more free to
Speaker 5: live life the way she wants to.
Speaker 4: Oh, I thought it was the reverse, where.
Speaker 5: No, it was the white guy was like, see, America
Speaker 5: is more free, and basically the entire Internet jumped on
Speaker 5: this guy like are you serious?
Speaker 2: Yeah, because what I saw was women are wearing he
Speaker 2: jobs for personal choice, whereas that uniform is required.
Speaker 4: So which is more free?
Speaker 2: Also, again, Internet finds something better to do with your
Speaker 2: time for serious such as learning about sports broad technology.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's more productive.
Speaker 2: Here's the thing we need, and I mean this seriously.
Speaker 2: We need better sports broad technology. It is sorely emphasis
Speaker 2: on sorely needed. And this was something that Nicola Brown,
Speaker 2: who was the lead author of that London Marathon study,
Speaker 2: was saying to the New York Times. I mean she
Speaker 2: was saying like, this is just like a matter of
Speaker 2: basic wellness for women. There are not adequate sports bras
Speaker 2: that are affordable. I mean, you can get a really
Speaker 2: high tech, super duper sports bra, but it's going to
Speaker 2: cost you upwards of sixty to eighty dollars.
Speaker 4: Yeah, if not more. I mean there was a great
Speaker 4: was it on BuzzFeed?
Speaker 5: Yeah, they sent differently shaped women to try on the
Speaker 5: same sports bras to see how they all worked with
Speaker 5: different bodies, And I think two of the women chose
Speaker 5: the same bra, but then the other two chose different
Speaker 5: ones because just because this one bra is supposed to
Speaker 5: be so great doesn't mean it's gonna work for your
Speaker 5: body type. But often the ones that are more supportive
Speaker 5: do tend to be more outrageously expensive.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for all of them, the worst performing was the
Speaker 2: cheapest Hayes sports bra, Yeah, which was a bomber, you know,
Speaker 2: because a lot of times my sports bra shopping involves
Speaker 2: just like walking into target, grabbing what I see and
Speaker 2: then buying some housewares that I don't need.
Speaker 5: Well, of course that is my struggle as well life.
Speaker 5: But the thing though about sports bras is you're supposed
Speaker 5: to replace them so often, like a toothbrush, and so
Speaker 5: I don't.
Speaker 4: I don't because they're so expensive.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't realize that I basically need to get
Speaker 2: rid of all but two of my sports bras. But
Speaker 2: the thing is, though sports bras make a massive difference
Speaker 2: in terms of that breast soreness issue.
Speaker 4: This is the fact that.
Speaker 2: I was teasing to earlier, where Nicola Brown that researchers
Speaker 2: said that their right fitting sports bra can reduce breast
Speaker 2: discomfort regardless of your breast size in around eighty five
Speaker 2: percent of women who experience it. I mean, that's a
Speaker 2: pretty powerful sports bra right there, But it's just a
Speaker 2: matter of.
Speaker 4: Getting the right fit.
Speaker 2: I would argue that a right fitting sports bra is
Speaker 2: even more important than a right fitting bra or bra.
Speaker 5: Oh, although I am more likely to cry trying on
Speaker 5: sports bras than regular bras because if you want a
Speaker 5: very supportive sports bra, it's probably going to be very restrictive,
Speaker 5: so trying to get in and out of them. Do
Speaker 5: you know how hard it is to try to squeeze
Speaker 5: into a sports bra only to find out that it's
Speaker 5: either too big or too small, and then trying to
Speaker 5: pull it off and you like dislocate your shoulder and
Speaker 5: then you're crying at Nike and you realize your blood
Speaker 5: sugars crashed.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's why you get the ones with the backclasps.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that'd be helpful.
Speaker 2: Yeah, those do exist, but again those are going to
Speaker 2: be your pricier bras. And in the same way as
Speaker 2: we talked about with the science of breast sag in
Speaker 2: our last podcast, I mean the fact of the matter
Speaker 2: is like, we're just late to the game on all
Speaker 2: of this. We didn't start studying breast biomechanics until the
Speaker 2: nineteen nineties, probably because you finally had more women in
Speaker 2: the field being like, hey, here is something that directly
Speaker 2: applies to my life and we should study. But also,
Speaker 2: breasts are just really hard to study like this because
Speaker 2: they're so varied. Yeah, and it's hard to replicate the
Speaker 2: a representative breast population in motion, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: because it's like you would how.
Speaker 4: Do you reward that?
Speaker 5: Well, right, not obviously not all breasts are the same
Speaker 5: size and shape, but obviously not everybody is literally only running.
Speaker 4: On a treadmill, you know.
Speaker 5: There's like, obviously so many different types of activity even
Speaker 5: just walking around day to day that you would need
Speaker 5: a different type of sports bra for.
Speaker 2: But the big thing that I learned in terms of
Speaker 2: sports broad technology is that originally they were just all
Speaker 2: about compression, smush them down, keep them in, and those
Speaker 2: are the basic like uniboob style sports bras were probably
Speaker 2: the most familiar with. But now companies like a Brooks
Speaker 2: or a Nike are looking at how to isolate specific
Speaker 2: movement areas.
Speaker 5: I thought you were going to say how to isolate specific.
Speaker 2: Boobs, specific boob boob mint areas because of that figure
Speaker 2: eight motion, you know, And man, I.
Speaker 4: Want to be like, I want to go to that lab.
Speaker 2: I want to go to that sports bra lab so
Speaker 2: bad if anyone listening can hook me up with some
Speaker 2: sports bra research.
Speaker 5: But that just kind of thinking about boob art, like
Speaker 5: what if you paint your nipples and then run in
Speaker 5: front of a canvas, Like would you get some cool
Speaker 5: figure eights going?
Speaker 2: There's only one way to find out, I know, talk
Speaker 2: about the best like pinterest craft.
Speaker 5: I'm sure it's been done.
Speaker 2: But in the meantime until our perfect, magical affordable sports
Speaker 2: bra that I argue should be like government subsidized for
Speaker 2: low income people with breasts, whatever your gender identity is.
Speaker 2: There are some tips for things that you can do
Speaker 2: to alleviate some of that pain. Specifically, if you have
Speaker 2: larger breasts, look for encapsulation style sports bras rather than
Speaker 2: the a boob style because those encapsulation style sports bras
Speaker 2: are the ones that have separate cups. And right now
Speaker 2: in the studio, I am making a cup gesture At Carolina.
Speaker 4: We're of like the Lady Gaga monster hands.
Speaker 2: Honestly, it feels a little aggressive because I'm doing it
Speaker 2: at you.
Speaker 4: Keep those away from me.
Speaker 2: But those encapsulation styles are are way more effective at
Speaker 2: controlling movement. And that was something that was corroborated in
Speaker 2: that BuzzFeed experiment trying to find the perfect bra, where
Speaker 2: the two women with the largest breasts were like, oh
Speaker 2: my god, I had no idea. As soon as they
Speaker 2: put on an encapsulation style bra, it was a whole
Speaker 2: new world.
Speaker 5: And also, the focus doesn't need to be so much
Speaker 5: on whether you have underwire or whether you.
Speaker 4: Have adjustable straps on your sports.
Speaker 5: Bra, because eighty percent of your bra support actually comes
Speaker 5: from the band around your ribs, which I can adjust
Speaker 5: to with.
Speaker 4: My sports bra.
Speaker 5: That made me cry in the Nike dressing room.
Speaker 2: But underwire and adjustable straps those like clippy things. If
Speaker 2: you have a larger frame, those are going to dig
Speaker 2: into your skin, So avoid that well.
Speaker 5: Especially yeah, especially if you're doing some type of lengthy exercise,
Speaker 5: like if you're gonna go running for hours, that can
Speaker 5: eventually really make you hate life. Also just running for
Speaker 5: hours plural hour, like I don't know, maybe you're doing
Speaker 5: an iron man. Maybe so an iron woman, an iron ironman,
Speaker 5: iron man.
Speaker 2: Again, the back clasps can make life a lot.
Speaker 4: Easier, so can front clasp. Oh yes, the front clasp.
Speaker 5: Although, but then that would make it harder if you
Speaker 5: do have the what did you call it, encapsulated style,
Speaker 5: because you need if you've got that style, you need
Speaker 5: the front and center of the broad to be resting
Speaker 5: on your breastbone and the band to be sitting comfortably.
Speaker 5: So the front clasps might interfere with that. Just all
Speaker 5: the more important to maybe talk to somebody who knows
Speaker 5: who has a better broad education.
Speaker 4: Also, look for breathe ability.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's a big factor for reducing potential chafe.
Speaker 4: And those super strappy.
Speaker 2: Lululemon bras that are really cute might not work the
Speaker 2: best support wise.
Speaker 5: Yeah, like maybe maybe if you're gonna like go do
Speaker 5: yoga or some low impact thing where you just want
Speaker 5: to wear sports bra but you don't care about bouncing
Speaker 5: or support.
Speaker 4: All that much. Maybe yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, the two of the girls in the BuzzFeed
Speaker 2: piece chose the Lululemon bra. One of them was smaller chested,
Speaker 2: but the other girl who chose them I think was
Speaker 2: a C Cup. So I mean Lula Limon bras will
Speaker 2: cost you a fortune, but I mean they are very
Speaker 2: well made. But again those the multi strappy, multiple straps
Speaker 2: don't equal multiple support because again it's all about that
Speaker 2: waist band or the chest band.
Speaker 4: Excuse me, Hey, maybe you've got a waist band on
Speaker 4: your bra. I don't know. Yeah, how high on your
Speaker 4: girdle bra?
Speaker 5: And again, you know you're probably gonna have to to
Speaker 5: replace the more often the way that you would your
Speaker 5: tennis shoes. You know, if you're out there running every
Speaker 5: single day, for instance, you're gonna have to replace your
Speaker 5: tennis shoes or you're running shoes more often than someone
Speaker 5: like me who doesn't run, but who used to.
Speaker 4: All right, stop judging. It's the same with your sports bras.
Speaker 5: They're with all of that supporting and the stretching and
Speaker 5: everything that's happening, and washing them regularly. I hope they're
Speaker 5: eventually gonna get worn down.
Speaker 2: They are, and I think the biggest thing that I
Speaker 2: would advocate and also listeners, I would love some tips.
Speaker 4: On how to better do this.
Speaker 2: But we need to do such a better and more
Speaker 2: vigilant job of just normalizing breast development. For girls because obviously,
Speaker 2: like we need better sports bras. Yes, but you know
Speaker 2: the fact that for girls and women alike, that embarrassment
Speaker 2: factor plays such a prominent role in determining whether we
Speaker 2: do or don't exercise for health's sake. This is not
Speaker 2: about staying then, this is about being healthy.
Speaker 5: What did Sissy SpaceX mother call them and Carrie dirty pillows?
Speaker 5: We need to get away from the mentality that what
Speaker 5: is on your chest as you're developing through puberty are
Speaker 5: dirty and somehow embarrassing and shameful because it's just part
Speaker 5: of your body. So the more that we can understand
Speaker 5: about our anatomy and our development, what's healthy, what's unhealthy,
Speaker 5: the better for all of us, and hopefully the fewer
Speaker 5: popular girls who will approach girls like me and for
Speaker 5: some reason shame them about needing to wear bra very
Speaker 5: bizarre to.
Speaker 2: Me, bra shaming because that was something I thought that
Speaker 2: would be like a.
Speaker 4: Badge of pride, like who got their period first. I
Speaker 4: don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 5: We can't all live in a Judy Bloom book.
Speaker 4: It's true, it's true.
Speaker 2: And when it comes to roeducation, boys need it too,
Speaker 2: in the sense of raising boys to treat and look
Speaker 2: at girls as humans rather than sex objects, and for
Speaker 2: them too to just understand like basic female development, you know,
Speaker 2: destigmatize all of this stuff.
Speaker 3: It's healthy for every body.
Speaker 2: So with that, listeners, we want to hear all of
Speaker 2: your thoughts. I know we have a lot of people
Speaker 2: who exercise, whether with organized sports or casually work out
Speaker 2: in our audience. I know a lot of people are
Speaker 2: probably listening to this podcast while they are jogging or
Speaker 2: at the gym, and I'm so curious to know whether
Speaker 2: this rings true for you and any tips that you
Speaker 2: can offer, any sports bras that you can recommend, send
Speaker 2: it all our way. Mom Stuff at HowStuffWorks dot com
Speaker 2: is our email address. You can also tweet us at
Speaker 2: mom Stuff podcast or messages on Facebook, and we've got
Speaker 2: a couple of messages to share with you right now.
Speaker 5: So I have a letter here from Eleanor about our
Speaker 5: two parter talking to Terry O'Neill, the president of the
Speaker 5: National Organization for Women. Eleanor writes, OMG, your latest podcast
Speaker 5: interviewing Terry O'Neil had me crying tears of joy.
Speaker 4: I loved hearing her.
Speaker 5: Talk about the support of black women on Twitter and
Speaker 5: lgbt QIA people. It made me so proud of all
Speaker 5: of our trailblazers and filled me with feminist pride.
Speaker 4: I've only thought of NOW.
Speaker 5: As a pretty chill organization, but it had some problematic history.
Speaker 4: But I'm so glad you.
Speaker 5: Guys taught me about their intersectionality. Plus, I really enjoyed
Speaker 5: the mentions about how NOW wanted women to stay angry.
Speaker 5: It inspired me to find my anger and go march and.
Speaker 4: Picket and protest in the streets.
Speaker 5: Let's get the era passed, y'all. Let's go angry feminists.
Speaker 5: Thanks for your fantastic podcast, Eleanor, and she says, ps,
Speaker 5: screw Judge Aaron Persky.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Judge Persky is the one who made the
Speaker 2: decision in both Stanford rape case to essentially about a
Speaker 2: rapist off.
Speaker 4: I have just the most touching.
Speaker 2: Letter from Catherine, who writes when I turned twenty, I
Speaker 2: dropped out of college. I'd been major hopping for two
Speaker 2: and a half years and realized I had to decide
Speaker 2: what to do with my life in order to justify
Speaker 2: taking out more student loans. I spent the next two
Speaker 2: years working a dead end job and a manufacturing plant.
Speaker 2: Typically spending three days a week on the production floor
Speaker 2: and two days a week doing custodial work. I want
Speaker 2: to go on record as saying that factory workers are
Speaker 2: some of the hardest working and kindest people in the world,
Speaker 2: and our entire society would crumble without them.
Speaker 4: Here here, however, I hated my job.
Speaker 2: I actually looked forward to my cleaning days because scrubbing
Speaker 2: toilets meant I was allowed to listen to my iPod.
Speaker 2: So fast forward to Catherine's discovery of stuff Mom never
Speaker 2: told you, and she says, one day I heard the
Speaker 2: first Sminty episode about librarians, and the one she's referencing
Speaker 2: folks was I think from two thousand and nine or
Speaker 2: ten years ago, she says. I ended up spending the
Speaker 2: last hour and a half of the day hidden in
Speaker 2: the cleaning supply closet, perched on an upturned five gallon bucket,
Speaker 2: googling how to become.
Speaker 4: A librarian on my phone.
Speaker 2: I had achieved step one to a happy life, figure
Speaker 2: out what you want. It was time for step two,
Speaker 2: figure out what you have to do to get it.
Speaker 2: I discovered that in order to become a librarian and
Speaker 2: run my own library, someday I needed to go to
Speaker 2: grad school, which meant going back and getting my bachelor's,
Speaker 2: which was somewhat intimidating. Within a few weeks, I'd applied
Speaker 2: to two schools, one that offered a BA in Women's
Speaker 2: and Gender studies and a community college as a safety school.
Speaker 4: To boost my GPA.
Speaker 2: My essay and letters of recommendation must have been convincing,
Speaker 2: because I was accepted and I majored in women in
Speaker 2: Gender Studies. And for a school in a state that's
Speaker 2: around ninety percent.
Speaker 4: White, we had an amazingly intersectional program.
Speaker 2: More than half of the WSG professors I had were
Speaker 2: women of color. Three of my favorite professors are immigrants,
Speaker 2: and I had at least as many queer professors as straight.
Speaker 2: Instead of listening to Sminty while scrubbing toilets, I was
Speaker 2: listening during my commute to school, and Spinty episode topics
Speaker 2: and fun facts made it into my papers and classroom
Speaker 2: discussions on a regular basis.
Speaker 4: This past May, I graduated as.
Speaker 2: A member of our WSG honor society, Iota Iota Iota,
Speaker 2: and finished my undergrad with a three point four GPA.
Speaker 2: I'm the first of my immediate family to finish college.
Speaker 2: In a couple of months, I'm heading to the University
Speaker 2: of Denver, my first choice grad school, where I will
Speaker 2: be getting my master's in Library and Information Sciences. I'm
Speaker 2: currently on the longest step to a happy life, Step three,
Speaker 2: do the work. Even though the original Librarian episode was
Speaker 2: before Caroline's time, I thought it was important that I
Speaker 2: share my store with you wonderful ladies. One episode of
Speaker 2: this podcast sparked an epiphany that completely altered the trajectory
Speaker 2: of my life. I highly doubt I'm the only one
Speaker 2: out there who has had this type of experience on
Speaker 2: behalf of all of us who have had their lives
Speaker 2: changed by this podcast. I want to say thank you
Speaker 2: so freaking much, even though we've never met.
Speaker 4: I love you both to the moon and back.
Speaker 6: Well.
Speaker 4: Kat.
Speaker 2: First of all, congratulations, Second of all, you are a badass.
Speaker 2: And third, thank you for one of the best letters
Speaker 2: we have ever received. And I don't want to put
Speaker 2: words in your mouth, Caroline, but I can say for
Speaker 2: myself that y'all have changed my life as much as
Speaker 2: perhaps we have changed yours.
Speaker 4: So thank you so much.
Speaker 6: And if you have letters to make us cry as well, Mom,
Speaker 6: stuff at HowStuffWorks dot com is our email address and
Speaker 6: for links to all of our social media as well
Speaker 6: as all of our blogs, videos, and podcasts.
Speaker 4: With our sore says.
Speaker 2: So you can learn so much more about boobs. Head
Speaker 2: on over to stuff mom Never Told You dot com.
Speaker 2: For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit
Speaker 2: HowStuffWorks dot com