Did you know that on October 13 every year women worldwide are encouraged to go braless to promote breast cancer awareness?

A Breast Cancer Survivor Goes Bra-free

I never burned my bra in the 1960s as I was too young to have had one at that time, and I was way too inhibited to ditch the garment in the 1970s hippie era. I saw it as vital for a respectable appearance, even though I had very little to put in those AA cups. Now, as a two-time breast cancer survivor, I go bra-free all year round. I feel much more comfortable without a bra, but that’s not the main reason I’ve given up wearing one. As part of the extensive research I did for my comic self-help memoir, My Wild Ride: How to Thrive After Breast Cancer and Infidelity, I found compelling evidence that the link between bras and breast cancer is stronger than that between smoking and lung cancer. Numerous peer-reviewed studies support this. As I wrote in a May 1, 2023 blog, you wouldn’t think so by Googling the issue, as your search is likely to trumpet the 2014 Hutchinson Study that purports to debunk the bra-cancer link. However, that study had no control group of women who did not wear bras which would be like looking at the relationship between smoking and lung cancer without including any non-smokers to compare to the smokers. It also only included post-menopausal women, in whom the bra-cancer link was much weaker because of survivorship bias.

Doughnuts and Fake Boobs: No Bra Day’s Strange Evolution

As Ann Brenoff reported in a July 9, 2012 HuffPost article, No Bra Day was invented by a 19-year-old Californian, using the wonderful online pseudonym Anastasia Doughnuts, to promote breast cancer awareness. The original date she chose for us to all go braless was July 9, 2011. Critics of the idea have claimed it was offensive and sexualized women, encouraging men to ogle their boobs, or at least those nipple bumps poking through their clothing. Some folks have gone so far as to say it is damaging, tasteless and frivolous to connect not wearing a bra to the serious issue of breast cancer. I would advise anyone with that view to read an excellent book that does just that: Dressed to Kill: The Link Between Breast Cancer and Bras by Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismeijer.

Ms. Doughnuts’ concept was then co-opted by a Toronto plastic surgeon, Dr. Mitchell Brown, promoting breast reconstruction. According to Wikipedia, the first “BRA Day” event, titled “Breast Reconstruction – An Evening of Learning and Sharing,” was held in Toronto, Canada at Women’s College Hospital and Toronto General Hospital on October 19, 2011. Apparently, Dr. Brown was concerned that women undergoing mastectomies resisted reconstructive surgery. As a 2-time breast cancer survivor with a BRCA gene mutation, I took the somewhat controversial step of refusing mastectomies and going for lumpectomies, partly because there was no way in hell that I was going to deal with reconstruction and breast implants. As I explained in my blog, Breast Implant Illness: It’s All in Your Head, implant illness is very real. To date, Nicole Daruda’s Facebook support group, Breast Implant Illness and Healing, has more than 180,000 members.

Now No Bra Day is now celebrated worldwide on October 13 to promote awareness of breast cancer symptoms and encourage women to do self-exams. That works for me. I’ll celebrate going bra-free 365 days a year. In 2012, about 400,000 individuals took part in No Bra Day, 250,000 of those on Facebook. Every year, more women in more countries join in to liberate their breasts from brassieres.

Paraskevidekatriaphobia, Anyone?

This year, October 13 falls on a Friday, which is bad news for anyone with paraskevidekatriaphobia—yes, that’s a real word to describe the irrational dread of Friday 13th, which is a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, a fear of the number 13. So, if you happen to be paraskevidekatriaphobic, maybe you can overcome your dread of that date by celebrating No Bra Day because your mind will be occupied by the greater fear that you are revealing more of your anatomy than usual in public.

Celebrity Breasts on Display

Many of the rich and famous, however, don’t need any excuse to let it all hang out. As InStyle magazine reported on November 32017, All of These Celebrities Left Their Bras at Home for the Day. At least in my opinion, some of their clothing choices were not the most flattering, even though they were probably high-priced famous-name labels.  I’ve found more attractive garments at local yard sales, usually at only a buck or two a piece. I’ve become an expert at seeking out items that will make me look good braless and preferably also hide my nipples because No Bra Day is an annual observance I follow all through the year. I’m never going back to boob bondage!