April 11, 2018

"The popularity of lightweight bras in China today echoes the 'natural breasts movement' of nearly a century ago. "

Sixth Tone reports:
Back then, beauty standards favored flat over busty: Many Chinese women bound their chests with white cloth or wore tight vests. Small so-called lilac breasts — as well as tiny feet — had long been the stuff of Chinese men’s sexual fantasies. On Women’s Day in 1927, a group of sex workers demonstrated naked in Wuhan, now situated in central China’s Hubei province, to protest breast binding. The year after the Wuhan demonstration, the government banned breast binding nationwide for health reasons, as it had done for foot binding more than a decade earlier....

Lingerie wasn’t something people talked about publicly until the 1990s, when modern advertising once more redefined society’s feminine aesthetics — this time favoring large bosoms.... But the tide is turning again — spurred in part by rising feminist awareness — and many young Chinese women are no longer ashamed of their small breasts...

“We are probably the first Chinese [underwear] brand that uses models with small breasts — in the past, every brand would look for models who had a ‘career line,’” Liu says, referring to cleavage enhanced by push-up bras that supposedly lead to smoother career paths in male-dominated offices.
But the lightweight bras, without padding, present the problem of showing nipples, which, we're told, is "still taboo" in China, but:
Mao, the public relations officer [at a retailer of non-padded bras], solves the problem by opting for thicker clothes whenever she wears a bralette. But she thinks visible nipples will gain acceptance at some point. “I’ve seen Rachel’s nipples on ‘Friends’ popping out many times,” she says.

51 comments:

rhhardin said...

The fashion pendulum jiggles from one extreme to the other.

rhhardin said...

Big boobs is a cartoon convention for hot babe, when a hot babe is called for.

wild chicken said...

My parent was in china back then and she told me about the horrible bras. And she was well endowed.

Still,I didn't know it was that bad.

the 4chan Guy who reads Althouse said...

“I’ve seen Rachel’s nipples on ‘Friends’ popping out many times,” she says."

Oh yeah.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

...the 'natural breasts movement'...

I like the natural breast movement, especially with women on trampolines.

Fernandinande said...

I'm shocked that there were no blondes except for the boy and his "BB Cream".

Bay Area Guy said...

I am generally for women wearing lightweight bras, before taking them off.

MayBee said...

You can buy nipple petals in cloth or silicone. They are great, even for use in America.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Career Line.....lol!!!

tcrosse said...

I like the natural breast movement, especially with women on trampolines.

So did Jimmy Kimmel, before he got woke.

Bay Area Guy said...

Stormy Daniels vehemently opposes the natural breast movement......

chickelit said...

Confucius say “in China, women point way to future.”

Heartless Aztec said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Heartless Aztec said...

I'm not sure where I could fit into this conversation. The only thoughts I ever had about bras was undoing the in one smooth "Otter" move and removing g them poste haste at the Midway Drive-in.

Paul said...

Nipples to be 'accepted'? What is next, camel toe?

Luke Lea said...

The horrors of footbinding, which was nearly universal until a century ago, at least among the middle and upper classes, needs to be retold.

madAsHell said...

Nipples to be 'accepted'? What is next, camel toe?

You say that as if there is something wrong with it.

Xmas said...

Jennifer Aniston healing the world.

Inga...Allie Oop said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Doug said...

Damn, Ignorance Is Bliss, you're too fast!

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Bali has some wonderful unpadded fabric bras, smooth lines, no annoying little strap adjusters, the strap is one continuous piece, so soft it’s like wearing no bra at all, but still gives enough support. They’re called “comfort revolution comfort-flex”. They’re probably made in China

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Doug said...

Damn, Ignorance Is Bliss, you're too fast!

That's what my wife always says.

mccullough said...

More men than women in China, especially among those under 30. Women in China don’t need to do anything to get laid. All these young guys without women are going to present a problem to the Politburo. And their women just want to fuck American men anyway

Earnest Prole said...

My adult daughter is now watching Friends for the first time and recently mentioned the visible nipples as though it was the strangest anthropological curiosity. I took the opportunity to let her know that for many years her own mother, like so many other women during that era, was unconcerned that her nipples were visible through her clothes even though she was absolutely modest in every other way. I miss those days.

tcrosse said...

No mention of Loni Anderson Cleavage Shadow, to accentuate that career line.

JML said...

And Anne choses this article to not include any pictures that would accentuate the content...You know, something uplifting...that rounds out the message and helps make a point or two...

Mr. Groovington said...

The Chinese have a vagina advantage. It’s a presentation thing. But if it’s not what you’ve got, but how you use it, it’s Latinas the whole way.

Mr. Groovington said...

Currently in India, and the data is there, but insufficient for a generalization as yet.

walter said...

Free the nipple

walter said...

释放乳头

Shìfàng rǔtóu

walter said...

Buy through the Althouse portal, of course:
https://www.amazon.com/Silicone-Attachable-Nipples-Adhesive-Reusable/dp/B00H2S83N4

Sam L. said...

Being a guy, I like natural breast movement.

Rusty said...

Yes please.

The Godfather said...

In Orwell's "Burmese Days" (pub. 1934): "He [the Englishman] put his hand on her [his Burmese mistress's] breast. Privately Ma Hla May [the mistress] did not like this, for it reminded her that her breasts existed -- the ideal of a Burmese woman being to have no breasts. She lay and let him do as he wished with her . . . ."

Biotrekker said...

ah, Rachel's nipples....memories...

mikee said...

Is it sweeps week here on Althouse? And where are the pictures accompanying the post?

Bunk said...

Why isn't this happening in the USA? WHY?

D 2 said...

"...Long been the stuff of chinese men's sexual fantasies..."
Stuff? Is that the right word there?

Wife: "what's your fantasy, sweetie?"
Husband: "um, ... legs, breasts, ass. You know, that stuff."

FullMoon said...

nga said... [hush]​[hide comment]

Bali has some wonderful unpadded fabric bras, smooth lines, no annoying little strap adjusters, the strap is one continuous piece, so soft it’s like wearing no bra at all, but still gives enough support. They’re called “comfort revolution comfort-flex”. They’re probably made in China


Yesterday, TTR playfully mentioned your anus. Now this.
Interesting how random comments add up to create an image in one's mind.

rehajm said...

And their women just want to fuck American men anyway

Is there a sign up sheet for the guys somewhere? Asking for a friend...

whitney said...

No nipples

Nancy Reyes said...

here in the Philippines, it is almost impossible to find a decent D cup bra, and my Amerasian granddaughter has problems finding clothes to fit her curves.
Genetic?
Or diet?
I suspect that as Asians change to a western high fat diet, the estrogen will increase and this will change.

Indeed, there has been a huge increase in the rate of breast cancer there since 1990.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/why-china-is-seeing-a-huge-increase-is-breast-cancer-rates-a7994231.html

I haven't found statistics as to size, but of course, you can "bind" A cups, but not C or D cup bosoms.

robother said...

Didn't the Hollies sing about this, "a long cool woman with a flat chest"? (Though I might be mistaken.)

Scott Patton said...

Judd Apatow has a Rachel's Nipples bit on Netflix.

D 2 said...

Different song RobO. Although I am wonderin if maybe Mr B Seger was a time traveller to Wuhan back in the days of topless protest:

I was a little too short, could use a few pounds
In tIght pants, points hardly reknown
She was a black haired beauty with big dark eyes
And points all her own sitting way up high
Way up firm and high.....

gadfly said...

Blogger tcrosse said...
No mention of Loni Anderson Cleavage Shadow, to accentuate that career line.

Better yet - Loni In The Sky With Diamonds.

MD Greene said...
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Kyzer SoSay said...

Nipple points thru a thin shirt (with maybe just the shaded hint of the circle around them) are proof that God loves humans.

FIDO said...

Wrap those dumplings!

Blue@9 said...

I suspect that as Asians change to a western high fat diet, the estrogen will increase and this will change.

There is variation amongst different Asians. Korean women, for example, tend to be a little more endowed up top compared to Chinese or Japanese women.