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In the 1960s, feminist icon Germaine Greer decreed Bras are a funny invention making them a target of feminist activism. In 1968, the first and famous protest against a beauty pageant took place, the Miss America in the USA, where around 400 women gathered fa and placed bras, false eyelashes, hairspray and even high-heeled shoes in a Independence Trash Can and set fire to it. This became the first of the legendary Burn the Bra movement.
Eventually, burning bras became to be settled as a radical form of feminism where amorality and sexual liberation were the same. And bras, acknowledge gratitude God for La Perla, would soon come to be a multi-billion industry dominated by substantial multinationals as they are today.
Strangely, the history of the bra is entwined with the social significance of women of the time. This month, Saudi Arabia finds itself at the epicentre of a new gracious of Arab Spring. It has just allowed its women to sell lingerie.
Saudi Arabia, that houses the holiest Islamic metropolis, Mecca, is a kingdom that underlines modesty, propriety and gender take advantage of to the point of caricature. But until this month, womencovered head to toe in sinister, faces veiled and always accompanied by an unwilling and embarrassed male dependent onwere forced to buy lingerie from salesmen, absolute strangers. Religious hardliners opposed the thought of men and women coming together socially or professionallyespecially in malls. So even though there are proficient and trained women doctors and professors, retail is a field that has been so far kept away from them. Then, in 2006, a law was passed banning men from working in womens clothing and makeup stores but it had never been put into impression. Not until good old Facebook, that magical playground for all soapbox activism came into effectual use. Reem Asaad, a fashion-loving banking professor from Jeddah, started an online struggle banning women from shopping at lingerie stores that didnt employ women. It would after all force King Abdullah to take note and enforce the law. The king is now a star to his countrys women besides being an unwitting face to this lingerie revolution.
Source: Indian Express