This is the weird thought I am having at the moment (watching Annie Hall – that famous Woody Allen film). We’re about an hour into this film and I’ve noticed that, except perhaps when wearing lots of layers (where it is hard to tell), none of the women in this film are wearing a bra.

What no over the shoulder boulder holder?

What no over the shoulder boulder holder?

Then I remembered, nobody who appeared on TV or in films from that decade wore a bra either. It’s not just this film. It is a whole decade. Why not?

The Internet claims that it was both a fashion trend (for slim, flat-chested waify women in floaty gowns with long middle-parted hair) and a general response to the wave of feminist thought that came in that decade, or just before. Bras were a sign of male oppression of women and the sexualization of the human mammary glands by those same males. So off the bras came. But Then after a few years, it seems, women got fed up of dangling around in the fresh air and bras were put back on.

The bra-burning era

The bra-burning era

They even invented a ‘look no bra, bra’ in the 1970s.

I do wonder what those ladies with more ample bosom than the likes of me did in the 1970s. Perhaps they went for the ‘free spirit no-bra’ bra from Playtex. Did it come in a D-cup?

Did Dolly Parton dangle loose in the 1970s? I doubt it.

Did Dolly Parton dangle loose in the 1970s? I doubt it.