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SMNTY Classics: Sports Boobs · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stuff
0:07
Speaker 1: I'll Never Told You, a production of iHeartRadio, and today
0:19
Speaker 1: I wanted to bring back a classic about sports spras. Interestingly,
0:25
Speaker 1: I wanted to bring this back to revisit what is
0:29
Speaker 1: going on in the world of the Women's World Cup.
0:32
Speaker 1: But you beat me to it, Samantha with the Monday Minnie.
0:36
Speaker 1: But we have been talking a lot about sports and
0:38
Speaker 1: about sports uniforms, which we did talk about in that
0:41
Speaker 1: episode we did with Whitney about women's soccer and women's
0:45
Speaker 1: shorts in particular, and this was an episode I remember
0:49
Speaker 1: editing in being my mind being blown. I didn't realize
0:55
Speaker 1: so much of this, and definitely during the pandemic. If
1:01
Speaker 1: I wear a bra, it's a sports bra almost always.
1:07
Speaker 2: Gotta be comfortable.
1:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, But there's also a lot of talk. I
1:13
Speaker 1: know I mentioned this before, but there's a lot of
1:16
Speaker 1: talking here. And there has been a lot of talk
1:18
Speaker 1: recently about so called gintimidation for women and feeling like
1:25
Speaker 1: they can't go to the gym and feeling like they
1:28
Speaker 1: need to look a certain way if they do go.
1:31
Speaker 1: And me, when I was in middle school and all
1:35
Speaker 1: of the boys giving his names based on mountainous states
1:41
Speaker 1: and the size of our boobs. So I just remember
1:46
Speaker 1: editing this episode and being like, yes, yes, So please
1:53
Speaker 1: enjoy this classic episode.
1:58
Speaker 3: Welcome to Stuff Mom Never Told from houstuff Works dot com.
2:08
Speaker 4: Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Kristen and I'm Caroline,
2:11
Speaker 4: and today we're talking about.
2:13
Speaker 2: Boobs in motion, boobs, sweating boobs, bouncing boobs, exercising, boobs.
2:21
Speaker 4: On the move, boobs on the move and on the
2:25
Speaker 4: move they are.
2:26
Speaker 5: Because we're gonna get I don't want to, I'm not
2:28
Speaker 5: gonna spoil it, but there is a factual tidbit in
2:32
Speaker 5: this episode that involves the car and it's blowing my
2:38
Speaker 5: mind and I can't wait to blow y'all's minds too.
2:40
Speaker 5: Because boobs when you move, they move even faster.
2:44
Speaker 4: Breasts are incredible.
2:45
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna go ahead and say they're incredible. But
2:47
Speaker 2: they can also make exercising incredibly challenging, oh for sure.
2:53
Speaker 2: And this episode was inspired by research that I just
3:00
Speaker 2: mumbled across of how there are now two and only
3:05
Speaker 2: two studies looking at how breasts and our breast size influence.
3:12
Speaker 4: Women and girls' likelihood to exercise. Yeah.
3:15
Speaker 5: Well, I it's funny that we had like boob research kismet,
3:18
Speaker 5: I think because just further proving that you and I
3:22
Speaker 5: are somehow connected at the brainstem. Because around the same
3:25
Speaker 5: time that you were stumbling across this research, I was
3:27
Speaker 5: separately having a conversation with someone else about how lady
3:32
Speaker 5: golfers frequently have to change their stance or have a
3:37
Speaker 5: different stance than male golfers because of their breasts getting
3:41
Speaker 5: in the way of their swing.
3:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was this golf commentator who was quoted in
3:48
Speaker 2: one of the pieces I was reading from like nineteen
3:50
Speaker 2: ninety five, where during an LPGA.
3:55
Speaker 4: Event he said on television, yeah, how women's boobs just
4:00
Speaker 4: get in the way, just like straight up said it.
4:04
Speaker 4: And the thing entirely rong.
4:06
Speaker 2: I know, the thing is like cringe reading that, But
4:09
Speaker 2: then at the same time it's like, well, you mean
4:12
Speaker 2: you do have a point, And the thing is it
4:14
Speaker 2: is time we pay a lot more attention to our breasts,
4:19
Speaker 2: whether we are exercising casually just for health and fitness,
4:24
Speaker 2: all the way up to professional sports like a professional golfer.
4:29
Speaker 2: And by pay attention to I don't mean, of course
4:32
Speaker 2: just aggling breasts, because that is one deterrent of people
4:36
Speaker 2: not wanting to exercise.
4:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's already, we've got that covered.
4:40
Speaker 5: Yeah, the oggling of boobs, it's already.
4:43
Speaker 4: We're good. Yeah, we're good on that end.
4:45
Speaker 2: But it's time for us to pay closer attention to
4:50
Speaker 2: figuring out how to vault over exercises boob barrier because
4:56
Speaker 2: there's a there's a breast barrier there.
4:58
Speaker 4: And as a small.
5:00
Speaker 2: Woman, I think this is why the research was so
5:04
Speaker 2: surprising to me. Not that I couldn't imagine how that
5:08
Speaker 2: was a barrier, but it's just something that I don't
5:11
Speaker 2: have to think about all that much.
5:14
Speaker 4: I jog and I can.
5:15
Speaker 2: Wear a compression sports bra and I'm good. But not
5:19
Speaker 2: the case for women who have more than my acups.
5:23
Speaker 5: Yeah, boob bounce is one of the more painful things
5:28
Speaker 5: that I have felt. And I don't think you have
5:31
Speaker 5: to be like a double h to feel that way.
5:33
Speaker 5: I mean, I think boobs of any size bouncing hurts.
5:37
Speaker 4: It's uncomfortable.
5:39
Speaker 5: Literally, if I see a woman jogging down the side
5:41
Speaker 5: of the road and there's a lot of boob bounceage,
5:45
Speaker 5: my first thought is like, oh God, the pain, the pain.
5:49
Speaker 5: I can like feel it it's like telegraphed onto my body.
5:52
Speaker 4: I can feel it.
5:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, and if I'm not wearing a bra and I'm
5:56
Speaker 2: running around, which you know what it happens sometime times people.
6:02
Speaker 4: Yeah, extureing you just running in a circle in your apartment.
6:05
Speaker 2: Pretty much, that's how I get my feminist rage out.
6:08
Speaker 2: I'd throw my bra off and just run in circles.
6:11
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean, my even my very small breaths
6:15
Speaker 2: will experience that kind of pain too. I mean, boob
6:18
Speaker 2: bounce pain I think is pretty universal.
6:21
Speaker 5: I mean, if there's one thing we do not need
6:23
Speaker 5: as women and girls, it is another barrier to exercise
6:27
Speaker 5: and to physical activity. Because there's some pretty disheartening stats
6:31
Speaker 5: out there.
6:32
Speaker 4: For instance, by the age of fourteen.
6:34
Speaker 5: Girls are dropping out of sports at twice the rate
6:38
Speaker 5: that boys are.
6:39
Speaker 2: And a lot of times the explanation for that, the
6:42
Speaker 2: go to explanations are, oh, well, girls become a lot
6:45
Speaker 2: more self conscious with puberty. They are not as interested
6:50
Speaker 2: in becoming like fit and potentially muscular, but they're more
6:54
Speaker 2: concerned about like beauty appearance.
6:57
Speaker 4: And that might be the case.
6:59
Speaker 2: But looking at the study we're about to I think
7:03
Speaker 2: there's more boob to it. Than that, and outside of
7:07
Speaker 2: organized sports, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease
7:12
Speaker 2: Control and Prevention, less than twenty percent of high school
7:15
Speaker 2: girls are getting their recommended amount of daily physical activity.
7:18
Speaker 4: And even that is half of what boys are getting.
7:23
Speaker 2: So like across the board, boys are exercising more.
7:26
Speaker 5: Yeah, and this is not only bad for just general
7:30
Speaker 5: health and establishing healthy, happy habits when you're a young person,
7:34
Speaker 5: but it also stinks because exercise is good for our
7:37
Speaker 5: breast health as well. It's not just making sure that
7:40
Speaker 5: you're a healthy weight and that you're fighting anxiety and
7:43
Speaker 5: depression with some good old physical activity, but your boobs
7:46
Speaker 5: could benefit from some moving around as well. And that's
7:48
Speaker 5: according to the Cleveland Clinic, women who get plenty of
7:53
Speaker 5: exercise are twenty five percent less likely to develop breast cancer.
7:58
Speaker 5: Because good solid exercise, getting your daily recommended exercise can
8:03
Speaker 5: boost your immune function, it can ward off obesity, and
8:07
Speaker 5: it can lower levels of both estrogen and insulin, and
8:11
Speaker 5: not to mention, it strengthens our bones and our hearts,
8:14
Speaker 5: which is very important for our holistic health as well,
8:16
Speaker 5: since women suffer far more from osteoporosis and heart disease
8:21
Speaker 5: is the number one killer of women, right, And so
8:25
Speaker 5: while exercise can help your mental health, your obviously your
8:30
Speaker 5: physical health, it can help improve body image when you
8:32
Speaker 5: feel stronger and more empowered. Your body image and your
8:37
Speaker 5: confidence can suffer if you feel like you can't exercise
8:41
Speaker 5: well or enough because your boobs are.
8:44
Speaker 4: Bouncing too much.
8:45
Speaker 5: And I mean that sounds silly, but like like we said,
8:48
Speaker 5: boob bounce can be painful, and more than being painful,
8:51
Speaker 5: it can also just draw unwanted attention, especially if you're
8:54
Speaker 5: one of those younger girls who's already a little bit
8:57
Speaker 5: self conscious.
8:58
Speaker 2: Well yeah, I mean, and girl in general are developing
9:03
Speaker 2: larger breasts earlier and at higher rates than they used
9:07
Speaker 2: to be. So this is something I mean, as soon
9:09
Speaker 2: as you become like aware of your developing body and
9:13
Speaker 2: how our developing body particularly are breasts are so immediately
9:17
Speaker 2: sexualized that can become a source of shame. And if
9:23
Speaker 2: we look though, just at the biomechanics of breast, it's incredible.
9:30
Speaker 2: This is what I mean when I say that breasts
9:31
Speaker 2: are incredible. And Caroline, please share your car fact.
9:36
Speaker 4: This is my favorite little tidbit.
9:39
Speaker 5: So you know, Kristin did mention that boobs and their
9:45
Speaker 5: movement and how they move has not been studied overly
9:48
Speaker 5: much yet, but one more recent study found that nipples
9:55
Speaker 5: on a c or decup breast, when you as a
9:58
Speaker 5: person are moving, they can accelerate up to forty five
10:03
Speaker 5: miles per hour in one second, which, my friends, is
10:06
Speaker 5: faster than a Ferrari.
10:08
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's my favorite boob related car fact or car
10:12
Speaker 4: related boob fact.
10:14
Speaker 2: It's like a mashup of stuff Mom never told you
10:16
Speaker 2: and our family podcast car stuff never before seen together
10:24
Speaker 2: in an hour of moderate jogging. As Amanda has noted
10:27
Speaker 2: over in ESPN magazine a couple of years ago, our
10:31
Speaker 2: breasts will bounce several thousand times. And if you have
10:35
Speaker 2: large breasts, even if you have small breast and they
10:37
Speaker 2: aren't supported. While obviously that can be painful because when
10:41
Speaker 2: we think of breast bouncing, we think of them just going.
10:43
Speaker 4: Up and down.
10:44
Speaker 2: In fact, they move in a figure eight motion, and
10:50
Speaker 2: large breasts can oscillate up to eight inches. And this
10:56
Speaker 2: is why, like, this is an extreme example, but this
10:59
Speaker 2: is also why if like, very large breasts in motion
11:02
Speaker 2: can potentially even.
11:03
Speaker 4: Break your clavical because they know that they move with
11:06
Speaker 4: that much.
11:07
Speaker 5: Force Oh, that sounds terrible, but it makes sense because
11:11
Speaker 5: before this podcast, I was talking to Holly from History Stuff,
11:15
Speaker 5: and she was talking about the very real divergence that
11:18
Speaker 5: happens when you are growing up and developing breasts of
11:22
Speaker 5: whatever size between the girls who go on to pursue
11:26
Speaker 5: ballet and the girls who, for instance, go on to
11:29
Speaker 5: pursue like hip hop dance or modern dance. And she
11:32
Speaker 5: then she of course made a joke because she's also
11:34
Speaker 5: a runner, made a joke about as she was developing
11:37
Speaker 5: her boobs popping up and hitting her in the face.
11:40
Speaker 2: Well, and I'm assuming that you know, ballets obviously associated
11:44
Speaker 2: with smaller breasts. That's probably why I did ballet for
11:47
Speaker 2: quite a while into high school.
11:50
Speaker 5: But then she also Holly also brought up an interesting
11:53
Speaker 5: point which I had not thought about before researching for
11:56
Speaker 5: this episode, that she was so threa thrilled when she
12:01
Speaker 5: was in college and sports bras finally came out in
12:05
Speaker 5: full force on the market.
12:07
Speaker 4: Because I just think of sports bras as.
12:08
Speaker 5: Like, sure, they've always existed the way.
12:11
Speaker 4: That bras have existed for a long time.
12:13
Speaker 5: No, like having good support bra wise, and like knowing
12:19
Speaker 5: enough about your boobs and about sports bras to support
12:22
Speaker 5: them correctly, Like that's kind of a new thing.
12:25
Speaker 4: Oh, it's still developing.
12:27
Speaker 2: Sportsbra technology has not caught up to the biomechanics of
12:31
Speaker 2: our boobs and their figure eight patterns. And I realized
12:37
Speaker 2: as we were researching for this episode that we should
12:40
Speaker 2: do a whole separate one on the history of the
12:42
Speaker 2: sports bra because it begins with a couple of ladies
12:46
Speaker 2: getting fed up and actually like tying two jockstraps together.
12:51
Speaker 4: Interesting. I hope they were clean.
12:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I mean, you know, jockstraps are essentially like
12:57
Speaker 2: men's sports bras, like testicular sports bras, right.
13:02
Speaker 4: The sports bro Yeah. So if we.
13:05
Speaker 2: Look though at this issue of developing breasts and girls
13:10
Speaker 2: exercise and sports participation, the fact of the matter is
13:15
Speaker 2: we need better broad ducation.
13:20
Speaker 4: And I would.
13:20
Speaker 2: Also argue, and I'll get into this a little bit more,
13:23
Speaker 2: I would also argue that girls in public schools or
13:28
Speaker 2: in low income areas need more affordable, well made sports
13:34
Speaker 2: bras if we want to close that competitive sports gap,
13:38
Speaker 2: you know, with a drop off after they turn fourteen
13:41
Speaker 2: at twice the rated boys.
13:43
Speaker 4: Sports bras are a big factor do this. They're so
13:46
Speaker 4: expensive they're so.
13:47
Speaker 2: Expensive, similar to you know, the whole tampon free tampon
13:51
Speaker 2: Tech's initiative, And how now in New York public schools,
13:56
Speaker 2: I believe they're going to be provided for free, which
13:58
Speaker 2: is fantastic. And this is all sparked by a very
14:03
Speaker 2: recent study and the only study of its kind, which
14:06
Speaker 2: came out in February twenty sixteen in the Journal of
14:08
Speaker 2: Adolescent Health. The studies titled the Influence of the Breast
14:12
Speaker 2: on Sport and Exercise Participation in school Girls in the UK,
14:16
Speaker 2: and in terms of pain, up to seventy two percent
14:21
Speaker 2: of women and girls experience exercise related breast discomfort.
14:25
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, no surprise, I am no stranger to that. Yeah.
14:30
Speaker 2: But when they were talking to girls about their breasts
14:35
Speaker 2: and how their breasts influenced their exercise or sports participation,
14:39
Speaker 2: seventy three percent of them cited at least one breast
14:45
Speaker 2: related concern, and the number one was embarrassment over bounced.
14:50
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, oh yeah, Okay, are you ready for a
14:53
Speaker 5: sad Cara story?
14:54
Speaker 4: Yes?
14:55
Speaker 2: Because yeah, also again because this is something I mean,
14:58
Speaker 2: I had zero boobs when I was like thirteen, fourteen
15:02
Speaker 2: years old.
15:02
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I was a little bit chebby when I
15:05
Speaker 5: was growing up, and as I was entering my pre
15:09
Speaker 5: pubescent phase and I was sprouting the first hint of Brestus's,
15:17
Speaker 5: I was getting a little bounce and it was uncomfortable.
15:20
Speaker 5: Suddenly pe was painful. It was painful to go to
15:24
Speaker 5: the gym and do my lap around the track.
15:27
Speaker 4: Like I was supposed to. And so I went home
15:30
Speaker 4: and I asked my mom, and I can't.
15:31
Speaker 5: Remember, this was in like fourth grade, fifth grade, and
15:36
Speaker 5: I asked to get a sports bra. And I mean,
15:40
Speaker 5: I was kind of excited by the idea, but also
15:42
Speaker 5: kind of the opposite of excited because it's like, oh, yeah,
15:46
Speaker 5: y bra, but also like.
15:47
Speaker 4: Oh crap, I'm growing up in a bra.
15:51
Speaker 5: And so you know, she was more than willing to
15:53
Speaker 5: take me shopping, and I went and I got a bunch.
15:55
Speaker 4: Of very basic white sports bras, and I wore it
16:01
Speaker 4: to school.
16:02
Speaker 5: Because we had pea every day. And I remember so
16:06
Speaker 5: distinctly getting like stares because you know, if you're wearing
16:10
Speaker 5: a white shirt, you can see that you're wearing a
16:12
Speaker 5: white bra underneath a white shirt.
16:14
Speaker 4: And I distinctly remember the popular girl.
16:18
Speaker 5: Walking by me and being like, are you wearing a bra,
16:23
Speaker 5: and I was just like, yeah, I mean, she couldn't
16:28
Speaker 5: say anything after that. She bra shamed you, She bra
16:31
Speaker 5: shamed me all because I was just developing differently. And
16:37
Speaker 5: I even remember so fast forward to about seventh grade.
16:40
Speaker 5: I'm in science class. My teacher is this amazing guy.
16:44
Speaker 5: He's like so funny, he's everybody's favorite teacher. I think
16:47
Speaker 5: this might have been eighth grade.
16:49
Speaker 4: And he starts like making this.
16:54
Speaker 5: He starts telling the story where he is talking about
16:57
Speaker 5: his own high school career or whatever in middle school
16:59
Speaker 5: career and talking about this girl who developed early and
17:02
Speaker 5: had to wear a bra, and he was making fun
17:05
Speaker 5: of her. And I remember turning bright red because I
17:08
Speaker 5: was one of the if not the earliest, to wear
17:11
Speaker 5: a bra in my class, simply because I just didn't
17:14
Speaker 5: want to have the bounce pain when I ran laps
17:18
Speaker 5: in the gym.
17:21
Speaker 4: I am shaking my head at that teacher.
17:22
Speaker 5: Well, I know, I'm shaking my head at both of them,
17:25
Speaker 5: because clearly there had not been enough education on that
17:28
Speaker 5: popular girl's part to understand that people developed differently, and
17:31
Speaker 5: that if you have more tissue or fat on your
17:35
Speaker 5: chest than someone else, the bounce is gonna hurt.
17:38
Speaker 4: And on the teacher's part.
17:39
Speaker 5: Like, what are you even thinking You're talking to a
17:41
Speaker 5: co ed classroom full of girls who are now, presumably
17:45
Speaker 5: at this age, all wearing bras or most of them,
17:48
Speaker 5: So like what is the making fun of and the
17:51
Speaker 5: shaming purpose?
17:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, also just inappropriate on a bazillion level.
17:56
Speaker 4: Should we be talking about that?
18:08
Speaker 2: And I wonder with this study and the embarrassment that's cited,
18:13
Speaker 2: whether it's more just sort of an internalized thing of
18:17
Speaker 2: when your breasts are moving, you just.
18:19
Speaker 4: It makes your body feel really obvious.
18:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, and when you are twelve, thirteen, fourteen years old,
18:25
Speaker 2: at least in my recollection, the last thing you want
18:29
Speaker 2: to do is be super obvious. So, whether it's something
18:32
Speaker 2: more personal like that, or if it's the experience of
18:35
Speaker 2: having their breasts being aggled by boys and let's face
18:41
Speaker 2: it also men. Because this reminds me. Your school stories
18:45
Speaker 2: remind me of high school when in ninth and tenth grade,
18:51
Speaker 2: our class would go on a retreat at the beginning
18:54
Speaker 2: of the school year and we would go swimming.
18:58
Speaker 4: And there was a girl in my.
18:59
Speaker 2: Grade who was very petite, and she had very large breasts,
19:03
Speaker 2: and I remember when she went swimming, she wore a
19:08
Speaker 2: T shirt and everyone was like, why is she wearing
19:11
Speaker 2: a T shirt? And they were like, oh, it's because
19:13
Speaker 2: she's got those big boobs. And then when she finally
19:17
Speaker 2: like braved taking off her shirt because she was so
19:19
Speaker 2: tired of people giving her a hard time for wearing
19:21
Speaker 2: a shirt, the guys lost it, you know, and and
19:27
Speaker 2: even the girls were like, oh my god, do you
19:29
Speaker 2: see her boobs as is so big.
19:31
Speaker 4: Because she's like doing something to you on purpose. Yeah, Like, yeah,
19:36
Speaker 4: I mean there's so much. I mean, and this is
19:37
Speaker 4: what I mean by the.
19:38
Speaker 2: Broducation, like we have really, I mean, we stigmatized.
19:43
Speaker 4: Girls breasts a lot.
19:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's no surprise that that embarrassment factor is
19:50
Speaker 2: the number one.
19:51
Speaker 4: And it's not just yeah, not just inflicted by you know.
19:54
Speaker 2: People in public, you know, attention, unwanted attention from boys.
19:57
Speaker 2: But also the number two reason were embarrassment that the
20:00
Speaker 2: girls sided in his study was having to change in
20:04
Speaker 2: front of other girls.
20:05
Speaker 4: And I remember this too when I.
20:07
Speaker 2: Was taking ballet, speaking of ballet boobs a few minutes ago,
20:12
Speaker 2: you know, we all changed together and you quickly had
20:16
Speaker 2: to get like comfortable getting naked in front.
20:19
Speaker 4: Of girls, and.
20:22
Speaker 2: For me it wasn't too embarrassing because in ballet you
20:26
Speaker 2: were like expected to be flat chested. But if it
20:31
Speaker 2: hadn't been like these these girls who I was also
20:33
Speaker 2: like very close friends with, there were maybe like six
20:37
Speaker 2: of us.
20:37
Speaker 4: You know, it's a safe space to have to get naked,
20:40
Speaker 4: but in.
20:40
Speaker 2: A locker room, oh no, I would have been embarrassed too.
20:45
Speaker 2: You know, if you're already feeling awkward in your body
20:47
Speaker 2: and maybe you are developing faster than other girls.
20:50
Speaker 4: Oh good. So the final pieceo of braducation.
20:55
Speaker 2: Is that the number three concerned they sided was at
20:59
Speaker 2: fifteen percent of the girl said that their boobs were
21:01
Speaker 2: simply too big to exercise, that it wouldn't be healthy.
21:04
Speaker 2: And that's, you know, a common fallacy that we think
21:08
Speaker 2: where it's like, yeah, I mean, if I run around,
21:10
Speaker 2: that's gonna be it hurts, Therefore it must be bad
21:13
Speaker 2: for my breast. But in fact the problem is that
21:16
Speaker 2: we don't have supportive enough and accessible enough sports bras
21:21
Speaker 2: because a lot of them also weren't wearing sports bras
21:23
Speaker 2: at all.
21:24
Speaker 5: Yeah, meanwhile, I was wearing like the same type of
21:27
Speaker 5: sports bra.
21:28
Speaker 4: I don't know when I first.
21:29
Speaker 5: Got a real quote unquote bra, because I mean, dude,
21:34
Speaker 5: like those sports bras, like for when you're like kind
21:37
Speaker 5: of pre booby, you're not totally booby yet.
21:39
Speaker 2: Yah, the breast buds, which I know that's the correct
21:42
Speaker 2: anatomical term, but.
21:43
Speaker 4: It squaks me out. It squicks me out too. I
21:45
Speaker 4: don't like that either.
21:47
Speaker 5: But in this study too, they found that forty six
21:51
Speaker 5: percent of girls between eleven and eighteen said that their
21:54
Speaker 5: boobs did influence their sports participation. And that was true
22:00
Speaker 5: for sixty three percent of larger breasted girls compared to
22:03
Speaker 5: forty five.
22:04
Speaker 2: Percent of girls with smaller breasts. So obviously more common
22:07
Speaker 2: for larger breasted.
22:08
Speaker 5: Girls too, but not uncommon for girls with smaller breas.
22:11
Speaker 4: Exactly, That's what I was about to say.
22:12
Speaker 2: I mean, this is like an issue across the board,
22:15
Speaker 2: and like I said, not many were even wearing a
22:17
Speaker 2: sports bra. Only ten percent wore a sports bra every
22:20
Speaker 2: time they exercised.
22:22
Speaker 4: And I wonder, this is something that didn't come up
22:24
Speaker 4: in anything that we read.
22:26
Speaker 2: And I was like kind of shaking my hands at
22:28
Speaker 2: my computer because hello, like bras are expensive. I mean
22:34
Speaker 2: I grew up in a family without much money and
22:35
Speaker 2: I remember that, like I got my first like set
22:39
Speaker 2: of bras, and those.
22:40
Speaker 4: Were like the bras that I was gonna have to use.
22:42
Speaker 2: And yeah, I had a sports bra, but it was
22:44
Speaker 2: like a kmart sports bra. And thank god I didn't
22:47
Speaker 2: have larger breast because of course it would not have
22:49
Speaker 2: been able to support me well.
22:51
Speaker 4: And there's also the embarrassment factor too.
22:52
Speaker 5: Thank god I had a mother who was like super
22:55
Speaker 5: ready at any point to take me shopping for whatever
22:57
Speaker 5: I needed, because I'm sure, I'm I'm sure like her
23:00
Speaker 5: as a grid woman was like, you don't need a
23:02
Speaker 5: sports bra, but she was willing to be supportive as
23:06
Speaker 5: supportive as that sports bra. But I'm sure that there
23:10
Speaker 5: are people with other, you know, different family situations where
23:13
Speaker 5: it would be horrifically embarrassing to have to ask your
23:15
Speaker 5: parent or your guardian or whoever to take you sports
23:18
Speaker 5: brash off.
23:19
Speaker 4: Their single dad. Yeah.
23:20
Speaker 2: Oh, and in this study, again, for girls who exercised
23:25
Speaker 2: the most.
23:27
Speaker 4: They worried the most about how sports bras.
23:29
Speaker 2: Fit and also how their breasts looked while exercising. So
23:35
Speaker 2: we are pretty much immediately like kind of scrutinizing and
23:40
Speaker 2: feeling nervous about the appearance of our breasts almost as
23:43
Speaker 2: as soon as we get them and hammering home again
23:48
Speaker 2: my broaducation platform. Eighty seven percent of those girls wanted
23:53
Speaker 2: to just know more about breasts in general.
23:55
Speaker 4: They hadn't been taught that much.
23:56
Speaker 2: And I have a feeling that kind of like the
23:59
Speaker 2: sex ed talk at home, you probably don't get a
24:01
Speaker 2: lot much breast education at home because it's one of
24:03
Speaker 2: those things where it's like, oh, we.
24:05
Speaker 4: Don't need to you know, fast forward your development too.
24:09
Speaker 5: Much, or it's like you know, oh you're getting them good,
24:14
Speaker 5: yeah good, yeah, all right.
24:15
Speaker 2: Well, and there's a lot that adult, grown up women
24:19
Speaker 2: don't know about their own breasts. Have I ever been
24:21
Speaker 2: professionally fitted for a bra? No?
24:23
Speaker 4: I haven't.
24:23
Speaker 2: I'm sure I'm wearing the wrong size bra.
24:25
Speaker 5: I have side note, okay, you know how like sometimes
24:30
Speaker 5: on the podcast we'll talk about a health issue and
24:32
Speaker 5: we're like, maybe get a second opinion. Don't be afraid
24:35
Speaker 5: to get a second bra opinion as well. So I
24:38
Speaker 5: took a friend's advice and went to a particular department store.
24:41
Speaker 5: This is for regular bras, not sports bras. That will
24:44
Speaker 5: remain nameless, and it will remain nameless because It was
24:46
Speaker 5: a horrific experience. The women were nice enough, I mean,
24:49
Speaker 5: they were fine, but they were essentially telling me, and
24:53
Speaker 5: based on my experience as a person with breasts who
24:57
Speaker 5: identifies as a woman and is alive, I've worn bras
25:02
Speaker 5: for a long time, and I know what fits and
25:04
Speaker 5: feels good, and I know enough to know that you
25:06
Speaker 5: shouldn't wear a bra that is so tight that it
25:10
Speaker 5: feels like it's cutting off your blood flow. And these
25:13
Speaker 5: women at this department store were essentially telling me that
25:16
Speaker 5: that's what I needed to do. I needed to wear
25:17
Speaker 5: a bra that was so tight that it was going
25:19
Speaker 5: to then stretch out and then it would fit. And
25:22
Speaker 5: I was like, I that's not a thing, but I
25:26
Speaker 5: am now naked in this dressing room with you, so
25:28
Speaker 5: I can't tell you that you're full of it. So
25:31
Speaker 5: they basically said that I needed to wear a bra
25:33
Speaker 5: that was significantly smaller than the size that I.
25:36
Speaker 4: Was wearing comfortably on a normal basis.
25:38
Speaker 2: Smaller cup size are smaller, much smaller band size, and
25:44
Speaker 2: much bigger cup size.
25:46
Speaker 5: I was like, okay, well this is I'm just going
25:49
Speaker 5: to This isn't right. I won't walk you through my
25:52
Speaker 5: entire mental process, but I was like, this is this
25:56
Speaker 5: is so wrong. And then I went to another store
26:00
Speaker 5: and was fitted by a nice, elderly woman who essentially
26:03
Speaker 5: told me that, yes, you're exactly right.
26:05
Speaker 4: The size that you're marrying.
26:07
Speaker 5: But it's still good to go through that process of
26:09
Speaker 5: getting sized and fitted by someone who has been trained,
26:12
Speaker 5: knows what she's doing, and don't be afraid to get
26:14
Speaker 5: a second bra opinion.
26:16
Speaker 2: Well, and even just basics about our breast health and
26:19
Speaker 2: how our breasts work, and concerns about how our breasts look,
26:25
Speaker 2: whether it's you know, being shy.
26:28
Speaker 4: About aerola size or.
26:30
Speaker 2: A random mole or hair, you know, all of these
26:33
Speaker 2: things that we have just sanitized from girls' educations because
26:40
Speaker 2: you know, forty four percent of the girls in that
26:42
Speaker 2: study too wanted to know specifically about you know, breast
26:47
Speaker 2: in sports bras as it applies to to exercise, and
26:53
Speaker 2: women could also use some more support as well. And
26:57
Speaker 2: again this is something that's been really under study. There's
27:00
Speaker 2: there are only you know, a couple of studies looking
27:02
Speaker 2: at this. One of the most recent ones was in
27:06
Speaker 2: twenty twelve in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
27:09
Speaker 4: Which studied London Marathon competitors.
27:13
Speaker 2: And you might think, huh, well, that's a pretty uniform,
27:15
Speaker 2: you know, sample population there, but in fact, that encompassed
27:19
Speaker 2: a range of shapes and sizes, including fifty six different
27:23
Speaker 2: bra sizes from double as to double h's, and band
27:27
Speaker 2: sizes from twenty to forty inches. So the methodology is sound,
27:33
Speaker 2: and they found that more than a third of those
27:35
Speaker 2: women reported breast soreness. But the correlation between breast soreness
27:41
Speaker 2: and exercise is not.
27:43
Speaker 4: So clear cut, because hello.
27:45
Speaker 2: You know what makes our breaststore our menstrual cycles, and.
27:48
Speaker 4: That is something I can attest to.
27:51
Speaker 5: Yeah, So, like before I had an IUD, I never
27:54
Speaker 5: got breast soreness. Ever, I really never had PMS before
27:57
Speaker 5: I had an IUD.
27:58
Speaker 4: And suddenly I'm, you know.
28:02
Speaker 5: Like a thirty two year old woman breaking out and
28:05
Speaker 5: crampy and also like wanting to murder other drivers on
28:08
Speaker 5: the road, and my boobs hurt. And it's crazy because
28:12
Speaker 5: my boobs get so big right before my period and
28:15
Speaker 5: they hurt, and I'm like, oh, it's coming because period
28:19
Speaker 5: related breath soreness.
28:21
Speaker 4: The struggle is real.
28:22
Speaker 2: The struggle is real, and I've had days when they're
28:26
Speaker 2: just like so sore that. Yeah, I'm like, okay, it's
28:29
Speaker 2: gonna be a yoga day. We are not going to
28:32
Speaker 2: go jogging. Why I'm referring to myself in the Royal wey,
28:35
Speaker 2: I don't know.
28:37
Speaker 5: Well, no, you're encompassing all three of you. Oh yes,
28:41
Speaker 5: me and uh Lucinda and Lucille.
28:45
Speaker 2: Well, I was trying to think of, you know, some
28:47
Speaker 2: rad ladies maybe like me and Glorious Steinem and Flow Kennedy.
28:51
Speaker 4: It's my my little triumvirate.
28:55
Speaker 2: And that London Marathon study though, found that in fact, my.
29:00
Speaker 4: Breastworness is real. Even acups gets sore.
29:03
Speaker 2: Twenty five percent of ACUP women in the study reported soreness.
29:08
Speaker 4: And having a baby.
29:10
Speaker 2: Can influence this because, as we talked about in our
29:12
Speaker 2: last episode on the science of saggy breast pregnancy, structurally
29:19
Speaker 2: like changes our boobs.
29:21
Speaker 5: Yeah, hormones don't discriminate. No, it doesn't matter what size
29:24
Speaker 5: your boob is. Your hormone is probably gonna make it hurt.
29:28
Speaker 5: Your singular hormone.
29:30
Speaker 4: I don't know why so is one hormone.
29:32
Speaker 5: But so the result of all of this pain, this discomfort,
29:35
Speaker 5: the self consciousness, well, you've got a lot of women
29:40
Speaker 5: in this study who ended up training less intensely or
29:43
Speaker 5: skipping training altogether.
29:45
Speaker 2: And we're gonna get to this in just a little bit,
29:47
Speaker 2: but do not be disheartened because there is a surprisingly
29:54
Speaker 2: effective remedy for a lot of that pain, and that's
29:58
Speaker 2: called a well fitting sports huh.
30:01
Speaker 4: Yeah.
30:01
Speaker 2: But more on that and just a little bit, because
30:06
Speaker 2: there was a more recent study from April twenty fifteen that,
30:11
Speaker 2: like the British study, which was actually I think inspired
30:14
Speaker 2: by this study, looked at the correlations between women's breast
30:18
Speaker 2: size and exercise participation and it found that seventeen percent
30:23
Speaker 2: of women avoid exercise for boob related reasons, specifically lack
30:29
Speaker 2: of a comfortable support of sports bra.
30:31
Speaker 4: And here we go again.
30:33
Speaker 2: Bounce embarrassment, Yes, excessive bounce.
30:36
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, I know because people are already staring at
30:39
Speaker 5: boobs all the time, and if they are then boobs
30:41
Speaker 5: in motion, people are going to be like, even if
30:44
Speaker 5: it's not literally to augly you in a sexual way,
30:46
Speaker 5: if it's just like, oh, look at those boobs bouncing,
30:50
Speaker 5: you know, you get tired of drawing attention to your boobs.
30:54
Speaker 4: And listen, not.
30:55
Speaker 2: To get too TMI about it, but we've already talked
30:58
Speaker 2: a lot about our own breasts.
30:59
Speaker 4: I'll go ahead, not another fact of my boobs.
31:02
Speaker 2: An exercise obviously, the excessive bounce thing not so much
31:06
Speaker 2: an issue for me, but one reason why I am
31:10
Speaker 2: hesitant to go jogging, especially on a busy thoroughfare and
31:16
Speaker 2: just a sports bra without a shirt tank top over
31:18
Speaker 2: it is.
31:20
Speaker 4: Because of nipples.
31:22
Speaker 2: The all if like if nibbles are visible, like at all,
31:27
Speaker 2: you know, the if the old headlights turn on, because
31:29
Speaker 2: that just happens, you will get looks. And yeah, I mean,
31:35
Speaker 2: of course, it's just like a thing, you know. I'm
31:37
Speaker 2: sure people's eyes are just kind of.
31:38
Speaker 4: Naturally drawn to it.
31:39
Speaker 2: But I have felt so self conscious before jogging and realizing,
31:44
Speaker 2: you know, in just a sports bra and initially being like, yes,
31:48
Speaker 2: I'm running in just a sports bra and embracing my body,
31:50
Speaker 2: no big deal. Oh got my nibbles really on parade?
31:57
Speaker 5: Well, I mean that's I The sportsra that I had,
32:00
Speaker 5: like my main sports bra, squeezes the life out of me.
32:05
Speaker 5: And part of that is that it flattens, not only
32:07
Speaker 5: flattens my boots to my chest so much, but it
32:09
Speaker 5: also flattens and camouflage is the nips as well.
32:13
Speaker 2: Well, I'm gonna have a couple follow up questions for you,
32:16
Speaker 2: okay about that when we get to our sports brah section,
32:21
Speaker 2: because the whole flattening thing is pertinent.
32:26
Speaker 5: Like like pert yes, breast like breast pertinent to your breasts.
32:32
Speaker 4: But in that.
32:33
Speaker 2: April twenty fifteen study on exercise and women's breast size,
32:39
Speaker 2: one major factor that correlated to higher exercise rates was
32:43
Speaker 2: not smaller breasts, but rather higher rates of breast health knowledge. Yes,
32:49
Speaker 2: be empowered educated, broad ducation of knowing about sports bra fits,
32:54
Speaker 2: knowing what should feel okay, and knowing that if we
32:57
Speaker 2: experience pain or soreness, it is not necessarily because exercise
33:01
Speaker 2: is bad for our boobs. But one thing that didn't
33:06
Speaker 2: come up in either of these studies we've talked about
33:08
Speaker 2: that came to mind as I was reading this was
33:11
Speaker 2: what about boob sweat? Yeah, because maybe there's an embarrassment
33:16
Speaker 2: factor around that. Although honestly, when I sweat a lot
33:18
Speaker 2: during when I'm exercising, I'm kind of proud of like
33:21
Speaker 2: all my sweat a little bit, But if you have
33:24
Speaker 2: larger breasts, boob sweat can be also a source of discomfort.
33:29
Speaker 5: Well, yeah, because not only is there again the risk
33:32
Speaker 5: of being oggled because like you got a sweaty chest,
33:35
Speaker 5: or possible discomfort because it's slipping and sliding down there,
33:39
Speaker 5: but also like for bigger chests, bigger breasts, you can
33:44
Speaker 5: potentially develop like a skin condition if you don't dry off,
33:48
Speaker 5: if you don't have a sports bra or a shirt
33:51
Speaker 5: that has wicking properties to get all of that moisture
33:53
Speaker 5: away from your skin.
33:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, breathability is an important thing to look for in
33:59
Speaker 2: sports bras because that underboob sweat, which apparently some people
34:03
Speaker 2: call swoob, can lead to chafing, possible rashes, and even
34:09
Speaker 2: yeast infections if that moisture hangs around long enough.
34:13
Speaker 4: And I became.
34:14
Speaker 2: Aware of this a couple of years ago when a
34:19
Speaker 2: breast anti persperant came out on the market and immediately
34:24
Speaker 2: sites like Jezebel.
34:26
Speaker 4: Jumped on it.
34:27
Speaker 2: And we're like, oh, here we go again, just pathologizing
34:30
Speaker 2: something else. We really need anti perspirant for our boobs now,
34:34
Speaker 2: this is ridiculous. Although I will say the brand name
34:38
Speaker 2: bust dust is fantastic.
34:40
Speaker 4: Baby powder can also work.
34:53
Speaker 2: And finally, some larger breasted feminists on the internet.
34:57
Speaker 4: Said, hey, skews. I see what you mean there, But
35:02
Speaker 4: for large arbrested women this is thing.
35:05
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, better to wear boob deodorant or boob
35:08
Speaker 5: powder than having to go to the dermatologist and getting
35:11
Speaker 5: an anti fungal topical cream.
35:14
Speaker 4: You know, I mean, thank god that exists.
35:16
Speaker 5: But wouldn't you rather just wear boob powder than having
35:20
Speaker 5: to go go to the dermatologists because you have a
35:22
Speaker 5: boob east infection?
35:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean and all. And that short sightedness to me,
35:26
Speaker 2: yet again, goes.
35:27
Speaker 4: Around to our lack of producation. I'm going to keep
35:33
Speaker 4: saying it. Should I just trademark it? I think so
35:36
Speaker 4: kind of like c literacy, you need some producation.
35:39
Speaker 2: Yes, but what happens when boobs go pro We're going
35:45
Speaker 2: to talk about that when we come right back from
35:47
Speaker 2: a quick break.
35:53
Speaker 4: And now back to the show.
35:59
Speaker 2: So, like said at the top of the podcast, Caroline,
36:02
Speaker 2: with your example of women's golfing, breasts can literally get
36:08
Speaker 2: in the way of competitive sports.
36:11
Speaker 5: Well yeah, and I mean if just look at mythology,
36:15
Speaker 5: if you talk about the Amazons, According to Amazon myth
36:19
Speaker 5: they just totally lopped off a whole boob so that
36:21
Speaker 5: they could be more effective with their archery, and there are.
36:25
Speaker 2: A lot of professional or elite athletes who have undergone
36:28
Speaker 2: breast reductions in an attempt to improve their athletic performance,
36:33
Speaker 2: although we should note that there is no study corroborating
36:38
Speaker 2: that that will reliably improve your game or your time whatever.
36:45
Speaker 4: Are we surprised? I mean there's been like all of
36:48
Speaker 4: like three.
36:48
Speaker 5: Boob sports studies, sports boobs sports sports boobs studies.
36:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well, and also I think there you know,
36:56
Speaker 2: we just don't we just don't understand still, like how
36:59
Speaker 2: women's bodies work had to toe all that well. But
37:02
Speaker 2: in competitive sports such as golfing obviously, archery, hurdlers, gymnasts,
37:09
Speaker 2: tennis players, anything where you have a swing, water polo
37:12
Speaker 2: players apparently like keeping your boobs in the water.
37:16
Speaker 4: How many times have you jumped into.
37:19
Speaker 2: A body of water, whether it is a pool or
37:21
Speaker 2: lake or something and that top just flies right off.
37:23
Speaker 4: I know that they're in one pieces, but boobs, there's
37:26
Speaker 4: the risk of them trying to escape from the top. Yes, yes,
37:29
Speaker 4: which happens.
37:30
Speaker 2: And even Ronda Rousey mma fighter in the sports bras
37:36
Speaker 2: you know that the fighters will wear has had to
37:39
Speaker 2: contend with potential nip slips.
37:42
Speaker 5: Yeah, because wasn't it her first professional UFC fight that
37:48
Speaker 5: her opponent was like on her back trying to essentially
37:50
Speaker 5: break her neck, and so she was worried about like, well, okay,
37:53
Speaker 5: I've got to survive, but also my sports bra is
37:56
Speaker 5: slipping dangerously lower and lower and lower. So she fighting
38:01
Speaker 5: this woman with one hand and fighting with her.
38:03
Speaker 4: Sports bra with the other basically.
38:06
Speaker 5: But if her if she had experienced a sports bra
38:09
Speaker 5: malfunction during that fight, it certainly would not have been
38:13
Speaker 5: the first boob to.
38:15
Speaker 4: Be out at a sporting event.
38:17
Speaker 2: Yes, So Amanda Hess noted this in a piece she
38:22
Speaker 2: wrote over at ESPN Magazine, which I was so thrilled
38:25
Speaker 2: to see when it came out a couple years ago,
38:27
Speaker 2: because I was like, yes, sports boobs, Hello, No one's
38:31
Speaker 2: talking about that. She's sited this incident in nineteen ninety seven,
38:34
Speaker 2: when then eighteen year old Ritrean runner Nebuat hobbed to
38:38
Speaker 2: marry him had to run the majority of a five
38:43
Speaker 2: k meter qualifying heat with her boob out because she
38:48
Speaker 2: I don't know if she like left her sports bra
38:50
Speaker 2: at home or what, but she had to borrow one.
38:53
Speaker 4: No, no, just a camul.
38:55
Speaker 5: She borrowed a singlet, Oh my god, and didn't have
38:58
Speaker 5: a sports bra under it.
39:00
Speaker 2: Oh and so she started running and immediately and her
39:06
Speaker 2: boobs started running away too.
39:08
Speaker 4: Yeah.
39:08
Speaker 5: Well, because, as we've discussed in the first part of
39:10
Speaker 5: this episode, your boobs are on the move majorly.
39:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, and hes noted in the article that understandably this
39:18
Speaker 2: athlete like didn't leave her apartment for a week.
39:21
Speaker 4: She was just mortified.
39:22
Speaker 2: Yeah again, thank god Twitter didn't exist.
39:26
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, oh big time. But you know you mentioned
39:31
Speaker 5: that there's no real study to corroborate claims that smaller
39:36
Speaker 5: breasts or no breasts uh helps your game, but plenty
39:42
Speaker 5: of women have pursued this route. In two thousand and nine,
39:44
Speaker 5: Romanian tennastar Simona Hollop got a breast reduction to help
39:48
Speaker 5: improve her play, and her play actually did improve. She
39:51
Speaker 5: was a thirty four double D at the time before
39:54
Speaker 5: her reduction, But there was a petition that a bunch
39:58
Speaker 5: of guys circulated like asking her to not have the surgery.
40:03
Speaker 4: And there you go, there's the aggling factor.
40:06
Speaker 2: Thanks for nothing, because boob bounce embarrassment roots back to
40:11
Speaker 2: that kind of nonsense.
40:12
Speaker 5: Yeah, but the next year you have Australian hurdler Janna Rowlinson,
40:16
Speaker 5: who announced that she was going to get her breast
40:18
Speaker 5: implants removed to try to improve her chances of making
40:21
Speaker 5: it to the twenty twelve Olympics. She actually didn't make
40:24
Speaker 5: it because of a foot injury, not because of.
40:27
Speaker 4: Boobs or no boobs.
40:29
Speaker 2: And even though like we said, there isn't any firm
40:32
Speaker 2: data on this, plastic surgeons such as doctor ed Domanankis,
40:37
Speaker 2: who was speaking to the Orange County Register, assume that
40:43
Speaker 2: breast implants and larger breasts are a negative in sports
40:48
Speaker 2: like golf, tennis and track, although the doctor said except
40:54
Speaker 2: in boxing, they might help because they would quote soften
40:57
Speaker 2: the blow, to which I was like, okay, this man
40:59
Speaker 2: has never been punch of the boobs. We talked about
41:03
Speaker 2: this in our last episode we did, and some people,
41:06
Speaker 2: speaking of MMA and Ronda Rowsey, some have suggested that
41:10
Speaker 2: chest strikes aka boob punches should be banned in women's
41:16
Speaker 2: UFC fighting, but Rowsey's like, what, no, no, you just
41:21
Speaker 2: protect your chest.
41:22
Speaker 5: Well, there was an entire Reddit thread where somebody was
41:24
Speaker 5: trying to figure out how badly getting punched in the
41:28
Speaker 5: boob does hurt, and it was so fascinating to me
41:32
Speaker 5: to look at the responses because so many women were like, Oh,
41:35
Speaker 5: it's the worst, I will have to lie down on
41:38
Speaker 5: the ground to recover, and other women were like, no,
41:41
Speaker 5: it doesn't hurt at all.
41:43
Speaker 4: To me, A boob hit really hurts.
41:47
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, a boob hit when you are like on
41:50
Speaker 2: the verge of a period.
41:51
Speaker 5: Oh, don't even I can't even like, I can't even
41:54
Speaker 5: touch them.
41:54
Speaker 2: There are so many Yahoo answers type Google results asking.
42:01
Speaker 4: Whether getting punched in the breast or.
42:04
Speaker 2: The testicles hurts more, to which I'm like, Internet finds
42:08
Speaker 2: something better to do with your time.
42:10
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter.
42:12
Speaker 5: Yeah I don't, yeah exactly, But okay, So back to
42:15
Speaker 5: boxing though, and punching everybody in their boobs in the ring.
42:20
Speaker 4: In two thousand and.
42:21
Speaker 5: Nine, British amateur boxer Sarah Bluden was not allowed to
42:25
Speaker 5: compete in the UK's Amateur Boxing Association events because of
42:29
Speaker 5: her breast implants.
42:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, and their defense was saying that it was because
42:35
Speaker 2: of risk to breast tissue, but plastic surgeons that the
42:40
Speaker 2: Orange County Register and reporting on this talk to disagreed,
42:44
Speaker 2: saying that our breasts take more of a beating so
42:48
Speaker 2: to speak, and just day to day life than her
42:51
Speaker 2: implants would And Bluden said, they're gel implants and so
42:56
Speaker 2: it's not like they could possibly rupture that was I mean,
43:02
Speaker 2: that's just something you would rarely see of an athlete
43:04
Speaker 2: intentionally enlarging her breasts.
43:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I would also imagine too that this is
43:09
Speaker 4: a factor for beach volleyball.
43:12
Speaker 2: Where you know, I mean, the Olympics is happening as
43:15
Speaker 2: we are recording this podcast, and you know, a lot
43:18
Speaker 2: of uniforms are essentially like sports bras and briefs, and
43:24
Speaker 2: that is one of the reasons why it's a really
43:26
Speaker 2: popular sport for a male audience.
43:30
Speaker 5: Oh have you seen the meme circulating about beach volleyball.
43:33
Speaker 5: It's showing a woman in she's got a hit job
43:37
Speaker 5: and she's completely covered. She's on one side of the
43:40
Speaker 5: volleyball net, and then there's I don't know if she's
43:41
Speaker 5: American or Australian on the other side in her what
43:46
Speaker 5: is basically bikini but sports bra and briefs.
43:49
Speaker 4: And they were like.
43:51
Speaker 5: Now, tell us that one country isn't more empowered than
43:54
Speaker 5: the other, meaning that like, look at this white woman
43:57
Speaker 5: in her bikini. She's clearly, so much more free to
44:00
Speaker 5: live life the way she wants to.
44:02
Speaker 4: Oh, I thought it was the reverse, where.
44:04
Speaker 5: No, it was the white guy was like, see, America
44:08
Speaker 5: is more free, and basically the entire Internet jumped on
44:12
Speaker 5: this guy like are you serious?
44:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, because what I saw was women are wearing he
44:17
Speaker 2: jobs for personal choice, whereas that uniform is required.
44:22
Speaker 4: So which is more free?
44:24
Speaker 2: Also, again, Internet finds something better to do with your
44:26
Speaker 2: time for serious such as learning about sports broad technology.
44:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's more productive.
44:33
Speaker 2: Here's the thing we need, and I mean this seriously.
44:38
Speaker 2: We need better sports broad technology. It is sorely emphasis
44:42
Speaker 2: on sorely needed. And this was something that Nicola Brown,
44:48
Speaker 2: who was the lead author of that London Marathon study,
44:51
Speaker 2: was saying to the New York Times. I mean she
44:54
Speaker 2: was saying like, this is just like a matter of
44:56
Speaker 2: basic wellness for women. There are not adequate sports bras
45:01
Speaker 2: that are affordable. I mean, you can get a really
45:04
Speaker 2: high tech, super duper sports bra, but it's going to
45:07
Speaker 2: cost you upwards of sixty to eighty dollars.
45:10
Speaker 4: Yeah, if not more. I mean there was a great
45:13
Speaker 4: was it on BuzzFeed?
45:14
Speaker 5: Yeah, they sent differently shaped women to try on the
45:18
Speaker 5: same sports bras to see how they all worked with
45:21
Speaker 5: different bodies, And I think two of the women chose
45:25
Speaker 5: the same bra, but then the other two chose different
45:27
Speaker 5: ones because just because this one bra is supposed to
45:30
Speaker 5: be so great doesn't mean it's gonna work for your
45:32
Speaker 5: body type. But often the ones that are more supportive
45:36
Speaker 5: do tend to be more outrageously expensive.
45:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, for all of them, the worst performing was the
45:43
Speaker 2: cheapest Hayes sports bra, Yeah, which was a bomber, you know,
45:48
Speaker 2: because a lot of times my sports bra shopping involves
45:50
Speaker 2: just like walking into target, grabbing what I see and
45:54
Speaker 2: then buying some housewares that I don't need.
45:57
Speaker 5: Well, of course that is my struggle as well life.
46:01
Speaker 5: But the thing though about sports bras is you're supposed
46:04
Speaker 5: to replace them so often, like a toothbrush, and so
46:08
Speaker 5: I don't.
46:09
Speaker 4: I don't because they're so expensive.
46:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't realize that I basically need to get
46:15
Speaker 2: rid of all but two of my sports bras. But
46:18
Speaker 2: the thing is, though sports bras make a massive difference
46:21
Speaker 2: in terms of that breast soreness issue.
46:23
Speaker 4: This is the fact that.
46:24
Speaker 2: I was teasing to earlier, where Nicola Brown that researchers
46:30
Speaker 2: said that their right fitting sports bra can reduce breast
46:33
Speaker 2: discomfort regardless of your breast size in around eighty five
46:38
Speaker 2: percent of women who experience it. I mean, that's a
46:41
Speaker 2: pretty powerful sports bra right there, But it's just a
46:44
Speaker 2: matter of.
46:45
Speaker 4: Getting the right fit.
46:46
Speaker 2: I would argue that a right fitting sports bra is
46:50
Speaker 2: even more important than a right fitting bra or bra.
46:53
Speaker 5: Oh, although I am more likely to cry trying on
46:57
Speaker 5: sports bras than regular bras because if you want a
47:02
Speaker 5: very supportive sports bra, it's probably going to be very restrictive,
47:05
Speaker 5: so trying to get in and out of them. Do
47:08
Speaker 5: you know how hard it is to try to squeeze
47:10
Speaker 5: into a sports bra only to find out that it's
47:12
Speaker 5: either too big or too small, and then trying to
47:13
Speaker 5: pull it off and you like dislocate your shoulder and
47:15
Speaker 5: then you're crying at Nike and you realize your blood
47:18
Speaker 5: sugars crashed.
47:19
Speaker 2: I mean, that's why you get the ones with the backclasps.
47:23
Speaker 4: Yeah, that'd be helpful.
47:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, those do exist, but again those are going to
47:28
Speaker 2: be your pricier bras. And in the same way as
47:33
Speaker 2: we talked about with the science of breast sag in
47:36
Speaker 2: our last podcast, I mean the fact of the matter
47:39
Speaker 2: is like, we're just late to the game on all
47:41
Speaker 2: of this. We didn't start studying breast biomechanics until the
47:45
Speaker 2: nineteen nineties, probably because you finally had more women in
47:50
Speaker 2: the field being like, hey, here is something that directly
47:52
Speaker 2: applies to my life and we should study. But also,
47:56
Speaker 2: breasts are just really hard to study like this because
48:00
Speaker 2: they're so varied. Yeah, and it's hard to replicate the
48:06
Speaker 2: a representative breast population in motion, you know what I mean,
48:12
Speaker 2: because it's like you would how.
48:15
Speaker 4: Do you reward that?
48:16
Speaker 5: Well, right, not obviously not all breasts are the same
48:19
Speaker 5: size and shape, but obviously not everybody is literally only running.
48:22
Speaker 4: On a treadmill, you know.
48:23
Speaker 5: There's like, obviously so many different types of activity even
48:26
Speaker 5: just walking around day to day that you would need
48:29
Speaker 5: a different type of sports bra for.
48:31
Speaker 2: But the big thing that I learned in terms of
48:33
Speaker 2: sports broad technology is that originally they were just all
48:36
Speaker 2: about compression, smush them down, keep them in, and those
48:39
Speaker 2: are the basic like uniboob style sports bras were probably
48:44
Speaker 2: the most familiar with. But now companies like a Brooks
48:49
Speaker 2: or a Nike are looking at how to isolate specific
48:54
Speaker 2: movement areas.
48:56
Speaker 5: I thought you were going to say how to isolate specific.
48:58
Speaker 2: Boobs, specific boob boob mint areas because of that figure
49:03
Speaker 2: eight motion, you know, And man, I.
49:06
Speaker 4: Want to be like, I want to go to that lab.
49:08
Speaker 2: I want to go to that sports bra lab so
49:10
Speaker 2: bad if anyone listening can hook me up with some
49:14
Speaker 2: sports bra research.
49:16
Speaker 5: But that just kind of thinking about boob art, like
49:18
Speaker 5: what if you paint your nipples and then run in
49:20
Speaker 5: front of a canvas, Like would you get some cool
49:22
Speaker 5: figure eights going?
49:23
Speaker 2: There's only one way to find out, I know, talk
49:27
Speaker 2: about the best like pinterest craft.
49:31
Speaker 5: I'm sure it's been done.
49:33
Speaker 2: But in the meantime until our perfect, magical affordable sports
49:38
Speaker 2: bra that I argue should be like government subsidized for
49:41
Speaker 2: low income people with breasts, whatever your gender identity is.
49:47
Speaker 2: There are some tips for things that you can do
49:50
Speaker 2: to alleviate some of that pain. Specifically, if you have
49:54
Speaker 2: larger breasts, look for encapsulation style sports bras rather than
49:59
Speaker 2: the a boob style because those encapsulation style sports bras
50:03
Speaker 2: are the ones that have separate cups. And right now
50:05
Speaker 2: in the studio, I am making a cup gesture At Carolina.
50:11
Speaker 4: We're of like the Lady Gaga monster hands.
50:13
Speaker 2: Honestly, it feels a little aggressive because I'm doing it
50:17
Speaker 2: at you.
50:18
Speaker 4: Keep those away from me.
50:20
Speaker 2: But those encapsulation styles are are way more effective at
50:24
Speaker 2: controlling movement. And that was something that was corroborated in
50:28
Speaker 2: that BuzzFeed experiment trying to find the perfect bra, where
50:32
Speaker 2: the two women with the largest breasts were like, oh
50:35
Speaker 2: my god, I had no idea. As soon as they
50:36
Speaker 2: put on an encapsulation style bra, it was a whole
50:39
Speaker 2: new world.
50:40
Speaker 5: And also, the focus doesn't need to be so much
50:43
Speaker 5: on whether you have underwire or whether you.
50:46
Speaker 4: Have adjustable straps on your sports.
50:48
Speaker 5: Bra, because eighty percent of your bra support actually comes
50:51
Speaker 5: from the band around your ribs, which I can adjust
50:55
Speaker 5: to with.
50:56
Speaker 4: My sports bra.
50:57
Speaker 5: That made me cry in the Nike dressing room.
51:01
Speaker 2: But underwire and adjustable straps those like clippy things. If
51:06
Speaker 2: you have a larger frame, those are going to dig
51:08
Speaker 2: into your skin, So avoid that well.
51:10
Speaker 5: Especially yeah, especially if you're doing some type of lengthy exercise,
51:14
Speaker 5: like if you're gonna go running for hours, that can
51:17
Speaker 5: eventually really make you hate life. Also just running for
51:21
Speaker 5: hours plural hour, like I don't know, maybe you're doing
51:24
Speaker 5: an iron man. Maybe so an iron woman, an iron ironman,
51:27
Speaker 5: iron man.
51:29
Speaker 2: Again, the back clasps can make life a lot.
51:32
Speaker 4: Easier, so can front clasp. Oh yes, the front clasp.
51:36
Speaker 5: Although, but then that would make it harder if you
51:38
Speaker 5: do have the what did you call it, encapsulated style,
51:43
Speaker 5: because you need if you've got that style, you need
51:45
Speaker 5: the front and center of the broad to be resting
51:47
Speaker 5: on your breastbone and the band to be sitting comfortably.
51:51
Speaker 5: So the front clasps might interfere with that. Just all
51:55
Speaker 5: the more important to maybe talk to somebody who knows
51:58
Speaker 5: who has a better broad education.
52:00
Speaker 4: Also, look for breathe ability.
52:02
Speaker 2: Yes, that's a big factor for reducing potential chafe.
52:06
Speaker 4: And those super strappy.
52:09
Speaker 2: Lululemon bras that are really cute might not work the
52:15
Speaker 2: best support wise.
52:18
Speaker 5: Yeah, like maybe maybe if you're gonna like go do
52:20
Speaker 5: yoga or some low impact thing where you just want
52:23
Speaker 5: to wear sports bra but you don't care about bouncing
52:26
Speaker 5: or support.
52:26
Speaker 4: All that much. Maybe yeah.
52:28
Speaker 2: I mean, the two of the girls in the BuzzFeed
52:32
Speaker 2: piece chose the Lululemon bra. One of them was smaller chested,
52:36
Speaker 2: but the other girl who chose them I think was
52:38
Speaker 2: a C Cup. So I mean Lula Limon bras will
52:41
Speaker 2: cost you a fortune, but I mean they are very
52:43
Speaker 2: well made. But again those the multi strappy, multiple straps
52:49
Speaker 2: don't equal multiple support because again it's all about that
52:52
Speaker 2: waist band or the chest band.
52:55
Speaker 4: Excuse me, Hey, maybe you've got a waist band on
52:57
Speaker 4: your bra. I don't know. Yeah, how high on your
53:01
Speaker 4: girdle bra?
53:02
Speaker 5: And again, you know you're probably gonna have to to
53:06
Speaker 5: replace the more often the way that you would your
53:08
Speaker 5: tennis shoes. You know, if you're out there running every
53:11
Speaker 5: single day, for instance, you're gonna have to replace your
53:14
Speaker 5: tennis shoes or you're running shoes more often than someone
53:17
Speaker 5: like me who doesn't run, but who used to.
53:21
Speaker 4: All right, stop judging. It's the same with your sports bras.
53:24
Speaker 5: They're with all of that supporting and the stretching and
53:27
Speaker 5: everything that's happening, and washing them regularly. I hope they're
53:30
Speaker 5: eventually gonna get worn down.
53:32
Speaker 2: They are, and I think the biggest thing that I
53:35
Speaker 2: would advocate and also listeners, I would love some tips.
53:41
Speaker 4: On how to better do this.
53:43
Speaker 2: But we need to do such a better and more
53:45
Speaker 2: vigilant job of just normalizing breast development. For girls because obviously,
53:51
Speaker 2: like we need better sports bras. Yes, but you know
53:55
Speaker 2: the fact that for girls and women alike, that embarrassment
53:59
Speaker 2: factor plays such a prominent role in determining whether we
54:03
Speaker 2: do or don't exercise for health's sake. This is not
54:05
Speaker 2: about staying then, this is about being healthy.
54:08
Speaker 5: What did Sissy SpaceX mother call them and Carrie dirty pillows?
54:13
Speaker 5: We need to get away from the mentality that what
54:15
Speaker 5: is on your chest as you're developing through puberty are
54:19
Speaker 5: dirty and somehow embarrassing and shameful because it's just part
54:22
Speaker 5: of your body. So the more that we can understand
54:25
Speaker 5: about our anatomy and our development, what's healthy, what's unhealthy,
54:29
Speaker 5: the better for all of us, and hopefully the fewer
54:32
Speaker 5: popular girls who will approach girls like me and for
54:36
Speaker 5: some reason shame them about needing to wear bra very
54:39
Speaker 5: bizarre to.
54:39
Speaker 2: Me, bra shaming because that was something I thought that
54:41
Speaker 2: would be like a.
54:42
Speaker 4: Badge of pride, like who got their period first. I
54:45
Speaker 4: don't know, I don't know.
54:46
Speaker 5: We can't all live in a Judy Bloom book.
54:48
Speaker 4: It's true, it's true.
54:50
Speaker 2: And when it comes to roeducation, boys need it too,
54:52
Speaker 2: in the sense of raising boys to treat and look
54:58
Speaker 2: at girls as humans rather than sex objects, and for
55:03
Speaker 2: them too to just understand like basic female development, you know,
55:09
Speaker 2: destigmatize all of this stuff.
55:11
Speaker 3: It's healthy for every body.
55:25
Speaker 2: So with that, listeners, we want to hear all of
55:27
Speaker 2: your thoughts. I know we have a lot of people
55:30
Speaker 2: who exercise, whether with organized sports or casually work out
55:35
Speaker 2: in our audience. I know a lot of people are
55:37
Speaker 2: probably listening to this podcast while they are jogging or
55:40
Speaker 2: at the gym, and I'm so curious to know whether
55:44
Speaker 2: this rings true for you and any tips that you
55:47
Speaker 2: can offer, any sports bras that you can recommend, send
55:52
Speaker 2: it all our way. Mom Stuff at HowStuffWorks dot com
55:57
Speaker 2: is our email address. You can also tweet us at
55:59
Speaker 2: mom Stuff podcast or messages on Facebook, and we've got
56:02
Speaker 2: a couple of messages to share with you right now.
56:10
Speaker 5: So I have a letter here from Eleanor about our
56:13
Speaker 5: two parter talking to Terry O'Neill, the president of the
56:16
Speaker 5: National Organization for Women. Eleanor writes, OMG, your latest podcast
56:22
Speaker 5: interviewing Terry O'Neil had me crying tears of joy.
56:26
Speaker 4: I loved hearing her.
56:27
Speaker 5: Talk about the support of black women on Twitter and
56:30
Speaker 5: lgbt QIA people. It made me so proud of all
56:34
Speaker 5: of our trailblazers and filled me with feminist pride.
56:37
Speaker 4: I've only thought of NOW.
56:38
Speaker 5: As a pretty chill organization, but it had some problematic history.
56:42
Speaker 4: But I'm so glad you.
56:43
Speaker 5: Guys taught me about their intersectionality. Plus, I really enjoyed
56:47
Speaker 5: the mentions about how NOW wanted women to stay angry.
56:51
Speaker 5: It inspired me to find my anger and go march and.
56:54
Speaker 4: Picket and protest in the streets.
56:56
Speaker 5: Let's get the era passed, y'all. Let's go angry feminists.
57:00
Speaker 5: Thanks for your fantastic podcast, Eleanor, and she says, ps,
57:05
Speaker 5: screw Judge Aaron Persky.
57:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Judge Persky is the one who made the
57:11
Speaker 2: decision in both Stanford rape case to essentially about a
57:15
Speaker 2: rapist off.
57:17
Speaker 4: I have just the most touching.
57:19
Speaker 2: Letter from Catherine, who writes when I turned twenty, I
57:25
Speaker 2: dropped out of college. I'd been major hopping for two
57:27
Speaker 2: and a half years and realized I had to decide
57:30
Speaker 2: what to do with my life in order to justify
57:32
Speaker 2: taking out more student loans. I spent the next two
57:35
Speaker 2: years working a dead end job and a manufacturing plant.
57:37
Speaker 2: Typically spending three days a week on the production floor
57:40
Speaker 2: and two days a week doing custodial work. I want
57:43
Speaker 2: to go on record as saying that factory workers are
57:45
Speaker 2: some of the hardest working and kindest people in the world,
57:48
Speaker 2: and our entire society would crumble without them.
57:51
Speaker 4: Here here, however, I hated my job.
57:53
Speaker 2: I actually looked forward to my cleaning days because scrubbing
57:56
Speaker 2: toilets meant I was allowed to listen to my iPod.
58:00
Speaker 2: So fast forward to Catherine's discovery of stuff Mom never
58:05
Speaker 2: told you, and she says, one day I heard the
58:08
Speaker 2: first Sminty episode about librarians, and the one she's referencing
58:12
Speaker 2: folks was I think from two thousand and nine or
58:15
Speaker 2: ten years ago, she says. I ended up spending the
58:19
Speaker 2: last hour and a half of the day hidden in
58:22
Speaker 2: the cleaning supply closet, perched on an upturned five gallon bucket,
58:26
Speaker 2: googling how to become.
58:27
Speaker 4: A librarian on my phone.
58:29
Speaker 2: I had achieved step one to a happy life, figure
58:32
Speaker 2: out what you want. It was time for step two,
58:34
Speaker 2: figure out what you have to do to get it.
58:37
Speaker 2: I discovered that in order to become a librarian and
58:39
Speaker 2: run my own library, someday I needed to go to
58:42
Speaker 2: grad school, which meant going back and getting my bachelor's,
58:44
Speaker 2: which was somewhat intimidating. Within a few weeks, I'd applied
58:48
Speaker 2: to two schools, one that offered a BA in Women's
58:51
Speaker 2: and Gender studies and a community college as a safety school.
58:54
Speaker 4: To boost my GPA.
58:55
Speaker 2: My essay and letters of recommendation must have been convincing,
58:58
Speaker 2: because I was accepted and I majored in women in
59:03
Speaker 2: Gender Studies. And for a school in a state that's
59:04
Speaker 2: around ninety percent.
59:05
Speaker 4: White, we had an amazingly intersectional program.
59:08
Speaker 2: More than half of the WSG professors I had were
59:11
Speaker 2: women of color. Three of my favorite professors are immigrants,
59:14
Speaker 2: and I had at least as many queer professors as straight.
59:17
Speaker 2: Instead of listening to Sminty while scrubbing toilets, I was
59:19
Speaker 2: listening during my commute to school, and Spinty episode topics
59:23
Speaker 2: and fun facts made it into my papers and classroom
59:26
Speaker 2: discussions on a regular basis.
59:28
Speaker 4: This past May, I graduated as.
59:29
Speaker 2: A member of our WSG honor society, Iota Iota Iota,
59:34
Speaker 2: and finished my undergrad with a three point four GPA.
59:38
Speaker 2: I'm the first of my immediate family to finish college.
59:41
Speaker 2: In a couple of months, I'm heading to the University
59:43
Speaker 2: of Denver, my first choice grad school, where I will
59:46
Speaker 2: be getting my master's in Library and Information Sciences. I'm
59:50
Speaker 2: currently on the longest step to a happy life, Step three,
59:54
Speaker 2: do the work. Even though the original Librarian episode was
59:57
Speaker 2: before Caroline's time, I thought it was important that I
59:59
Speaker 2: share my store with you wonderful ladies. One episode of
1:00:02
Speaker 2: this podcast sparked an epiphany that completely altered the trajectory
1:00:05
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1:00:08
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1:00:18
Speaker 4: I love you both to the moon and back.
1:00:21
Speaker 6: Well.
1:00:21
Speaker 4: Kat.
1:00:22
Speaker 2: First of all, congratulations, Second of all, you are a badass.
1:00:27
Speaker 2: And third, thank you for one of the best letters
1:00:33
Speaker 2: we have ever received. And I don't want to put
1:00:37
Speaker 2: words in your mouth, Caroline, but I can say for
1:00:39
Speaker 2: myself that y'all have changed my life as much as
1:00:43
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1:00:45
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1:00:48
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