Women on screens are usually shown taking their clothes off rather than putting them on, but I have a complaint about the Hollywood bra-putting-on-method. In movies and TV, women are always putting on bras using the reach-around-the-back method. Up until this week, I believed this was a completely unrealistic depiction of the actual way women put on bras. What? A lack of verisimilitude in Hollywood?
I now believe I was only half right. An informal email and Facebook poll of about sixty people who wear back-hook bras suggests that about half of us use the Hollywood method and the other half, my half, prefer to hook the hooks where we can see them, in front, and then twist the bra around. 26 responders said they use the Hollywood method; 28 use the twist-around method; 4 said it depends; and 2 use a different method altogether (they pull the already-attached bra over their heads).
When one is trying to solve an interesting mystery, one often gets interesting results. Here are some quotes from the responses:
HOLLYWOOD
"Note that I am not particularly chesty,
thus the hooks are not elaborate or extensive. Also, I have fairly
flexible rotator cuffs which make this an easy maneuver."
"I am sure I learned this from watching my mother, and while I'm not going to go into details, I can attest that our place further in the alphabet is not a problem here."
"Hollywood style, but I can say that I have never gotten up from my bed and wrapped the sheet around myself."
"Me neither, nor have I ever sat on the toilet going #2 for eons with the door open whilst having a pleasant chat with my girlfriends."
NON-HOLLYWOOD
"Lately I noticed I've been putting both arms
through the straps simultaneously -- like I'm trying to work fast and save time!
My life is too damn frantic."
"The other way is only for Bond girls. Or ninjas."
"Women put their bras on that other way in movies because we all look weird and awkward twisting it around on ourselves."
"I think that men must find it sexier if women stick their arms through and hook the back, but I’ve never known a woman dexterous enough to pull that off."
"From time to time I try hooking it in the back just to see if I can do it, but find it too hard to get three hooks into the right loops. Maybe if I only had to hook one, I'd do it, but that's a fantasy!"
"DEFINITELY hook first, spin, put arms through. Not sexy? Perhaps. Possible? Yes!"
"For those of us larger women a bit farther in the bra alphabet, the non Hollywood way would be very difficult. Mine has 4 hooks and underwire."
"Despite having very bendy arms, I do it the non-hollywood way. And it's become so automatic that front-hooking models always throw me for a loop."
IT DEPENDS
"Depends on the bra. One hook, no worries. Two hooks, might
take one or two misses. The three hook ones? Forget it. It's like solving a
Rubik's cube."
"Back. Except when I was nursing and needed an 'I' cup bra (I! as in 'Ice Cream!') and then needed a special construction bra made by the Army Corps of Engineers. It came with a six-step set of instructions..."
OTHER
"Verisimilitude would be a good brand name for a push-up bra."
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