So, we decided to do a fun piece today on bras and high heels.
Here at The Weight She Carries, we define “weight” as anything that constitutes a struggle that we have to live with and fight to overcome. Well, we think bras and high heels fall into that category. Yes, we really do.
Most of us wear bras every day but don’t know a lot about them – except that we need them for support. Did you know that the average woman will wear six different bra sizes during her lifetime? And that wearing an ill-fitted bra can cause back strain and loss of breast firmness?
Well, here are some other interesting facts about bras that you may not know:
1. Roughly 80 percent of women are wearing the wrong bra size.
2. In 2015, the average bra size was 36DD.
3. In 1968, a group of women protested the Miss America pageant holding signs and voicing their dislike of bras, calling them, among other women’s garments, “instruments of female torture.”
4. Frederick’s of Hollywood created the first padded bra in 1947, followed by the first push-up bra in 1948.
5. For most women, the left breast is usually bigger than the right.
6. Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University offers a degree in bra studies.
7 . The average woman owns 9 bras.
8. Research shows that on average, women in the UK wear the largest bra sizes, while women in Japan have the smallest bra size on average.
9. Experts recommend women replace their bras every 6 months.
10. Berbel Zummer was struck by lightning in 1995 while walking through a park in Austria during a storm. She was wearing a wire-enforced bra under her clothes, and the metal in her bra attracted a bolt of lightning that killed her instantly.
Heels:
I can’t tell you the number of high heels I have in my closet that I cannot wear anymore because I don’t believe in torture – at least not anymore. I still love heels, though!
Did you know that the size of a woman’s heel is often used to determine how successful she is professionally? Women who wear higher heels are perceived to be of a higher social class. So, I guess if you have bad feet, you are…unsuccessful? SMH.
Here are some other interesting facts we compiled for you about high heels:
1. The average woman owns 9 pairs of high heels, according to the American Podiatric Medical Association.
2. Men wore them first! Heels became popular in the 17th century by the European aristocracy. The reason? It was believed that heels were so impractical that only a person who didn’t have to work could manage to walk in them.
3. Catherine de Medici was the first woman to wear heals in public in 1533. She wore them to her wedding to appear taller.
4. High heels became popular among women as a way to be seen as equals. So, for a time, men wore “fat” heels and women wore “skinny” heels.
5. Roger-Henri Vivier is credited with inventing/popularizing the stiletto heel in the 1950s.
6. World War II was a difficult period. Raw materials were in low supply and food was rationed. But footwear designers found a way to make heels out of materials that were not rationed, like wood and straw.
7. Some women surgically shorten their toes so that heels are more comfortable to wear. Another way to get their feet more high heel-friendly is through dermal filler injections. This creates a cushion in the soles of their feet, making heels more comfortable.
8. There are 26 bones in your feet – which translates to 13.5 percent of the bones in your body – 33 joints, and more than 100 tendons, muscles, and ligaments. The point? Respek yo feet!
9. Nine out of 10 women are wearing shoes that are too small.
10. More women are ditching their heels and choosing comfort instead. In 2017, sales on women’s sneakers increased by 37 percent, while high heel sales dropped by 11 percent, according to The NDP group.
