nEUrosis

Where have all the bras gone?

May 29th, 2007 by Laura Citron

Summer has definitely arrived in Moscow, and it seems to have scared all the bras indoors. I can’t walk 200 metres to the metro without encountering bosoms bouncing without a care under some flimsy top. Let’s be clear – I am not a bra fascist, but Moscow seems to have become the headquarters of the Breast Liberation Army. Perhaps in the extreme heat (35 degrees and rising), Muscovite Woman is hallucinating that she is actually on the beach in Turkey. Or perhaps having kept her bootie under wraps all winter, she thinks the time has come to strut her stuff in the yard. Oddly enough, this phenomenon isn’t confined to the stick-thin-wannabe-posh-spice-types. (They already got rid of most of their clothing when the last snow melted). Last week I saw a particularly shocking case on a 50+ metro escalator attendant.
I’m not writing about this because I need to share some perverse nipple-related neurosis. The ‘hang-free-phenomenon’ is yet another enigma about being a woman in Russia which puzzles me. Russian women certainly make an effort to look sexually attractive, often dressing in ways which would be considered quite provocative in Western Europe. (Though is bra-less always better? Comments please!) Yet sex is a taboo subject in Russia, even when it’s just the girls. They will happily talk for hours about their romantic daydreams, boxes of chocolates, red roses, giant teddy bears etc – but never lust. They don’t see a contradiction between thinking like a 12 year old with a photo of Justin Timberlake, and dressing like a man-eater.
More surprising still is the reaction of the men. In my area of Brussels, the sight of a girl’s knee alone could provoke whistling and name-calling. But in Moscow no-one bats an eyelid. Is this the Garden of Eden of sexual equality, where women can dress how they want without fear of harassment? Or is the pressure to be attractive to men so great that women feel forced to hang up their bras for the summer? Whichever way, this is one aspect of Russian life I think I’ll skip for the time being…

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