Bra vs. Braless (females only)

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I wear a bra because I feel self-conscious in public without one. As soon as I come home the bra comes off though. After I've had a minor operation on my feet I'll finally be able to start a proper exercise routine and I'm kind of hoping that my breasts will shrink along with the rest of me. They're not huge or anything (I'm a 42C in UK sizing) but because I'm really overweight and they're mostly just excess fat, they droop a lot more than my friends' breasts do. I'd love to have small breasts and be able to wear a vest under my clothes instead of a bra.

I wear bras most of the time, especially sports bras for working out at the gym. At home, I prefer to be braless, but if I'm going anywhere, I put on at least a sports bra. The only time I don't wear a bra is when I'm going to the RenFaire, as the bodice basically acts like a bra.

If I'm doing something active, I'l need to wear a bra for obvious reasons. Otherwise, though, I prefer to go without. I've been too self-concious to actually go braless in public, though.

I wear mostly sport bras but i could go braless if i wanted to cause im under an A cup. My boobs are awkwardly shaped, there wider in circumference then your typical A and there flatter too so 99% of regular bras I dont fit. I started wearing a bra in 7th grade cause my mom bugged me a lot too because its inappropriate to go without. For me, its literally only the nipple. If I wanted to, I could just tape down my nipples and go braless and no one would notice the least bit. I hate regular bras, there so uncomfortable and so hard to find 1 that fits.

I can't bear wearing an upper decker flopper stopper with the correct strap size. The cups on all mine fit, but the straps are miles too loose. I won't go into a changing room with a bra fitter, because it just turns into a battle! I need a bra because of my E cup size – I still have firm boobicles that look OK if I don't wear one, but I get neck pain – but I just can't bear the strap to fit as it 'should'. My strap measurement is 34", but I wear a 38". It seems to be enough to give me some support and stop the stress on my neck.

I can manage at home if I'm just sitting and watching TV in the evenings – and it's just the best feeling when you've taken the ruddy thing off. It's like taking your boots off after a 20-mile hike!

It disappoints me that women still feel under this pressure, actually – it's as if all the hard work done by feminists in the 60s and 70s never happened. I feel lucky to have been guided in my upbringing by a feminist (who simply didn't wear a bra and no-one else ever thought it was any of their concern), and to have been carefully taught how societal pressures on women work. Whilst I've never been a hard-line feminist, I grew up in the 1970s with, for instance, a healthy disregard for the way women are portrayed in the media, and I'm utterly dismayed by the way some of today's young women are affected by it. Someone surveyed 9-year-old girls in Britain about whether they'd ever consider cosmetic surgery – 9 year-olds!! – and a high percentage of them said they would. Thousands and thousands of British women go for breast augmentation each year, without counting all the other kinds of surgical mutilation that goes on.

So...women...whilst I know virtually none of you would be vulnerable enough to these kinds of pressures to go as far as cosmetic surgery, understand that the pressure to wear a bra is part of the same deal. If you like reading, look up some of the feminist literature of the 60s and 70s. It might seem hard line and even over the top now, but those women had to go to those extremes, and they were fighting for you. Reading about their struggles might just make you feel justifiably angry at the pressures that society – and not all of these are men, many of whom have been brave enough to change – places on women. Or at least, just pissed-off enough not to feel you have to wear a bra.

I wouldn't feel right without a bra on, but my friends have criticised that I should wear a more shaped bra. I always worry then that the horrible offensive glares I get from other females of any age are to do with them somehow noticing that I don't have a proper bra on.

I have a love/hate relationship with bras. I have a large bust so going without a bra in public causes me way too much stress and anxiety. Yet, I've found it is hard to find a great bra and wearing an inferior one can also cause stress; physical pain plus not fitting right can be embarrassing.

In a nutshell though; I absolutely adore bras that fit perfectly (though I haven't had many) and I love basic sports bras.

In the perfect world though it'd be great to go bra-less without it being an issue.