No Bras Burned, But Women Shaped A Revolt

It's a myth so pervasive, most of us believe it's true.

I know I did.

So when information about "feminist bra burning rallies" turned up in a timeline Maidenform provided for a Sept. 27 story on the history of the bra, I didn't think twice about using it.

Bra-burning women's libbers have become an important part of 1960s lore. I've heard stories about them. I've read about them in books and magazines.

The problem is, things didn't go down quite the way those stories tell it.

That's not to say bra-burning never happened as a public protest anywhere during the turbulent '60s. But feminists didn't set their bras ablaze in the spectacular way that has become legend.

"It was a total farce. It never happened," said feminist pioneer Roxcy Bolton, 81, of Coral Gables. "When you talk about women's underwear, it stimulates some people's interest. If they had said 'lace panties,' they would have gotten twice as much attention."

The infamous bra-trashing demonstration that gave birth to the myth was part of a 1968 protest of the Miss America pageant.

Jacqui Ceballos, 82, of Fort Lauderdale, was there. The president of Veteran Feminists of America remembers that sunny day in September when she boarded a bus in New York City bound for Atlantic City.

"The radical women were starting up all over the country," Ceballos told me in a phone conversation last week, and you could still hear the excitement in her voice. "All the buses were lined up. We sang all the way there."

The women - a few hundred strong - gathered on the boardwalk to protest the pageant, which they felt was demeaning to women.

"We started demonstrating, and our plan was to burn bras and other items, but it was against the law."

Instead, the women paraded a sheep dressed as a woman and put a crown on its head. They took turns throwing bras, girdles, nylons, high-heel shoes and other items into a large oil drum dubbed the "Freedom Trash Can."

The act of throwing the items into the garbage was symbolic of the confines placed on women and the way society valued looks instead of the whole self, Ceballos said.

When her turn came, Ceballos didn't throw in her bra.

"I'm a 36," she said with a chuckle. "I want liberation, but I'm not going to liberate my breasts."

Instead, she threw in her son's Playboy magazine and shouted, "Use your brains, not your body!"

Ceballos said a few of the women got inside the building where the pageant was being held and unfurled a banner that read "Women's Liberation." They were arrested, but later were released without charges.

No one struck a match that day, but the myth that bras were burned spread like wildfire.

"We made the news," Ceballos said of the demonstration. "It was absolutely worth it. There was so much passion. It made people think."

Have you spotted a fashion trend worth hot pursuit? Call Cloe Cabrera at (813) 259-7656 or e-mail ccabrera@tampatrib.com.