For most of my life since puberty, these bra and bathing suit inserts have been in my life.
It’s not a push up. It’s not really padding. I call it a nipple guard, though I am not quite sure what it is actually called. Yes, I “googled” it. Closest I come to identifying it is a “soft bra insert.”
At my house, they are strewn all over the house. Laundry room. Closet. They are no longer even in pairs…some bathing suits have one left. Some have none. Some bras have two, some have one, some have none.
They do not push anything together. They do not hold anything up. They merely get tangled up in themselves and cause me to use my two longest fingers in the most inconvenient way to scrape out the pad from the tiny slot in the side of the bra/swimsuit so I can pull it out and flatten it out and shove it back in. Its barely possible. Its infuriating, really.
I wanted to know the history of these things, so I googled it. There are YouTube videos on how to use these, people……and yes, I got totally sucked in…..
Besides advertisements to purchase from Amazon, Etsy and many other private companies, I found an article written on these soft bra inserts in running bras. Here is a summary of what that article stated:
The sports bra was invented in 1975, commercially available and known as the “Free Swing Tennis Bra and available for purchase by Glamorise Foundations, Inc. The first general exercise bra – called a JockBra -was invented by Lisa Lindahl, Polly Smith and Hinda Schreiber in 1977.
Now, there are hundreds of varieties of sports bras, including padded, extra support, all sorts of options for straps and the cross-cross back. The invention of these removable pads seems to have three basic reasons: (1) to cover up those embarrassing nipples; (2) to add support and life or enhance smaller breasted women; and (3) to offer those who want a bit more shape while they run.
Here’s the deal- I am still not convinced of their usefulness. While some are actually sewn into the liner of the bra, they inevitably get bunched up on one side. The inserts do cover up unwanted pointy nipples, but they don’t seem to provide any other real function. Let’s face it, they are just too flimsy to provide support and they don’t push anything up.
I don’t think I ever really wondered about these so much until I only had one nipple to worry about. See, after my double mastectomy (first the right, then the left), I felt like I had to even my breasts out. My right breast does not have a nipple. I was offered a fake one but don’t really want to deal with it, as it would always be “out.” My left breast was a nipple-sparing mastectomy, so that one is still around. It does not, however, work normally quite yet. It is getting there, though. When I am cold, sometimes it gets hard. Not always when you would expect it to. I think my nerves and sensations are all still trying to work themselves out. It doesn’t bother me much at all, and sometimes its humorous when it shows up…never making much sense…but it is what it is.
So, in most of my swimsuits I have one soft insert in the left side. That is, until this summer. I finally got rid of all of them. I threw them away from my bras, my swimsuits and my running bras. I just said to myself, “I am lucky to have a nipple so who cares if anyone sees it?!” But then I noticed that when I was at the beach, my nipple showed. My right breast is ridiculously smooth (lets be honestly, ladies and gentlemen, we expect the breast to have a certain shape and a nipple). It never bothered me before. I had gotten used to it.
I started to wonder if anyone noticed.
Does anyone care? Do I really care?
We were at the beach for a week and I think after a few days, I just let it go. Literally let it go. Want to know why? Because I could go for a jog along the beach in my swimsuit – with no jogging bra, no sports bra, no extra support. Because I could. Because I had cancer and my breasts are small enough now to not need the support if I do not want to wear it.
And so my one nipple isn’t going to bother me. Because I am thankful to be able to stand on a beach, or go for a run, or just be cold and for it all to work like its supposed to. And if someone cares, its truly their problem, not mine.
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