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FACT #14: The Famous Bra Burning That Never Happened

You’ve heard about angry feminists burning their bras. However, no bras were actually harmed in the process.

The year was 1968 and the Miss America Pageant was about to take place. The organization New York Radical Women believed the pageant perpetuated beauty standards that oppressed women.

Together they decided to stage a demonstration against it using civil rights era protest techniques. The women took off to Atlantic City to protest the pageant on the boardwalk.

Massive crowd of women turned out and passersby were captivated by the demonstration.At one point they even crowned a sheep, comparing the pageant to livestock competitions. Later on they crashed the pageant and hung a women’s liberation banner from the balcony of the venue.

Although the group wanted to burn bras, the police department nixed the idea since they were on the boardwalk. Instead, protesters decided to throw what they called “instruments of female torture” into trashcans - items like mops, girdles, pots and pans, Playboy magazines, and finally, bras.

A local reporter commented that “men burn draft cards and what next? Will women burn bras?" Just like that, the term bra burner was coined and the rest was history.

REFERENCES:
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94240375
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-45303069