Training Day

I was wandering through the lingerie department of The Bay when I stepped into the training bra section. It's hard to believe that a girl who's a 28 double A needs to bother with anything besides the shirt on her back, but apparently every North American female starts sometime.

How on earth does a bra train a girl, anyway? Does it issue B.O.L.O.'s? (Be on the lookout...) Because that's not bad advice. There's plenty to watch out for on the journey from girl to woman. Is the training just early practice for the discomfort that comes with women's clothing? Let's face it. You don't see men strapping up their chubby chests with a tight band and suffocating unbreathable material. Or waltzing down the street in heels that hurt with every step. In light of that, the training bra might be telling girls the following:

 'This is merely the first step. Sure, you feel like you're locked in a small room until bedtime. But someday soon, you'll graduate to more elaborate prisons, until one day you'll don a Victoria's Secret bra that is the comfort equivalent of a ten year stay in San Quentin. So brace yourself.

The truth is, it's older women's breasts that  need training. After they've spent enough time on the planet, they get a little jaded. Cynical. Opinionated, some might say, and positively revolutionary. There is no accounting for the direction they'll take (though many head south for the winter) and when it comes to the steel-like frames that promise to 'lift and separate,' many women's breasts raise a metaphorical middle finger, and say, 'Fuck that.'

This is why my mother and mother in law entered their seventies like it was 1969 and they were going to burn their bras in the city square. They didn't, of course. Instead, they discreetly tucked them away in a drawer and never looked at them again. Every day life was lived cage free, and like healthy hens, they were free range all the way.

On that celebratory note, here's a shout out to my weight training instructor, Tracy Salamondra. Every day with her is training day, and yes, there are some benefits there for wayward, recalcitrant breasts. It's all in the posture one gains from swinging kettle bells and thrusting those dumbbells in the air. When your shoulders are locked down properly, your breasts might sulk a bit, but eventually they settle into place. "Hmm", I thought, the first time I noticed. "There's something to all this suffering after all.' And unlike a bra shaped like a medieval torture devise, her gym workout actually offers some promise. So I think I'll stick with it and see what happens. Onward and upward, right? Girls, stop it! (I guess we're not quite there, yet.)