When it comes to braless women too many men have a blind spot

A waitress fired for refusing to wear a bra is unfair, writes Emma Teitel, who says it’s more comfortable

What happens when a woman doesn’t wear a bra to work? If, like me, she often earns a living from home, the answer is nothing, because no one is expecting her to wear a bra, nor anything at all.

But if, as Christina Schell is, she is a server at a golf club, going braless isn’t merely a style preference; it’s potentially grounds for termination.

Schell, 25, a former employee of the Osoyoos Golf Club in British Columbia, told the CBC this week that she was fired from her serving job because she refused to wear a bra under her staff uniform. Not only was she fired; she claims a male manager insisted she wear the undergarment (or a tank top), because “I know what happens with alcohol and golf courses.”

Translation: Men get tipsy on the course and ogle female servers and if one of those servers isn’t wearing a bra — i.e. if her nipples are standing at attention — she may be subject to a more thorough ogling — or worse.

The truth, if he did, in fact, say this, is that this manager is probably right.

Men, as we have observed recently and from the beginning of time, have a tendency to be exceptionally gross. I wouldn’t be surprised if Schell’s going braless provoked the grossest among them to leer at and harass her.

But, if this is the case, that’s not Schell’s problem. It’s their problem. And it’s her employer’s problem.

Schell has filed a human rights complaint, claiming such an enforced dress code, or, more accurateother ly, an underdress code, is discriminatory.

And she’s right. Why should she be forced to wear a bra, when, she says, going braless is infinitely more comfortable? Doing so harms no one. It’s not even immodest.

Does not wearing this garment make it obvious that she has breasts and that on those breasts exist nipples? Yes. But again, if this makes you uncomfortable or excited, that’s your problem, not hers.

There’s a fair, legitimate debate to be had right now about the place of dress codes in the modern work world and especially in schools. It’s reasonable, for example, that school administrators don’t want high school students coming to class nearly naked. It’s reasonable that they should want young women to learn their self worth is not dependent on how much of their thongs are visible outside their jeans. Teachers and principals that demand students dress respectfully (provided they allow girls to wear tank tops in hot weather) shouldn’t be labelled misogynists for trying to maintain a basic level of decorum.

But nobody, be they high school student or golf course employee, should be forced to wear a bra for the direct purpose of making their peers more comfortable. Nobody should have to forfeit her own bodily comfort because some pervert can’t stop staring at her chest.

And nobody should be forced to wear a bra when she has the amazing luck of not needing one.

Unlike Schell, I can’t go braless unless I’m relatively stationary — i.e. at home writing this column. (In words, my boobs are too big for the braless lifestyle popular these days, not only among British Columbian golf course employees, but every small-chested woman walking along Queen Street West).

However, if I could go braless, I would do so in a heartbeat.

Bras are uncomfortable.

Even at their best, even when designed with no underwire, they are still somewhat constricting and annoying. The first thing I do when I get home, before I eat dinner or go to the bathroom or take my dog out to pee, is take off my bra. If God had blessed me with a smaller bust, I would never put it on. I am not the only woman who feels this way. Contrary to popular male belief that most women wish they had larger breasts, many of us want smaller ones, precisely so we can be rid of our bras forever.

Perhaps an easy way to end the bra debate is to advocate for a semblance of equality — and recycling. If men are unable to function at work in the presence of braless women, there’s a simple solution: they can borrow their female colleagues’ discarded brassieres and fasten the things around their heads.

Bras: the perfect blindfolds.

Nobody should have to forfeit her own bodily comfort because some pervert can’t stop staring at her chest.