Bra-burning: true and definitive history
Jesse Lemisch/Naomi Weisstein (LEMJJ@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU)
Sat, 24 May 97 20:40:26 EDT
1. Nobody burned a bra at the 1968 Miss America protest. Bras, girdles, curlers
, hairspray, etc., were placed in a garbage can.
2. Anti-feminists (the Rush Limbaughs of the time) subsequently invented the
notion of "bra-burning" and calling feminists "bra-burners." This preceded any
bar-burning. It was clearly derived from the public draft-card burnings which
occurred in opposition to the grotesque American war in Vietnam.
3. Subsequent to the development of this nomenclature, some public bra-bnrnings
may have occurred, in imitation of the term. If so, they were at best very
infrequent.
This is a true and definitive history -- unless you remember it differ-
ently. Jesse Lemisch/Naomi Weisstein