Room

enter the room
where the walls
are doors,
no curtains
closing the windows.
move in my room
and let me watch
how your nipples bloom.

The Bra Dilemma

The bra, formally brassiere... Today, I just want to dig the subject of this popular underwear a bit. As far as I know, women have been using breast supporting garments since 1500 BC. The modern bra is the evolved form of restless corsets and became an industrial product around the year of 1930. You can examine the basic parts of an abstract bra in the image below:
According to my experiences, a small tie shaped silk band located between the cups is an essential part of a modern bra as well :) I don't know why it is omitted in the above image...

Anyway, my observations about the women's demands from a bra are

1. Women want a bra to support their breasts and they want to achieve a sexy and healthy bosom posture.
2. Women want a bra to protect their breasts and nipples from aggressive glances.
3. Women don't want a bra to be realized as an underwear. They want bras to be hidden.

Three observations in contradiction. Number one stresses that women want their breasts to attract attention, they want them to seem well and be realized by others. Number two highlights the women's feeling of hiding their breasts from the outside world. So in here, we can consider the bra as the armour of the breasts. And number three says that women want to appear in a natural way, they do not want to reveal the fact that they are supporting and protecting their breasts by using an artificial thing.

What is this? Too complex to understand... Too complex to live with...

I tnink that this unnatural complexity is the fault of the men dominated social life. Naturally, women never want to hide their breasts under some uncomfortable garments which presses over and make them sweat and scratch their delicate skin all day. But they want to be in the ideal feminine shape defined by the men's desire. As James Brown said, "it is a man's man's man's world"... Moreover, they want to feel secure against the men's gaze and disturbance that annoys women very often in daily life. So the market produced a product that supplies those complex and meaningless demands: The bra. And its contradictions. The following advertisement is a good example of the absurdity that forces the bras exist:

Some social movements exist under the brand of topfreedom and I hope they broaden fast. Topfree Equal Rights Association (TERA) and Bara Bröst (Bare Breast in Swedish) are good and most popular ones in action.

I know that I sound too feminist as a man. However, I believe that humanity needs to simpilfy the over complex, traditional and dogmatic issues of life to step forward in civilization. We don't need to undergo those dark and vague spots which choke open minded human beings. I consider those spots as tumors of the social system.

The life is unique and we have to glorify the life itself and ourselves. Let's open our eyes and see the naked truth. Are we that brave?

The Metaphor

Almost the best metaphor I have ever read is the one in the book Mahrem by Elif Şafak. This book has been translated into English by Brendan Freely and the English name of the book is "The Gaze". I'd like to share the words by quoting. But... I am not sure if I could translate the sentences into English well. First, I am giving the original Turkish ones:

"Yokuşun ikinci kısmının son adımında dönüp de geriye bakanlar, denizi görebilirdi. Mavi, masmaviydi deniz; rehindi duru durgunluğunda. Bazı kadınlar, bazı bazı, delice bir fikre kapılırdı. Deniz, birikmiş sütünü akıtacak ağız arayan bir meme ucu gibi pütür pütür kabarır, sızım sızım sızlar, usul usul çağırırdı uzaktan. Şimdi... ne geçmişe kederlenmek, ne geleceğe didinmek; sanki... sadece ve sadece gözler-kapalı-ağız-açık kendini salarak, şu anı kana kana emmekle mümkün olabilecekti zamana doyabilmek." Page 35-36

The sea and the nipple/areola metaphor... This lady rules the language. And my translation for the paragraph above:

"On the last step of the hill's second part, the ones who stop a while and look back could see the sea. The sea was blue, deep blue; pledged by its pure quiescent. Some women, sometimes, cherish an illusion. The sea uprises so rough, like a saturated nipple seeking for an opening to pour its milk, aches so deeply, calls so quietly. Now... not to deplore for the past, not to fag for the future; as if... it would be possible to get enough of time merely by releasing yourself and sucking the current moment deeply with eyes-shut-open-mouthed."

I hope I could have carried the original taste of Elif Şafak's style to English. Read "The Gaze" for the official literary pleasure ;)