In honor of National No Bra Day, I would like to remind you that going braless is always a completely valid and legitimate choice –– but it has absolutely nothing to do with raising breast cancer awareness.
Unfortunately, that's exactly what today is supposed to be about, at least according to various sources on the Internet. It's hard to imagine how anyone thinks letting their boobs flop freely will raise awareness for breast cancer. It's even less understandable why anyone thinks that breast cancer patients and survivors WANT to see a bunch of bouncing boobs, ostensibly in their honor, when they may have had to undergo mastectomies themselves. That's roughly akin to informing a diabetic that you're going to eat an ice cream sundae in their honor to raise "awareness" of diabetes.
Meanwhile, this effort is supposedly targeted at encouraging women to get mammograms. Because nothing screams "Go get your mammograms, girls (and anyone else with breasts)!" like seeing braless boobs. That aside, mammograms have become controversial because it turns out that they are highly effective in detecting abnormal cells –– but many of those abnormal cells may never even develop into cancer. Yet the patients are still treated for "breast cancer" based on the results of their screening tests. Oops?
If you decide to go braless today, by all means let your boobs hang out and proud, but please don't pretend that you're doing a damn thing for breast cancer awareness. These awesome women who got badass tattoos to cover their mastectomy scars, however? THEY are absolutely raising breast cancer awareness.
