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People who work in a home office usually forgo their business wardrobe and make themselves comfortable. Some women also like to leave their bra off - they find it more comfortable. But topless outside of one's own four walls still arouses tempers today.

Paris (dpa) - For most women, a bra is as much a part of their closet as socks. There's no question about it - or so it seems for many: When a woman leaves the house and goes to work, she wears a bra.

But the fact that this is not at all a matter of course was discussed decades ago. At that time, feminists questioned the garment - as a symbol of oppression and heteronomy. And today, some women are once again opting to go without - but this decision is still not accepted as a matter of course.

A recent survey from France showed that younger women in particular are increasingly foregoing the bra. At the very least, the survey suggests that since the Corona exit restrictions, which for many meant home offices instead of offices, slightly more women are going braless than before. Female friends report similar things.

"Apparently, some women, for example, feel the need not to wear a bra in the home office - it's more pleasant, more comfortable," says sexologist Heinz-Jürgen Voß of Merseburg University of Applied Sciences. "So you can ask yourself the question: Why then is a bra worn in public, at work?"

The web is teeming with women telling of their topless selfies - and not just since Corona. One of them in 2017 was Hillary Brenhouse. "It wasn't a political decision - except insofar as anything a woman does with her body, if she doesn't let someone else dictate what she should do with it, is a political decision," she wrote in the U.S. magazine The New Yorker.

Voß takes a similar view: "After all, the whole debate arises in the context of a sexist society. The toplessness of women is discussed - but the toplessness of men is not."

In the survey from France, almost half of the men and women questioned were of the opinion that a woman without a bra runs the risk of being harassed or assaulted. And one in five are even convinced that the fact that a woman shows her nipples under a top should be considered a mitigating circumstance for the attacker in sexual assault cases. This is classic "victim blaming" - that is, perpetrator-victim reversal.

That women are not at all free in their decision for or against a bra had to be experienced by Sea-Watch captain Carola Rackete. When she appeared in court last year for a hearing without a bra, the Italian conservative newspaper "Libero" was furious and called for more decency. Italian women showed solidarity with Rackete and called for #freenipplesday on social networks.

The Free the Nipple campaign has been around for several years. It denounces the fact that women, unlike men, are not allowed to show their nipples in public. It has been supported by celebrities such as US artists Lena Dunham and Miley Cyrus.

For feminist and publicist Gitti Hentschel, the issue of bras is not new. "In the heyday of the second women's movement in the 1970s, the question of whether or not the bra was an instrument of oppression was a hot topic," the co-founder of the "Tageszeitung" (taz) newspaper recounts. She initially wore a bra back then - later she didn't, partly because she found it more comfortable. "And there was simply also something liberating about it. If someone then sees me only as a sex object, it's not my problem," Hentschel said.

For Hentschel, the bra issue also goes far beyond the garment itself. "Not wearing a bra is an expression of liberated sexuality. The affront: women define for themselves how they want to look," she says. "I think it's terrible that we're still having similar debates that we had in the '70s. No matter how a woman walks around - no one has a right to attack her." The MeToo debate on sexism and sexualized violence has once again raised awareness that women live with assault all the time, Hentschel said. Unfortunately, however, things are not really getting any better.

The question of not wearing a bra has another dimension - a medical one. Is it healthier to leave the bra off - or does it even do harm?

"Supporting the breast tissue has primarily a cosmetic function, not a health one," explains Christian Albring, president of the Professional Association of Gynecologists. It is not weakened by the bra, he says, and leaving it off does not strengthen the tissue either. However, spending long periods of time without a bra with a large breast causes back pain for many women, he says. He has a simple advice, "Which option is more comfortable for the woman, she has to try it herself if she wants to."