Cover your boobs because I’m offended! Don’t show nipples. Seriously, this is an age-old statement and we’ve all been there. Maybe you align with that statement or maybe you’re somewhere in the middle. Frankly, there is power in our breasts. We use them to sustain life and they can also serve as a part of our persona and identity. Does exposure of any kind make them gross? Do we need to keep them completely covered so we’re not offending anyone or just the nipple? Maybe no cleavage?No sag and definitely no scars, right? Breast feeding moms have held onto this argument for decades. The opposition says, If your baby needs to eat, go somewhere dark and secluded because my husband or boyfriend might get a boner watching you expose your nipple to feed your hungry infant. That’s the argument I’ve heard a lot anyway. There’s the other side to that coin that argues that we are no different than any guy outside with his shirt off. Society is poised as the problem because nipple exposure is normalized for men but not for women. I have to admit, I’m somewhere in the middle of this debate and I can see both sides however, I also think our society has grown to be overly opinionated and judgmental. I’m sure some will agree that society looks for reasons to feel offended. The entire media circuit is built upon offenses. I stopped watching for that reason. The chaos of constant offendedness is never ending.
You might be wondering why a bra boutique is jumping into this controversy. Maybe we shouldn’t be weighing in on it, but I can’t help but feel compelled that this is now our battle too. Here’s why;
We are a women’s boutique and of course you know, we sell bras, among a plethora of other apparel items. My daughter and I felt very passionate about offering local women options for intimates that didn’t include buying online at big box stores or driving an hour down the hill. As we began diving into this uncharted territory for our region, we started getting noticed for our wares, and for our window plastered boobs. We also have sexy mannequins with smoking hot Lingerie adorning an oddly slender plastic body. Perhaps that is offensive too. I can see how a set of plastic boobs and a woman with no head could be taken the wrong way. She’s far too sexy for the corner. It still sounds ridiculous but ok, some might not like it. We get it, but not really.
In October, we went full throttle in support of breast cancer (and all cancers) awareness 💝🎀 month, promoting breast health, early screening, and of course we promoted our bras, mastectomy supplies and lingerie. We even promoted sex toys because god forbid women have local access to items that improve climax or provide a platform for a healthy sex relationship among consenting adults. Perverts. 🙄🤣.
We carry a line of bras made for women who have had some type of breast surgery. I’ll repeat that. We carry a line of bras made for women who have had SOME TYPE of BREAST surgery. Basically, we carry bras made for women or anyone identifying as a woman who have gone through any type of breast surgery. It has been hugely popular and to better represent the population and attempt to better fill the need, we decided to go through the mastectomy and post surgery certification classes and take this service to the community on a scale that provides for even better options. Now to be clear, there are only a few “mastectomy supply stores”. They’re not close and they all require an appointment. I don’t know about you, but if I’ve just had surgery, im very sure that I’m not interested in bouncing around in a car for an hour just to find a bra that helps replace what I’ve lost. That’s a hard pass. I also don’t always plan ahead and appointment’s are for people that are organized. I’m trying but I might need to just pop in on my day off or if I happen to be in the area.
We decided to take this issue on and it’s one of many areas where we are trying to promote and expand our business model. We are building our inventory still and we need enough products to be competitive and we need to get the info to the community so they know we’re here. Advertising is expensive, crazy, ridiculous expensive and I’ll be totally transparent here, I have not been paid once since we opened our store. Every dime goes back to our store. We actually hired several beautiful women who share our vision. That brings me so much joy and I know that my perseverance will eventually pay off, but it’s scary and I spend most of my time just trying to get the word out. Unfortunately most people don’t share posts, leave reviews or share positive experiences, leaving it to us to continue pushing our brand as much as possible.
To promote our vision and remain true to our slightly “in your face”, “no BS”, “what you see is what you get” persona, we used our windows upstairs to showcase what we felt was most important for our community to know. We are located in a very old, gorgeous historic building, but it has No traditional retail frontage. We have 3 sash windows, that’s it.
Our agenda is simple. We had two messages to get out to the community and they are:
#1 We support EVERY “booby”.
#2 We carry bras and products for every type and shape, from flat, to bilateral, whatever you have, we got you covered.
We shared this information by adding a variety of cartoon style breasts to two of our six window panes. They’re not photos, they’re white stickers that I made on my Cricut. That’s it. But of course, there’s always someone that doesn’t like it and in our case it’s The City of Placerville. We’re in their crosshairs but instead of coming right out and saying they don’t approve, they’ve decided to make it about our “signage” and following “ordinances”. We’re over here thinking, sheesh, we just started a new business at the beginning of 2022. I’ve mortgaged my house to pay for the nearly $500k in inventory that we carry. We are pushing as hard as we can, day and night and some days we’ll see two customers all day, but we continue to persevere and maintain the hope that we’re going to make it once everyone knows who we are. Instead of supporting us, the city has taken aim. They want it to come down, all of it, but if you take a drive down Main Street you’ll notice the dozens of stores with window stickers, signage, flashing lights, etc. They’re threatening fines, while taking the ordinances out of context and enforcing them at their leisure. Meanwhile, we’re hoping to highlight the necessity for awareness, early detection and if any woman is afflicted by something as devastating as cancer, we want her to know that we’re ready to walk alongside her and provide every single support we can to make any part of her life just a little bit simpler.
Are we semi obnoxious in our attempt to be seen and known using that strategy? Sure we are, but we are also filled with love, compassion and hope for our community and as women in business, with everything on the line, we want to continue to push through the barriers. You know, the ones that tell us how gross it is to expose a boob or a nipple or how inappropriate it is to share mastectomy scars, and how boobs that sag are expected to have a supportive bra on in public. It’s all hogwash. Yes, I said it.
For goodness sakes people, they’re just boobs and they come in every shape and size, every color and texture. Some are big, some are small, some sag, some are perky, some droop, some point, and no matter what, they’re a small (or big) part of who we are as women. Maybe they don’t define you, or maybe they do. Whatever it is, your boobs are perfectly yours and I hope you can embrace them. Whatever the situation, we’re not here to judge, we’re here to support you (literally), give you options in our store and in our website that make you feel good about yourself and we hope when you leave and after you make a purchase, you leave feeling beautiful, powerful and like we have done a good job. We want you to come back, tell your friends and most of all, have confidence that we can meet your needs for intimates.
We are in this together and no matter what, we support our community and we hope the feeling is mutual. We’re going to keep our window boobs for now, because we need our community to know that we have something for every “Booby” and if we take them down, we’re compromising our own values that adhere to supporting women and underserved groups of women in our community. We’re the only gig in town if you need a bra that fits your perfectly unique boobs and until everyone knows who we are, we’re going to keep flashing our boobs.
Much Love,
Theresa XOXO
ps. If you have not had the opportunity to visit, please stop in. We sell really amazing bras, lingerie and clothing for all sizes (XS-3XL) and HUGS 🤗 ARE ALWAYS FREE:) 🆓
