What I call the â??nuanced mythâ? of bra-burning can be traced to September 7, 1968, and the womenâ??s liberation protest on the boardwalk of Atlantic City, N.J., against the Miss America pageant.
A centerpiece of the demonstration was the so-called Freedom Trash Can (see photo, right) into which the protesters consigned â??instruments of torture,â? such as brassieres, girdles, high-heeled shoes, false eyelashes, and copies of magazines such as Playboy and Cosmopolitan.
But the protestâ??s organizers have long insisted that nothing had been set ablaze at Atlantic City. The lead organizer, Robin Morgan, has asserted, for example:
â??There were no bras burned. Thatâ??s a media myth.â?
And yet the epithet â??bra-burningâ? took hold, serving to denigrate and trivialize the objectives of the womenâ??s liberation movement.
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