h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Because there hasn't, has there? It's been about the same for about 50 years. Nothing new and exciting to support the puppies that doesn't exude some ray of discomfort.

Or has there, and I haven't noticed?

Breast support and it's history! Discuss!

Because you can't kill someone with a bra, and we all know weapons of leathal force are MUCH more important...

Maybe it is because most inventions are made by men, who (mostly) don't have breasts.
Most men just want to support the visibility of breasts, while women want to support the breasts themselves.

So find some female inventors and start thinking and testing.

Of course you can kill someone with a bra! If David had had one, he could have flung two stones at a time at Goliath

The biggest advance in booby tech recently came courtesy of Michelle Mone, inventor of the Ultimo. I've never tried one myself, they cost a small fortune...but even though it was invented by a woman, the Ultimo still appears to give cleavage boosting precedence over comfort.

I'm taking this too seriously...

Marjin, I think you got it right first up to bat. Men have been inventing everything since the beginning of the world! Not sure what women have been doing; jawing to each other I suppose. Men don`t wear bra`s so don`t hold your breath.

Oh christ. I should have predicted the ever-present "it's a male dominant world and we can't do anything about it" chorus.

What utter tosh. Feminism has been around for a good 30 years now. There is no excuse for women not designing their own.

I was talking more about the basic structure - y'know, straps, underwire (a necessity for me) cups. With all the space age technology, why is it basically still the same? There *has* to be another way of supporting the breasts without the straps/cups combo?

if it aint broke...

But darling Uncle Heavy...it is broke. Bra's are not the most comfortable thing. Then again. Neither is going bra-less!

have you considered undercarriage?

It is broken - bras are pretty uncomfortable.
If you have no first hand experience of having to wear them for support, day in, day out, then don't imply there is no need for improvements.

Thinking about it, why are bras essentially the same for the whole range of bust sizes? Larger busts need totally different things from smaller ones - support and control (lack of bouncing during running etc) compared with enhancement etc (not entirely sure what smaller breasted women want, not having experienced that much.) Although there are bras advertised for the two separate purposes, the *basic* shape is still the same.

True. The only ones I've ever worn that were halfway comfortable were ones made from cotton instead of the normal satin or polyester or whatever the heck it is they normally make bras out of. Not much for support (and thereby not too comfortable for me personally, having never been little), but I could sleep in the things with no trouble at all.

the bras i wear are always really snug

Yes, dear. *pats head*

I personally have no problems with bras. In fact, I love them. I own in excess of 30 because I adore them so. Lace and velvet and silk and satin and pretty cotton - and the vast majority in underwire. I wear them 24/7. Of course, a lot of that might be due to the fact that other than a couple years of pregnancy, I've always been a 34B *shrug*

There has been and advance in the world of undergarments.

The Canadians have recently invented the combat bra!

I'm sorry - I'm doing my best - but I've only got 2 hands.

Inventors are usually geeky guys who live in their parents' basements. They've never seen a bra. Or if they have, they're afraid of making them harder to undo than they already are. They're not the kind of guys who get a lot of experience with that sort of thing.

Okay, kidding aside... the fashion industry is dominated by skinny women and gay men, neither of which can understand the need for support in busty women.

Or maybe I'm still kidding.

I`m really struggling to think of anything that a woman has invented? Help me out her girls. Is it true most of you only use your heads as a hat-rack? Maybe in ten more generations a smart woman will appear who can invent a more comfortable bra for you lil` things.

I saw a blurb on TV the other day about the contributions of women to the tech industry. The show notes can be found here:

http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/showtell/story/0,24330,3407929,00.html

Apparently, around WWII, women would do iterative calculations by hand. Those women themselves were give the job title "computer."

When ENIAC was built, it was designed to perform the same calculations as those women were doing. As such, the people who were best suited to program that first computer were...women! No one else had as much experience in doing those calculations as those women did. So the world's first computer programmers were six women.

As far as bras are concerned, I thought there were bras available that were more comfortable than the standard wire cup design. I remember seeing ads a few years ago for wireless bras which looked more comfortable. On the other hand, I don't have much experience wearing bras, so I don't know what's comfortable or not.