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The Great Internet Bra Debate
How dirty is your bra?

Someone sent a letter to Dear Prudence asking if his girlfriend was normal because she's worn the same bra every day for two weeks. Prudie gives her usual inadequate and perplexing answer, starting with:

Perhaps your worries about hygiene arise from watching too much soft-core porn in which women get in the shower and soap their breasts for extended periods.

Reader comments range everywhere from ick:

I always wear a clean bra each day, just like I wear clean underwear EACH DAY. I've never heard of such a thing in my life as wearing the same clothes every day for weeks on end, especially not undergarments. And no, I'm not "filthy" rich. I grew up in a single wide trailer with extremely poor, hardworking parents, who taught me the value of SOAP and daily bathing.

to double standard!

Am I the only perosn who sees the endless gender-based double standard in society today? If this question was posed by a woman with a boyfriend who wore the same boxers for a week, the response would have centered around the boyfriend's level of evolution.

to several comments about how bras are expensive and wear out in the wash, bras don't get as dirty as undies, several comments asking how the guy knows she doesn't wash it, maybe she has several bras that look exactly the same, and there's even an informal poll asking how long people wear bras between washings. One of the best answers to the poll:

15 minutes. i have to take it off before me wife comes back

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april_hurst
2009-08-28 06:41 pm UTC (link)

Wearing any article of clothing without washing it for two weeks - except winter jackets, if they don't get dirty and you're not sweating a lot - is gross. It will smell, no matter how clean you are. Prepubescent children can't even get away with that.

I'm boggled that somebody could blame porn or excessive female hygiene standards for the idea that it might be a good idea to wash an undergarment more than twice a month. Did Prudence misread "two weeks" as "two days"?

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	catmoran 2009-08-28 07:39 pm UTC (link)
	Did Prudence misread "two weeks" as "two days"? That's the only sane explanation. I mean, two days is completely reasonable for someone who isn't sweating a lot. (Thank god for AC.) Two weeks is vile; even on a primitive-camping trip undies and bras would get rinsed in the creek a couple times a week. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	snarkhunter 2009-08-29 04:27 pm UTC (link)
	Actually, no, it won't. Normally I'm a hygiene Nazi, but bras? Don't need to be washed that often. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	aliaras 2009-09-16 01:38 am UTC (link)
	Yeah. I mean, things vary based on how hot it is / what you were doing in said bra, but..they don't get _that_ dirty in two days. Underwear, like the on your crotch kind? Yeah, that needs to get changed and not worn again after a day, maybe less. But _bras_? (Reply to this)(Parent)

	ladybirdsleeps 2009-09-01 03:46 am UTC (link)
	I wash my bras when they're dirty. That can be longer than two weeks, depending on the weather and how active I've been while wearing them. Maybe you sweat more than I do. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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