Donating Bras Can Change the Lives of People in Poverty

[View on the web]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( Feature [The Huge Impact of Donated Bras]( [Donated bras]( Whether it digs in, rides up, chafes, gapes, or won’t stay hidden under any of your clothes, everyone who wears a bra knows what it’s like to have a bad one. If you don’t fit into the relatively small range of sizes on offer at big retailers, they can be prohibitively expensive. But there’s no real choice. A bra is a professional, and often social, necessity for most women larger than an A cup. That includes women experiencing homelessness and other people who rely on donated or subsidized clothes. Bras are rarely given to local charities, which makes it extremely hard to find bras that fit, let alone look good under clothes (and out of clothes). That’s where [Be a Dear and Donate a Brassiere]( steps in. The San Jose, California, group has collected more than 24,000 bras since its inception in 2009, along with new panties, and distributes them to homeless and at-risk women in the Bay Area. “There’s really a need. You can see it. Look how much bras cost,” Eileen Hunter, one of three co-founders, told me. “Homeless women don’t keep a lot of clothes with them. So to get a good-fitting bra is just special.” Eileen has found the right bra for all kinds of women: Trans women looking for heavily padded bras, women who don’t fit into sizes found in regular stores, pregnant women with shifting sizes. A few months ago at a cold weather shelter, several young girls were hoping for training bras. “We’ll be prepared for them next time,” Be a Dear posted on Facebook, and asked for donations. As important as dignity and self-esteem are, there are also health risks for women dealing with homelessness who wear badly fitting bras or don’t wear them at all. “If you’re voluptuous, and you get hot and sweaty and you’re not bathing as much, you can get rashes and serious sores,” Eileen told me. Bras come to Be a Dear from all over the place, from lingerie shops to women who have had mastectomies. Several plastic surgeons in the Bay Area serve as drop-off locations for women getting implants or reductions who’d like to donate their old sizes. (Donations from plastic surgery patients are some of the best. “They give really nice bras,” Eileen told me, laughing. “They’re already willing to spend a lot of money on their boobs!”) [ThirdLove](, an online bra store with a try-before-you-buy program, donates gently used returns to the group, and [Torrid]( donates bras in larger sizes. Be a Dear started in 2009, when co-founder Lisa Collins was working at the clothing distribution office at the homeless services center St. Vincent de Paul, where she is a director. A woman came in and asked for a bra, but the closest size Lisa had available was much too small. The woman took it anyway. It was better than nothing. [Read the rest of the story >>]( Ad from our sponsor News [The “Fat Tax” Is Everywhere, From Retail to the Nail Salon]( [Pedicure]( The British retailer New Look just [sparked an international backlash]( for [charging more for plus-size clothes]( than it does for straight-size options. But the controversy wasn’t the first time New Look has made headlines for upcharging plus-size patrons. In September, the retailer was accused of charging these customers [three times the amount it charged straight-size customers](. New Look is hardly the first retailer to hike prices in the plus category. H&M, Missguided, Pretty Little Thing, River Island, [Boohoo, and Asos]( have all charged what’s known as the [“fat tax,”](according to British newspaper the Sun. In 2014, [Old Navy was the target of a petition]( that netted 95,000 signatures for upcharging plus-size women for larger clothes but not men. It charged up to $15 more for women’s plus jeans than it did for women’s straight-size jeans. While [Old Navy agreed to make changes related to its plus offerings](, it did not immediately agree to stop upcharging. Some retailers argue that they charge more for plus because it costs more to make larger garments. But that argument ignores the fact that fast-fashion retailers notoriously make clothing for mere pennies. For example, the [minimum wage for a garment worker in Bangladesh](, where many fast-fashion items are made, isn’t more than $70 per month. The fact that these retailers pay garment workers egregiously low wages would seem to more than compensate for any cost differential between plus-size and straight-size clothes. (Although retailers really should pay garment workers fair wages.) Upcharging most likely isn’t about fair pricing but about fat-shaming women, especially considering Old Navy’s gender double standard. If larger clothes cost substantially more to make, then why doesn’t the retailer also charge more for big-and-tall men’s apparel? The indignities plus-size consumers face don’t stop in retail. Salons and spas charge fat taxes as well. In 2010, a customer named Michelle Fonville revealed that Natural Nails, a Georgia salon, [overcharged her because she was overweight](. At first, she thought the salon had made an error, but when she pointed it out, the manager told Fonville that the additional $5 charge was due to her size. While the manager, Kim Tan, refunded the money, she told Fonville not to return to the salon because the chairs had a weight capacity of 200 pounds and would cost $2,500 to repair. “Do you think that’s fair when we take $24 and we have to pay $2,500 [in repairs]?” Tan told ABC News. “I said to her, ‘I’m sorry, but next time I cannot take you.’” The average American woman wears a size 16 to 18 and often weighs about 200 pounds. Add in the fact that men occasionally visit salons as well, and it’s doubtful that the chairs have such a low weight capacity. But what happened at Natural Nails wasn’t an isolated incident. Just last year, a woman accused a Tennessee salon called Rose Nails of posting a handwritten sign on the wall stating that [overweight patrons would have to pay more](. She posted a picture of the sign on Facebook, where it was shared hundreds of times. The sign said, “Sorry, but if you are overweight, pedicures will be $45 due to service fees for pedicurists.” [Read the rest of the story >>]( [MORE GOOD STUFF TO READ TODAY](#) - [An Alabama Girl Had to Fight Her School to Wear a Tuxedo to Prom]( - [Why You’ll See Female Armpit Hair in Deadpool 2]( - [A Pageant Makeup Artist on Mascara Tears and Mink Lashes]( - [Why We Love to Hate Tiny Sunglasses]( - [The Glamorous Female Assassin Is a Myth — For Good Reason]( - [Meghan Markle Wore Her Favorite “Controversial” Hairstyle at the Royal Wedding]( Did a friend forward you this email? [Sign up for the Racked email newsletter](. Ad from our sponsor From The Archives A selection from the editors at Racked [A woman at her laptop]( [Online Shopping While Black]( Until racial profiling stops, the internet has an edge over the mall. [Read More]( [Socks] [The Clothes You Inherit From Your Exes]( A fairly exhaustive catalog. 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