Just for Fun: A Quick Little Clarification on Bra-Burning
(Photo: Duke University archives)
It never happened! Just in case anyone was confused. The myth began after a group of protesters, who’d planned to light a ceremonial bonfire outside the 1968 Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, were denied a permit. Instead, they symbolically threw what they called “instruments of torture”—high heels, makeup, and yes, bras—into a trash can they dubbed the “Freedom Trash Can.” But a reporter for the New York Post, writing a preview of the protest, didn’t know the fire had been canceled, writing: “Lighting a match to a draft card has become a standard gambit of protests groups in recent years, but something new is to go up in flames this Saturday. Would you believe a bra burning?”
