Secrets From Your Sister

Recently, my mother was telling me that she visited Secrets From Your Sister, a Toronto Bra and Lingerie shop where they do fittings for Bras. Though the bras are themselves very expensive, the appointment to get the fitting is technically free, but I suspect you’ll be convinced to walk out of there with one. To discover, after all these years, that you had NO IDEA how to fit a bra on yourself, relying more on cheap deals and flashy colours to choose a bra... it’s a release!

I had been to this place myself (ironically, accompanied by my sister), but as I also want to dig into the world of women’s health, I wanted to know what sort of information they present, so I checked out their website (see it here: http://www.secretsfromyoursister.com/index.php) I was pretty surprised to note that the first news article about breast health (there's only a handful as of yet) was exactly on what I had been wondering about, silly as it is:

Myth: Wearing a bra causes cancer.

Interestingly, I’d actually found the answer on the Breast Cancer Action website (for more info on breast cancer see: http://bcaction.org/), in their Resources: Myths and Truths section. On the topics of breast cancer and marketing, this brings me to another rant about the “Pink” marketing campaigns that claim to be supporting the cause.


First of all, far too many companies have sold items with the pink ribbon as an indication that some amount (no matter how small) of the profits would be donated to research in Breast Cancer. They don’t tell you how much, to whom and to what. As a response, Breast Cancer Action started a project (since 2002, can you believe it?) known as “Think Before You Pink,” to prevent companies from abusing the cause to reap commercial gains. Especially when some of these companies – and many of them do – sell products that contain known carcinogens.

Second of all, much of the research that receives funding from these campaigns is cure-oriented, that is, few are preventative, health promoting. Moral of the story, we want to stop this before it starts but we also generally want to live healthy.

So all and all, a good bra may not prevent cancer, but it may certainly improve quality of life. If you’re sitting their adjusting your bra, just at the thought of getting fitted, it may not be a bad idea to see what bra fitting stores are nearby, but don't just buy it because it has a pink ribbon.