Samantha Stern (’17), the curator of the exhibit, grouped the pieces featured in the photos as ‘Invisible Metal’. Aside from the usage of metal in under garments that can still be found in present day society, she noted how metal was used to shape women into who they should be and what they represent, even during pregnancy.

The exhibit pushed me to think about how metal was used to form society, literally and figuratively. The use of metal to take women of all walks of life, body types and more, and make them ‘ideal’ is concerning. As there are many reasons why this is concerning, the most important to me is the mediocrity. To me, using ‘invisible’ metal to shape what women should look like, in turn makes the women themselves ‘invisible’, for the visibility of American society.

While this may seem less true for present day society, as woman do not walk around wearing corsets and crinolines as often, it is not. I love how Samantha was able to bring this molding concept of metal to the present day with bras. Though I believe that the bra is a handy piece of underwear, this exhibit brought to light some concerns. One thing is obvious, not every woman has the same pair of boobs. Why then, do we try to conform all women with metal bras? Some women do not have large breasts, or two, due to certain circumstances. Do they really need bras? Why do we allow bras to be pushed onto young girls, who feel the need to stuff them? Realistically, most men with boobs do not wear bras, so why should we?

In my opinion bras are slightly tragic. However, I will never say bras should not be worn, as they serve other purposes like ‘keeping things together’. Most importantly, I will never stop supporting or wearing bras, because my world has been molded and shaped to believe that wearing a bra means that I am an intact woman; I am apart of a visible society and must remain a figuratively invisible me.