Handbra

In art

Employment of the handbra technique and its variations has a long history in art.

Judean pillar figures, from the Southern Levant (modern day Israel, Jordan, and Palestine) show a nude goddess, supporting or cupping her prominent breasts with her hands. File:Figurilla pilar femenina, British Museum.jpg|A baked clay figure (7th century B.C.) from Bethlehem File:Limestone naiskos with female figures holding their breasts MET DP159451.jpg|A complex Cypriot figure (5th century B.C.) File:Cleomene di Apollodoro, venere medici, I secolo ac ca.jpg|The Medici Venus (1st century B.C.) File:Guérin, Pierre-Narcisse - Jeune fille en bust - c. 1794.jpg|Portrait of a Young Girl () by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, File:William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) - Spring Breeze (1895).jpg|Spring Breeze (1895) by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

In print media

Similar community standards apply in other media, with female models being required to at least cover their breasts in some way.[[File:Michele Merkin 1.jpg|thumb|[[Michele Merkin]] in 2006]]The handbra technique became less common and an unnecessary pose in early 20th century European and American pinup postcard media as toplessness and nudity became more common. In America, after bare breasts become repressed in mainstream media circa 1930, the handbra became an increasingly durable pose, especially as more widespread American pinup literature emerged in the 1950s. Once bare breasts became common in pinup literature, after the early 1960s, the handbra pose became less necessary. As with pinup magazines of the 1950s, the handbra pose was a mainstay of late 20th century mainstream media, especially lad mags, such as FHM, Maxim, and Zoo Weekly, that prominently featured photos of scantily clad actresses and models who wished to avoid topless and nude glamour photography.

Examples include Brigitte Bardot (1955, 1971), Elizabeth Taylor in a Playboy magazine pictorial from the set of Cleopatra, Peggy Moffitt modeling Rudi Gernreich's topless maillot and how Life magazine handled the story (1964), and the emergence of handbras in publications such as the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue by model Elle MacPherson (1989).

Toward the end of the 20th century, the handbra appeared on numerous celebrity magazine covers. The August 1991 cover of Vanity Fair magazine, known as the More Demi Moore cover, contained a controversial handbra nude photograph of the then seven-months pregnant Demi Moore taken by Annie Leibovitz. Two years later Janet Jackson appeared on the September 1993 cover of Rolling Stone with her nipples covered by a pair of male hands. The magazine later named it their "Most Popular Cover Ever".

In July 1994, Ronald Reagan's daughter Patti Davis appeared on the cover of Playboy with another model covering her breasts. Photographer Raphael Mazzucco created an eight-woman handbra on the cover of the 2006 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and a photo of Marisa Miller covering her breasts with her arms and her vulva with an iPod in the 2007 Swimsuit Issue.

The handbra was the subject of a pointed parody advertisement for Holding Your Own Boobs magazine performed by Sarah Michelle Gellar and Will Ferrell on the May 15, 1999 episode of Saturday Night Live.

In cinema

At the start of the 20th century, the use of the handbra was not very common in European or American cinema, where toplessness and discreet full nudity of the female form was accepted. In the 1930s, the Hays Code brought an end to nudity in all its forms, including toplessness, in Hollywood films. To remain within the censors' guidelines or community standards of decency and modesty, breasts of actresses in an otherwise topless scene were required to be covered, especially the nipples and areolae, with their hands (using a handbra gesture), arms, towel, pasties, some other object, or the angle of the body in relation to the camera.

Social upheaval in the 1960s resulted first in toplessness then full nudity in film being accepted (albeit subject to movie ratings in many countries), after which the use of the handbra decreased. It has, however, not disappeared, remaining a concession to modesty in "PG" pictures.

On the Internet

In 2014 Playboy Enterprises made its Playboy.com website content "safe for work" by covering nipples with handbras and armbras.

Other uses

A brassiere called the "handbra" has a pair of hands parodying the technique. Lady Gaga wore one in the music video for her 2013 single "Applause".

References

References

1. Cook, Lisa Fineberg. (2009). "Japan Took the J.A.P. Out of Me". Simon and Schuster.
2. Stuckey, Johanna H.. (2002-01-01). "The Great Goddesses of the Levant". Journal for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities.
3. (12 June 2007). "Erotic photography: art or porno?". Shot Addict.
4. "News from Paul Merrill - Editor, Zoo".
5. Janice Turner. (October 22, 2005). "Dirty young men". [[The Guardian]].
6. (October 2010). "New Talent". [[Zoo Weekly]].
7. (October 2010). "Girls". [[Zoo Weekly]].
8. Rosebush, Judson. "Brigitte Bardot Covers Her Breasts". Bikini Science.
9. "Elizabeth Taylor, 'Cleopatra', ''Playboy'' - November 1963".
10. Shana Alexander, "Fashion's Best Joke on Itself in Years", ''Life,'' July 10, 1964, p. 57
11. Peggy Moffitt and William Claxton, ''The Rudi Gernreich Book'', Rizzoli, New York, 1991
12. ''Sports Illustrated'', February 1989
13. (24 April 2006). "Celebrities make pregnancy seem glamorous".
14. Phil Rosenthal. (February 3, 2004). "Cover story so bad, even FCC sees through it.". [[Chicago Sun-Times]].
15. Ogunnaike, Lola. (February 4, 2004). "Capitalizing On Jackson Tempest". [[The New York Times]].
16. (2006-02-17). "All-Star SI Cover Model Beach Party". [[Time Inc.]].
17. "Saturday Night Live: Sarah Michelle Gellar/Backstreet Boys".
18. Shandrow, Kim Lachance. (2 December 2014). "Playboy CEO: Nudity Could Completely Vanish From the Brand".
19. Cunningham, Erin. (19 August 2013). "Deconstructing Lady Gaga's 5 Bras in "Applause"". [[Daily Beast]].