The Push of the Wonderbra

Ah, the Wonderbra, voted the 5th best Canadian invention. Just what makes these articles of clothing so endearing and why bother creating a post on a pop culture/representation blog anyways?

I want to look at the cultural significance of the Wonderbra. First developed in Montreal in 1964 by Louise Poirier for Canadelle, the Wonderbra first sets out to lift and separate. By 1979, Canadelle owns approximately 30% of the Canadian bra market.

Larry Nadler, son of founder of the Canadian Lady Corset Company, which later became Canadelle, decided for a new branding of the Wonderbra in order to increase sales. Instead of marketing it as a piece of clothing, Nadler decided to equate the Wonderbra as a cosmetic. Take a look at a commercial from 1968.



From this early advertisement, you can see how the Wonderbra is shown as a beauty enhancer instead of just another piece of clothing.

Move forward to 1974 and Wonderbra releases Dici, a bra targeting youth.



The successful branding of the Wonderbra has made the bra itself become a rite of passage symbolizing womanhood to many young girls.

What has this widespread advertising done? For starters, the fetishization and objectification of the bra is apparent as it becomes the focal point of the male gaze.



As the youthful perkiness of the Wonderbra has become the acceptable norm, it is precisely this shape that Wonderbra flaunts and promotes. Any shape that is different is deemed deviant, a notion that dismisses the natural sag of aging. So we have a large push to a Western notion of beauty and of (youthful)age here.

Bras have also become normalized (due to the widespread advertising). To not want one (for various reasons) is to be cast as deviant. For those not falling under the hegemony of heteronormativity, to not wear a bra is to ostracized from the dominant groups.

Wonderbra's branding has created a large market. Push-up bras are alive and kicking in various mediums in pop culture and this post was just a little showing of the cultural ramifications of this.

*This post was based off a presentation that I gave in my Communication Technologies and Gender class on the cultural ramifications of the Wonderbra