Uh-Oh! Are The Trump Tariffs Canceling Boobs?
A whole lot of American women can only wear European bras.
Earlier this month, during the whole Sydney Sweeney/American Eagle debacle, some conservatives began claiming that “the libs” had “canceled” boobs and that we were all very mad at Sydney Sweeney for bringing them back.
This theory was largely derived from the fact that some conservative men are still very, very mad about the fact that female games journalists criticized the portrayal of women in video games 10 years ago. Many have never fully recovered from that incredible trauma. They’re also very angry about body positivity and the fact that women they don’t personally find sexually attractive are allowed to be famous — and even allowed to be in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
LIKE SO!
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Thus the proliferation of pictures of large-breasted, tiny-waisted women captioned “THIS IS WHAT THEY TOOK FROM YOU!” But we’re not going to get into that today. Today we are going to talk about who is conducting the real war on boobs, because it’s not the Left. It is Donald Trump and his freaking tariffs.
If you were not aware, there are a whole lot of women, myself included, who can pretty much only buy bras made in Europe, usually Poland or the UK. This is not because we are fancy, but because American bra companies are extremely limited in size range. Economically, shoving as many women as possible into cheaply made 34/36 Bs and Cs is a lot more profitable than carrying well-constructed bras in a wide range of sizes. So if you have a small band size and a large cup size, Victoria’s Secret will only ever hurt you. (If you’re not sure you’re wearing the right size and don’t live anywhere near a proper bra fitter, the r/ABraThatFits calculator is pretty great.)
These bras, unfortunately, also tend to be extremely expensive compared to standard size bras — starting, on average, around $80. It’s understandable that they cost so much, because they do require far more serious construction than your average Victoria’s Secret push-up, and the people who make them deserve to be paid fairly, but that also means that a lot of people who need them can’t afford them. A bra that doesn’t fit, when you are on the bigger side, causes back pain, neck pain and can even cause breast tissue damage if there are wires digging in, so it’s far more of a necessity than a luxury.
They are also mostly only sold in specialty stores and, to a very limited degree, high-volume, higher-end department stores like Nordstrom. You can buy them online, of course, but it really is very helpful to be able to try them on first for fit. (To support larger breasts without the smaller band sizes, Lane Bryant is in most places.)
This is all to say that it’s already a major pain in the ass (well, not the ass) to be in this particular situation — and it’s about to get worse.
This weekend, I stopped by one of the three (three!) non-Nordstrom brick and mortar stores in all of Chicago that sells my size. Unfortunately for me, they were down to their last two. Not just two styles, literally the last two 32GG bras in the entire store. The girl in the store told me that they weren’t going to be able to order those sizes anymore because … they all come from Europe and no one can pay the tariffs.
Shit.
Then, yesterday, I was looking at the r/ABraThatFits subreddit and saw an announcement that one popular site, AmpleBosom.com (not a porn site, sorry!), will no longer be shipping to the US. Another popular site, Understance, has also paused shipping to the US. Another site, Bravissimo, will only be selling products “unaffected by tariffs.”
Sophisticated Notion, a site that offers sizing advice and educational resources for the top-heavy among us, put it this way:
Imagine your favorite local lingerie shop, you know, the one that gets you and your size. *wink wink* Tariffs could shut them down (or keep them from reopening). Or think about a small online store specializing in ethically sourced, imported silk. Silk tariffs could skyrocket costs, forcing them to raise prices or lower quality. While silk may not be in most of our budgets, it’s not the only example out there for this phenomenon of higher costs vs. lower quality. And let’s not forget: Sometimes companies raise prices and lower quality simultaneously. Can you imagine paying $80 for a bra that has the quality of a $50 piece?
This isn’t just a US problem. My friend Kimberly, who is opening a lingerie store in Canada, is avoiding American products because of tariff uncertainty. “Some of my suppliers have American warehouses, but I pay in CAD and it’s DDP [Delivered Duty Paid]. They’ve said if there is too much drama, they’ll just start to ship straight from the U.K,” she told me. If other global businesses refuse to consider goods produced by American companies or no longer utilize American distribution hubs, the US will suffer the consequences. Given how many businesses recently advertised ” tariff sales,” everyone feels the potential disasters looming.
It’s not great, and it’s about to get worse.
On August 29, the de minimis exception for goods under $800 is ending, so any shipment of imported goods, no matter how small, will be subject to duties. Trump claims the loophole is a “big scam” that hurts US businesses … clearly not taking into consideration the fact that there are some products that are just not made in the United States. When an American brand says they have “inclusive sizing,” they mean they go up to a DDD and have larger band sizes. They do not mean they carry 32GGs.
(Because someone’s always going to ask — no, the fact that people get breast implants does not impact the availability of bras with larger cup sizes and smaller band sizes. Those stay up on their own, so those who have them don’t have to worry about proper support.)
As much as I fully understand that no one wants to hear the “Relatively Thin Girl With A Huge Rack Blues,” it really is a serious problem that bras in these sizes will be less available in the States, and that those we do get will be even more prohibitively expensive than they already are. It’s not the only thing we’re going to lose, but it’s one I hadn’t even thought of before, and it’s only going to get worse from here on out.
I am so angry about this and my used to be cheap import tea. These dumbfucks and their lack of economic comprehension really screwed us all.
"Let them wear one size sports bras so we can follow them into the bathroom to do a required gender check" - these weird assholes
"Uh-Oh! Are The Trump Tariffs Canceling Boobs?"
No, the Republican Congress is just on vacation.