Thread by @FourRedShoes

I have just had an epiphany:

https://twitter.com/FourRedShoes/status/1049651981126721536

There's an equation.
If B equals number of breasts visible separately, and S equals a stiffened undergarment supporting those breasts then

2B + 0S = Medieval
1B + 1S = Early Modern
2B + 1S = Modern

Late medieval: two round breasts

Sixteenth century: squooshed together into a monoboob with a triangle underneath

Seventeenth century: sames

Most of the eighteenth century: same

1790s onwards: two breasts!

This works to about 1900. The 20th century is a whole other thing, once corsets slips off the breasts, further down the hips, and start disappearing

Hmm. Postmodernism ascends as bras come off in the 1960s.

Or, we could go with Walter Truett Anderson's 1996 descrption of four typological world views:
Postmodern-ironist, which sees truth as socially constructed - breast implants
Scientific-rational, in which truth is found through methodical, disciplined inquiry - sports bras

Social-traditional, in which truth is found in the heritage of Western civilization = bras

Neo-Romantic, in which truth is found through attaining harmony with nature and/or spiritual exploration of the inner self = no bra

That pretty much brings us up to today in the Abreast of History theory (with thanks to @pages_and_pages for the title)