Bra-burning is a loaded term used to describe strident or radical feminism — typically by those who want to mock or minimise it. The phrase references a popular myth from the 1968 protest at the Miss America pageant, where feminist demonstrators were said to have burned bras, though in reality no bras were actually set alight. Despite being historically inaccurate, the image stuck, and bra-burning became a dismissive shorthand for feminist activism, deployed by critics to make political engagement sound trivial or hysterical.
The editorial dismissed the campaign as bra-burning nonsense, which only proved the campaigners' point about how seriously they were taken.
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(derogatory, slang) stridently feminist.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
See all Regional & Other slang on Slangora.