胸罩的利弊

choi

Harvey Morris, 法国就胸罩的利弊展开争论. 纽约时报中文网, Apr 20, 2013
http://cn.nytimes.com/article/life-fashion/2013/04/20/c20bra/

, which is translated from

Harvey Morris, France Debates the Merits of the Bra. New York Times, Apr 112, 2013
("Ahead of the announcement of his findings on Wednesday, he told France Culture last year that he had been inspired by the discovery that no previous study had looked at the medical effects of the bra")

My comment:
(a) I admire his sticking to the truth. However, science teaches us to scrutinize the data, to see if the data support the claim--even before questioning if the data are representative or reproducible. I searched thoroughly and can not find the publication, online or in paper. Finally I found a news report:

Robert T Gonzalez, French Scientist Claims Bras Are Useless (for Some People). io9, Apr 16, 2013  
http://io9.com/french-scientist- ... some-peop-473333633
("In an interview with Reuters, Rouillon clarified that the results from his study are unpublished (and therefore unreviewed * * * We await the review and publication of Rouillon's personal, preliminary boob-study")

, which is in part based on
Tara Oakes, French scientist bemused by buzz over bra research. Reuters, Apr 12, 2013
http://in.reuters.com/article/20 ... INDEE93B0EL20130412
("Rouillon told Reuters that his unpublished work is still in the early stages")

There is no need to read the rest of the Reuters report.

(b) Besancon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Besan%C3%A7on

(c) The French surname Rouillon came from two proper names in France:
(i) Rouillon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rouillon
(a commune)
(ii) Rouillon (river)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rouillon_(river)

(d) Frech-English dictionary shows
(i) soutien-gorge (noun masculine): "brassiere"
(ii) soutien (noun masculine): "support"
(iii) gorge (noun feminine): "bosom" (but many other meanings, too, including "throat"--I am clueless how French know what they are talking about)

(e) The NYT report stated, "The French daily Le Monde raised the tone on Thursday by offering a historical insight into the origins of the bra, quoting findings by Austrian archaeologists who have dated its development back to the 14th century."
(i) brassiere
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brassiere
(sections 2 Etymology and 3 History)
(ii) English dictionary:

brassiere (n; obsolete French brassière bodice, from Old French braciere arm protector, from [Middle French] bras arm[, from Latin bracchium arm]— more at BRACELET; First Known Use 1894)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brassiere

choi

(f) I double check with NYT (the print as well as the online version in its English website), because I did not recall seeing this (English-language) report. It turns out that the report was not published in print (New York Times or International Herald Tribune). The online version at Nytimes,com does not say when or where it was published in print; a look at the URL shows it was a blog
http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes. ... -merits-of-the-bra/
, which is also confirmed when I google it. In retrospect, it is not up to standard of New York Times, even quoting a 28-year-old French subject of research word-for-word from other publications.

There is no need to read the blog, which is essentially the same as what you find in the English page of this report in the Cn.nytimes.com.