Breast Binding

I remember the ‘minimiser’ bras M&S sold in the 90s - clear evidence that many women are uncomfortable with unwanted sexual attention that boobs attract. It’s a problem as old as time, but not one that TW seem to share, given to how much they revel in their version of femininity.

*Sardine
"This thread is about breast binding, which is a particular form of self harm resulting from gender dysphoria"

This - I don't think this is true.*

This statement I believe to be true: breast binding is a particular form of self harm resulting from gender dysphoria.

This statement I believe also to be true: it is common amongst pubescent girls to try and minimise / disguise breasts through various means, when at school. Because of unwanted male attention

Why is the first statement false because the second one is also true?

Isn't the second statement actually a common example of minor bodily dysphoria which a lot of us have experienced?

Like a weighted blanket...good point.

The problem is that it is politically correct to support a girl who binds her breasts, and transphobic to suggest that it is a form of self harm.

The campaign to lower the age at which mastectomies are permitted is in part to prevent the harm that can come from binding...… Go figure..

Another aspect (speculation only) is the comfort that some autistic children get from a sensory compression vest. I am just wondering if an anxious (probably undiagnosed) autistic teenage girl might het comfort form the breast binder?

"This thread is about breast binding, which is a particular form of self harm resulting from gender dysphoria"

This - I don't think this is true.

It was common among my peers to try and minimise / disguise breasts through various means, when I was at school. Because of unwanted male attention.

I agree with Fermat's and the others around that post.

Male sexual interest in too-young girls results in awful things happening all over the world.

Breast binding, I am sure, is NOT happening just with girls with gender dysphoria. When I was at school girls starved themselves and wore baggy clothes to try and disguise breasts. Now they can bind them. The reason, to try to avoid sexual inerest from men. Why this totally obvious link is not being made in the mainstream, is boggling, but I suppose understandable in a sexist society.

We need to raise awareness about chest binding...it's happening in our schools right now and doubt many realise.

Starting to wish I hadn’t mentioned breast ironing, but I could see some parallels with binding. 🤷‍♀️

Terf I understand your rage about this subject, but I think right now it's clouding your comprehension skills. No-one on this thread is justifying breast binding or breast ironing. No-one thinks it's right that mothers mutilate their daughters. What we are drawing attention to is the utter horror of living in a society where your choices as a mother come down to two equal horrific options - mutilate your child's breasts, or allow her to be enslaved and raped by an older man (which is what child marriage is). For some women there is no 3rd option - to allow their daughters to grow to adulthood free from the fear of male violence - out there. That lack of a third option is the fault of the men who see nothing wrong with raping and enslaving children within marriage.

Next you'll be justifying fgm.

I don't think anyone was justifying. Just pointing out the impossible choices women are forced into when there are no legal protections or enforced safeguarding of minors.

For the record: I obviously condemn breast ironing, even if it is carried out by a mother trying to prevent her 12-year-old daughter being married off to a middle-aged man.

In my youth, if some company was giving out free breast binders to teens, there would have been warnings to parents on programmes like watchdog and pebble mill, and some worthy and personable doctor would be wheeled out to tell everyone why it was such a bad idea. My grandmothers were of an age when liberty bodices freed young girls from the damaging effects of corseting. Times have changed and it is not progress.

Thankyou for that info woman

I cant believe this. Next you'll be justifying fgm. I'd rather carry my 13 year old around on my back for 5 years than vapourise her flesh.

I am glad of one thing, that they're calling it binding...many of us are reminded of foot binding.

My daughter developed early and is large busted. It was hard for her to accept having periods and she hated developing breasts. She cried throughout her bra fittings...but then several years later, she was worrying that losing weight would mean going down a cup size!

I'm horrified that my daughter could have been influenced by trans ideology on social media but she has always been interested in boys. She did go through a phase of trying to find herself, not fitting in at school, stressed and depressed. Wearing girly clothes like the popular girls wasn't working for her but she found her self-expression through music...posters of The Wanted came down and up went Bring Me The Horizon and Slipknot. Next was the black hair, ear and lip piercings. Now she's left school, her hair colour changes often - blue really suits her and I find it funny that I see blue hair referenced to TRAs.

I read Boat's remarks as a lesser of two evils thing. Better breast ironing than marriage at 12 and death in childbirth at 13.

I'm not going to apologise, and stand by my comments.

First, an act of barbarism against a child is not okay because it was carried out by their mother.

Secondly, according to the comments anything could be condoned because it came from a feeling of love. Echoes of p...
I'm not saying it's the same thing, but, for a victim, it matters little what the perpetrator's motives were.

I ask you to be realistic: are you condoning and/or understanding the holding down of a young girl while a red hot metal spatula is pressed into her flesh, causing her fatty tissue to literally melt?

Thank you Fermats - you absolutely nailed where I was coming from. I think both practices are the outward manifestation or response to something really troubling in the underlying social norms or customs. I don’t support either practice.

Terfulike ??
It's a perfectly reasonable and relevant comment from Boat, and she wasn't defending breast ironing - she said she could understand why they did it.Can't you,really? If your choice is breast ironing or your still young child married and pregnant,which is best?
And in the context of posters commenting on why young women might be unhappy to be developing breasts, becoming an adult female = being more and more the object of male attention,it was interesting to hear that it's not just in Europe.

Boat's not defending it, if I understand her correctly, she's explaining it. The two practices (breast binding in the west, breast ironing in Africa) comes from the same place - a hideously misogynistic society with endemic sexual violence directed at girls from the moment they show outward signs of puberty giving rise to practices which are utterly wrong and abhorrent and dysfunctional - but which are, nonetheless, comprehensible as a response to endemic, socially sanctioned sexual violence. In one case, the girl herself (who mistakenly thinks she's trans perhaps because she's gay in a homophobic society, and subject to continual sexual harrassment), in the other case the mothers (who don't want their daughters raped and forced into marriage at the age of 12 or 13) carry out a horrific, mutilating act out of fear and the need to navigate a hideously sexualised society.

it is probably relevent that my friend who did this to herself, has a strong family history of autism, even though she hasnt been diagnosed herself yet

Breast binding on young girls, unbelievable. And of course, the more that do it others will follow.

(there's a link between autism and family violence to my observations as well) Never heard of this before, do you have any further information on this, please?

A good friend of mine used to do this when she was younger as she hated her female body. Thankfully it passed, as is so often the case, and she is now completely comfortable with her sex and a mother of 4

If you want to start a new thread about how we should support mothers who carry out breast ironing boat then do so. This thread is about breast binding, which is a particular form of self harm resulting from gender dysphoria. They are different.