Breast ironing

yes a breast binder is just like a sports bra

I have a sports bra. It's tight. It stops my breasts from jiggling about too much when I run and causing me discomfort and pain.

A breast binder has no practical purpose other than to hide a normal body part. It causes pain. It damages breast tissue, potentially permanently.

While extremely important, these are just the symptoms of an extremely sexist society.

This is one of the few times when I really want to say... WhatAboutTheMenz?
Boys should be educated against pinging bra straps, eyeballing, commenting etc from a young age. I don't see this hapenning anywhere.

Meanwhile, yes - breast ironing and binding are abusive and need to stop.

It's not quite the same thing, one is done to a child, the other is the decision of a person with xx chromosomes to do to themselves and it's not permanent (DD's friend wore one for two years then decided she was a she after all) my sports bra is really tight (because it needs to be) very like a binder.

I think breast binding should also be covered by this

It is harmful as well. Just cos it’s considered un talkeable about because it is something young girls wit thoughts about which sex they are doesn’t mak3 it unharmful

And charities that send out to children should be investigated

Very glad Kiri Tunks is campaigning for this:

Kiri Tunks, joint president of the National Education Union, is now calling for school staff - and in particular PE teachers - to be taught how to notice the signs.
*
She also wants it to be covered in schools in the same way as FGM will be from 2020, as part of compulsory relationships and sex education classes in secondary schools.

Ms Morgan (Nicky I think) said issues such as breast ironing should be "tackled, addressed, talked about and stopped".

She added that the curriculum should be kept "under review as different areas of practice, custom or abuse come to light".*

^ I think this last sentence is also important for a very wide range of reasons.

Like many young girls, she was also made to wear an extremely tight strap around her chest to suppress them even more - which caused her difficulty breathing.

Hmmmm.

I wrote to my MP about that charity that was giving away breast binders to teenage girls. A man on the phone was asking callers for their bra size and address and then sending the binders in plain wrapper so the parents wouldn't know. It beggars belief that this can be allowed to happen in 2019.

What a horrific thing to do to a child. The lengths women think they have to go to to keep their daughter safe from men.
The article didn't mention educating the women who are doing this, only educating people to spot signs of it. Surely we want to stop it before it starts.
And yes, mention of the binders making it hard to breathe - I assume if you are 'trans' though it's not at all harmful