Breast ironing

[Timefortea4]

It's abusive and can cause permanent damage. So what do binders do??

Breast ironing awareness 'needed in school' - www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-47695169

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

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.

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 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

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.

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.

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.

I dont see a difference between breast ironing and breast binding at all.

Except one is done by white people so it's ok

Both are forms if abuse and need to stop.

And I am absolutely amazed no one things Thinks theres anything dodgy about grown men having young girls call up and talking about their breasts

Unfortunately the health implications of breast binding have been used as a reason to get a mastectomy by the pro affirming trans lobby.

broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/7xzpxx/chest-binding-health-project-inside-landmark-overdue-transgender-study

I'm once again feeling the rage about the breast book (for children age 9-14) merrily mentioning breast binding and mastectomy for a trans man but not breast ironing and mastectomies due to cancer.

Thread

The Breast Book http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3506852-The-Breast-Book

attempts to beat R0 to the linky link

The other thing that is pissing me off is that I don't think breastfeeding is going to be included in the new RSE

Breast binding when used erm guidance has been given to schools that this can cause breathlessness and the girl may not be able t0 take part in sport

Totally different to sports bras

Yup, perfectly safe...
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13691058.2016.1191675

Just read this on the Beeb website. Every sentence a masterclass in how to state the truth and completely miss that elsewhere in the BBC the exact same practices are lauded as empowering and all that leathery bollocks.

It ends with this - "To say the least, it's an abuse. It hurts, it dehumanises you," she said.

"You are not a human being."

And yet they cheerlead for this practice as a way for other girls to become their true selves.

How can something be both dehumanizing and empowering? The BBC are irresponsible fuckers.

I've just read this on the Beeb website and came here to post. What's the difference between this barbaric practice and 'trans' children wearing a binder? Why does one require the people round them to be trained to spot the signs and the other require the people round them to be trained to encourage them to do it? It makes no sense.

I read the book 'Ugly' by Constance Bristol and if I remember rightly this happened to her and the damage caused to new breast tissue led to breast cancer.

Oh, and why aren't the women carrying out this practice shown/taught that the problem is men's behaviour, and why aren't the men taught that it is unacceptable to perv on young or indeed any women! Stop the behaviour, solve the problem of damage to women.

I'm so cross 😡

Except one is done by white people so it's ok

This is such a good point actually, I hadn't really thought about it like that before.

*Bristow

Apols for loads of posts

Just did a quick search on the BBC's website for the term "breast binding" and these were the first 3 results that came up.

It's concerning that women perform such things to keep men away from a child, it should be more appropriate to retrain the attitude of men, particularly when they're boys, make sure they know what's not appropriate behaviour

Except one is done by white people so it's ok

This is such a good point actually, I hadn't really thought about it like that before.

It's an excellent point. Pure white saviourism on the one hand, pure misogynist elitism on the other. There is just no upside to this.

Flumpybear, quite. It's yet another practice (cf the burqa) based on the idea that men can't be expected to control themselves sexually. A man seeking to have sex with an 11-year-old is breaking the law, throw the book at him! Doesn't matter what the colour of his skin is, that is the behaviour of a pervert.

What a damaging message to give to young girls.

But successive govts have been appallingly slow to prosecute for FGM and I suspect the same will apply to this.

This idea that staff are being advised to look out for the signs of breast ironing amongst one certain demographic of student, whilst also being told that they need to support breast binding, which will largely be amongst an entirely different demographic of pupil.

As if our 'white western' society is so 'enlightened' that we know that some girls will need to bind their breasts and that is the best thing for them, whilst those crazy, backward other cultures are so cruel and barbaric that when they do the almost exact same thing, it must be identified and stopped.

Fuck. This is just..... Fuck!

And of course I don't need to add that the practice of breast ironing is cruel, barbaric and totally misogynistic. These poor girls.

Also came on to talk about that BBC article - such a relief that others can see the duplicity of the BBC in the way they report this versus breast binding under the 'trans' umbrella.