Breastbinders, the new corsets for women

[Driechdrizzle]

Not going to call them chestbinders, because that hides what they are and what they are doing to women's bodies. They're for flattening and disguising women's breasts.

So many things to question about the trans movement, but why are none of these "woke" people noticing the glaring misogyny in women/female people using painful and harmful contraptions on the female parts of their bodies to modify or reshape them? I'm sure they'd disapprove of "cis" (their word) women getting plastic breast implants to fit a pornified ideal, so why is there this acceptance of erasing or removing breasts?

This article is a case in point. The writer it is planning a double mastectomy which the writer is dreading unsurprisingly because the chest binders are causing injury. They caused shoulder dislocation which the writer is claiming it's because of an autoimmune disorder. The binders were also making the writer's hands go numb.

There's also this:

This is the binder that comes out on days where I’d normally have to force myself to leave the house in a sports bra and a baggy shirt because my whole body hurts. This is a step up from that and it allows me to take breaks from the more intense binding I usually engage with while mitigating the feeling of wanting to give myself to the sea.

www.autostraddle.com/shapeshifters-bespoke-binders-put-fun-on-your-chest/

Old school feminism, radical feminism was in part about helping women/female people accept and love their bodies. How is this attack on breasts and female bodies progressive? It's no different from Victorian women being laced into corsets to give them 17 inch waists, dislocating their ribs and shifting their internal organs in the process and causing them to faint. I do not get it in the slightest, apart from the fact that patriarchy wants female humans to be in pain the whole time and some of us are only too happy to comply.

It's always about controlling the female body.

Time and time again.

Lingerie. Boob jobs to make them bigger. Boob jobs to eradicate them.

Foot binding.

Breast ironing.

'Cover up when breastfeeding.'

Shame and blame your female body because the patriarchy knows how powerful it is.

Pisses me off that the female dr, Dr Ronx, on cbbc is gender non conforming but binds.

Yep latest in a very long line of contraptions used to limit women's participation in society.

They should be banned, at the very least from all schools, in my view.

I was also going to mention breast ironing Neurotrash

I've read about this in relation to FGM.

I won't say any more now, but I agree with you.

The useless politics of woke means that they don't even notice that whilst the MTF trans love their penises (ladydick, outie vagina), non-binary and FTM trans are busy trying to divest themselves or disguise their female parts. They couldn't care less about female pain.

Hatred and lack of respect for breasts and female bodies doesn't come from women, it's imposed on us by men.

Yes.

Erasing our bodies, erasing our selves.

I find this a problem with all of the narratives of 'born in the wrong body'.

the more intense binding I usually engage with while mitigating the feeling of wanting to give myself to the sea.

How is this not classified under SELF HARMING?

Heartbreaking.

Insititutionalise it, give it a name, make binders in different colours because that makes them FUN!, and you don't have to see what is really going on.

The fun in the the article title, made me think of Andrea Dworkin - "I'm a radical feminist, not the fun kind".

The other thing is you won't get writing jobs with Autostraddle, go to affirming conferences, and have a wide circle of approved woke friends if you become an unfun feminist.

The pain in that article is just so, so sad.

Why aren't the 'body positivity' folk all over this?

Note the section of the origins in Victorian Dress Reform

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_positivity

There are numerous crowd-funders asking for money to help girls purchase these.

God what a heartbreaking read. What a crying shame there are people in the world who hate their bodies so much they’re prepared to have bits cut off even though it gives them a panic attack just thinking about it. The weird autoimmune thingy just sounds to me like the body manifesting chronic pain which is being ignored elsewhere. Classic TMS, or mind body syndrome. Push down who you are, turn your emotions on yourself, then top it all off by squashing and hurting your lovely, normal, healthy body and yes, your brain is going to say hell no and manifest some pain elsewhere to try and make you stop. It’s just so sad

I don’t want that post to sound like I’m having a go at the author of the article. I’m not. I’m just devastated to be honest that we live in a world where it’s seen as a positive thing to have a double mastectomy when there is no clinical need. Obviously I don’t know what the authors personal circumstances are so I’m not speculating, just making the observation that it is generally a very sad state of affairs for GNC girls right now. The number of autistic and/or simply lesbian girls being swept up in this tide is horrifying.

Thank goddess for people like Sue Evans, who has a very deep hole which needs digging to help her protect vulnerable young people.

I can see how it's tempting though. The inconvenience, the pain, the flopping about and that's before you get to the discomfort of bras and the male gaze.

I feel like I’m qualified to comment on this, as someone who does bind. First of all, binding should never cause that intense pain, that means the wrong size is being worn. Same way the wrong bra size will cause pain.
I only bind some days because my identity changes from day to day - sometimes I’m flat and boy-like and sometimes I want to dress up sluttily. That’s always more of a façade though than just wearing shirts and a binder. Since realising I’m enby, my mental health has improved so much. I’ve had major problems with self harm and I think it’s really naïve to call binding self harm. It’s a totally different feeling and motivation behind it. When I bind I feel like me, I feel happy with myself. After I used to cut myself I’d feel guilty and shit and like a horrible person. I think it’s probably hard to understand if you haven’t experienced gender dysphoria and/or depression/self harm.

Sluttily is a very judgemental word there

@MIdgebabe sorry, didn’t mean it to be judgemental. I would describe myself as a slut but not in a negative way - by using that word on myself I feel it takes power away from people who’d use it in a derogatory manner

Call yourself a slut so no one else does? That's really really sad. Sounds like you need to pull away from some people.

It's also harmful to women, if people talk about the,selves as boy or slut. It gives weightbto the ides that women are sluts, by putting slut as the opposite of boy

Hang on. There is a doctor on CBBC who binds? WTAF?

And slut is a pejorative. You can't just unilaterally change what words mean. And it isn't changing them anyway to use them in their original context and then say 'oh I don't mean it like that'.

'Sluttily'?

Mate. You've been done an absolute number on.

Your breasts, in a sports bra, a comfortable everyday bra or a fancy bra, are not 'slutty'.

They're breasts. Wear what you like, ideally things that don't hurt you, & that make you look however you want to look.

Never heard of ‘man breasts’ (beyond moobs) - why is that?

I can see how it's tempting though. The inconvenience, the pain, the flopping about and that's before you get to the discomfort of bras and the male gaze

That's as extreme a viewpoint as the the one held by the person doing the binding.

I find it very difficult to have much sympathy for the person in the article. She's a grown up- her choice.

Comparing what she is doing to breast ironing, foot- binding and being told to cover up when breastfeeding is a completely false comparison. The women being forced there have no say in the matter and that sort of exaggeration doesn't do your argument much good.

Using the word "sluttily" harms others even if you think you're "reclaiming" it for yourself. You do not have the right to inflict that harm on others to make yourself feel better.