Mermaids: Binders in a heatwave

[ScrimpshawTheSecond]

Mermaids have some tips on how to manage in a heatwave with a binder. Because - guess what! - it's not a great idea to constrict your breathing! And I presume wearing a binder must increase the risk of heatstroke.

Mermaids suggests these tips will help avoid heatstroke/fainting while wearing a binder:

Don't wear black
Stay out of the sunlight
Avoid exercise

Only if you feel symptoms of heatstroke do they recommend you remove the binder:

'watch out for signs of heatstroke or heat exhaustion. If you think you have these symptoms, tell a friend so they can watch out for you. If you can, get to a place where you can remove your binder '

mermaidsuk.org.uk/news/summer-binder-safety-tips1293489163895963650

Why does Mermaids want to facilitate children risking their health? If a child or teenager feels that they have to conceal or alter their body to fit some idea of 'gender identity', it suggests they are in need of help to manage their feelings, emotions or mental health. They need support to ask why they might wish to risk their health to fit some imagined body ideal.

Not tips on how to mitigate the risks of wearing a binder.

Don’t exercise , don’t go out... stay online?

@BaronEssoStation

Almost as if they fear some will just not bother wearing it..

Question: do young women and girls only wear these things when other people are about?

Yes, many wear them when not out in public. Some even sleep with them on.

rely on their binders for their own mental health

I am another who thinks this is dangerous. Anyone relying on having their breasts bound to maintain their mental health needs better mental health treatment. This is the entire problem. People are not born in the wrong body.

I think the lack of mental health support via the NHS is a huge issue in all of this. A vacuum will always be filled and often by opportunists.

I just had a thought. So these young women are crying for their parents to ‘accept them for themselves’ but they don’t do they?

some people rely on their binders for their own mental health though. The thought of going out without them off will cause the person a lot of distress, so its actually the better of 2 evils to keep wearing them

Some people rely on self harm for their own mental health. They find cutting or otherwise harming themself alleviates strong feelings of distress.

We don't generally have charities set up to enable children and young people to self harm. While one could give advice to self-harmers on ways to mitigate the risks of self harm, this doesn't usually push the idea that self harm is a good way to alleviate distress.

A suitable analogy, as far as I can see, would be a charity posting out clean razor blades to self harmers, and tips on wound care, while suggesting that one day, when they're grown, they can have the whole arm removed and that will solve the desire to cut it.

It’s a bit like when religious types - is it called ‘mortification of the flesh’? - bind something sharp around their body or legs under their clothes in order to cause physical discomfort or pain do that they suffer for their belief.

@SerenityNowwwww

Don’t exercise , don’t go out... stay online?

That would be convenient.

I remember from the film of the doctor who was 'cancelled' (Zucker?) that he encouraged girls to join local baseball teams etc and that physical activity and team sports helped them come to terms with their body. It gave them real life community and pride in what they can do.

From my experience in community dance finding what you can do with your body and taking pride in that takes the focus away from what it looks like - and it also looks better. Running and jumping also gives you a bit of euphoria

Anyone relying on having their breasts bound to maintain their mental health needs better mental health treatment. This is the entire problem.

This.

Reprehensible Mermaids may be, but presumably they believe on some deluded level that they are acting in children's best interests. They

I think the true fury should be directed at the politicians who have overseen the collapse of mental health care provision that has left so many children and their families with nowhere else to turn, and the healthcare managers and professionals who have allowed themselves to be influenced by a lobby group.

This makes me so angry-that a tax payer funded charity is advising girls NOT to exercise, when we all know exercise improves mental health. Girls with anxiety about their developing body, absolutely need to be doing sport or some kind of physical activity preferably with other youngsters, to help them cope.

@nauticant

My first thought on seeing: Don't wear black Stay out of the sunlight Avoid exercise

was "isolate yourself and connect to people on the Internet".

I know! Sounds like assimilation advice for a vampire

mental health support via the NHS is a huge issue

It's a very sorry show for adolescents, I'm afraid. And to get anything other than the very lowest level of intervention requires your child to be at a very high risk for self-harm and even then there might be no real help.

And to get anything other than the very lowest level of intervention requires your child to be at a very high risk for self-harm and even then there might be no real help.

I've known young people be turned away by CAMHS after suicide attempts where it was only by luck that they were found in time - so not a so-called 'cry for help' (though why we don't take cries for help more seriously is a whole other topic I could rant about...)

@Roswellconspiracy

oh great. Secret binders for children, which i guess means they're also never washed. A garment designed to restrict a body getting sweated in and never washed, what could possibly go wrong with that

Don't worry I'm sure someone has spent ages talking to your dds about their breasts and what size they are and discussed how to solve all these problems im secret and has volunteered to be on hand should further questions arise...

This is the application form for children to join their 'youth community'

mermaidsuk.org.uk/young-people/mermaids-youth-community-application/

Children are required to supply a phone number.
This is so a member of the admin team can call you for a confidential chat prior to approving your membership. Our number will come-up as "withheld" when we call. This is for complete confidentiality.

So they won't have a clue who's calling when someone phones them for 'a confidential chat.'

I would also imagine that the girls that get these in brown paper packages sent ‘discretely’ can’t wash them can they? Living at home, what teen does their own laundry?

The smell, the sweat, the acne - now that’s going to make a teen feel really good about themselves isn’t it?

Why not - ‘I feel different, don’t know where I do fit in in life, so I’m going to work on my own happiness and contentment in life’? But I guess a promise of a ‘buy x and fix your life’ is a more attractive proposition.

Anyone relying on having their breasts bound to maintain their mental health needs better mental health treatment.

And this:

A suitable analogy, as far as I can see, would be a charity posting out clean razor blades to self harmers, and tips on wound care, while suggesting that one day, when they're grown, they can have the whole arm removed and that will solve the desire to cut it.

Pretty much sum it up for me.

It's this insisting that the body and mind/soul/who the fuck knows are entirely separate things that I find so shocking. We know that exercise alleviates depression and boosts our mood. As does sunlight. We treat the body to treat the mind - anti depressants, anti anxiety medication, beta blockers etc. But as soon as you throw gender into the mix it's "nope, your body is totally disconnected from your mind, so treat it really badly, hate it, chop bits off, force it into a facsimile of the opposite sex so that it matches up with the 'real you'." It's fucking ridiculous.

Jesus Fucking Christ.

People will look back on this stuff in absolute horror in 20 years time.

It will be the equivalent to the practice of lobotomy, I'm sure.

Great advice, I found combat sports and self defence training really helped me; I'm autistic and not good at reading men's behaviour, so I can't tell when they're going to attack me, and I hated that they would attack women and girls and blame our own bodies for their behaviour. So getting stronger and able to beat most untrained men in a fight was a huge help for me: I'd been stressed around men for ages and that weight was lifted, now I don't care what they think (unless I know and like them) and don't worry about predicting their behaviour, because if they turn violent I can just break their arm, or put them on the ground and run away. I wish all girls got to practise it in school tbh!

The detransitioner network moment that struck with me was one of these brave women saying she came to terms with her female body, and it’s ability to do actual stuff, when volunteering with horses.

Exercise is proven to be one of the most effective ways of improving mental health. Side effects are few and far between. It's cheap, even free. Currently exercising outdoors will help ensure vitamin D levels are topped up, very important for the immune system. Exercise regulates moods, increases serotonin, decreases anxiety.

This advice is suggesting that a better course of action is to avoid it and stay indoors. Terrible advice for anyone struggling with mental health issues.

I am in no way approving of the use of binders, but I think most teens can hand wash a binder?

Again I’m not at all saying they are acceptable (I don’t believe they are) but I reckon hygiene is not a massive issue.

Or maybe Mermaids do a collect and launder thing, like cloth nappies. (No they won’t.)

I would guess they take an age to dry though, they must be thick material? Hard to leave out somewhere long enough to dry if you're hiding it from your mum and dad.

@ScrimpshawTheSecond

Exercise is proven to be one of the most effective ways of improving mental health. Side effects are few and far between. It's cheap, even free. Currently exercising outdoors will help ensure vitamin D levels are topped up, very important for the immune system. Exercise regulates moods, increases serotonin, decreases anxiety.

This advice is suggesting that a better course of action is to avoid it and stay indoors. Terrible advice for anyone struggling with mental health issues.

Exactly. I used to work as a therapist and would recommend people take exercise and also Rey to do something like gardening (the process of needing to tend something is good to draw attending away from the self).

the process of needing to tend something is good to draw attending away from the self

Drawing attention away from the self is the key, I think. Have always said if either DD shows signs of going down this route we'll move to a smallholding somewhere remote with fuck all internet access.