This is Part 3 in a series about breast binding. Part 1 here, Part 2 here. The purpose of this series is to educate parents and caregivers about breast binders: their easy availability to girls and young women, and their potential dangers.
Truth-about-transition has a new reblog up with peer advice for girls and women who have sustained an injury from breast binding. Like most of what truth-about-transition ferrets out, the post pretty much speaks for itself: breast binding can be dangerous–in rare cases, life-threatening.
As I noted in a prior post, adolescents seek advice primarily from others their own age, with Tumblr, YouTube, and Instagram serving as peer counseling hubs for kids discussing dysphoria, surgeries, binding, hormones and everything else trans.
To their credit, the original poster offers advice to stay safe and avoid further injury. Which is a good thing. Adolescents aren’t exactly known for good judgment, foresight, or awareness of danger. Most teens seem to think they’re immortal, preferring to follow their own impulses and desires. They also tend to think adults (particularly their parents) are clueless morons.
The post (excerpted below) is interesting not so much for its pragmatic advice, but for the underlying and very typical messaging. It begins with commonsense advice for those with injuries:
1. Take the binder off. I don’t care how dysphoric you are, I don’t care how bad you feel, I don’t care who is around. DO NOT PUT IT BACK ON.
2. Go to the doctor. Or to a nurse. When I broke my ribs, I went to the nurse at my school because that was free and that worked fine.
Clearly, we are talking about kids here. The fact that the original poster went to the school nurse indicates that they handled this likely without parental knowledge or support. We are talking about broken bones here.
3. Accept that there isn’t anything you can do to heal faster. The most likely thing that doc is going to tell you is that you have some bruised ribs, and you need to let them heal. Sometimes broken ribs can break lungs, which is potentially fatal, so no matter what, you still need to do step two, but that’s probably not going to be the case.
Yes, a broken rib could puncture a lung. At least the original poster mentions the possibility, hopefully scaring the bejesus out of some of their readers. Some of these girls might actually talk to a caring parent (vs. a stranger on the Internet) the next time they have a chest injury, given the potential danger.
Later in the post, we receive the pièce de résistance:
6. Don’t reflect too hard on it. The first thing you are going to think is not “oh I have an injury so I better take care of myself” it’s going to be “this is the physical manifestation of my dysphoria and why does being trans always ruin my life”. Try to refrain from that particular thought. You have an injury. Treat it like any other injury or illness you could get.
Don’t even let the thought enter your mind that doing this to your body is maybe a bad idea. If your ribs are bruised or broken, if being trans ruins your life, is there any possibility you could see this another way? Maybe try to find a way to accept your healthy body, the only one you will ever have?
No. The original poster instructs you to “refrain from that particular thought.” It’s just an injury like any other. Nothing to see here. Move along. (Or maybe it’s time to contemplate a double mastectomy?)
The post finishes by reiterating the message to leave the binder off until the injury heals, with a mention of yet another danger–a warped ribcage:
What not to do.
1. Put that damn binder back on. Don’t. I see you tempted. Don’t.
2. I SAID DON’T.
3. You could end up with a warped ribcage if you don’t allow yourself to heal. Don’t put it back on.
4. Really. Don’t.
This post is but one of many in the Tumblr FTM blogosphere on the same subject. YouTube–the go-to place for FTM transition stories–has this video from 6 years ago which presents a similar cautionary tale.
But of course it’s okay to go around behind the backs of parents and send these things in the mail to their daughters. No worries there!
Sons*
I wasn’t going to say anything but the author’s use of female pronouns was making me uncomfortable and then I read your comment and just had to.
The point of this article kind of confuses me. Anyone that did real research on binders on transsexual males would understand the risks and how minimal they are if they are careful.
And your comment especially so I wanted to discuss it because like… They aren’t corsets or anything, and injury is unlikely if you bind correctly. I’ve worn binders for years without a single problem? And trans people can’t just “accept the only healthy body that they have” because we don’t believe it’s the body that we should have. It’s like, boob’s just don’t suit me, they aren’t me. I want a flat chest and be called Joe, why go out of your way to insist I’m female?
You know, it’s rude to correct someone else’s use of language when it’s within the standard customs of the author’s blog- pronoun use, for example.
“how minimal [risks] are if they are careful.” “injury is unlikely if you bind correctly”
The point that you’ve missed here is that these are children being given these devices behind their parent’s backs. Are they being careful? Are they using them correctly? Are they informed about the correct use? How is anyone supposed to know when it’s done via deception?
“we don’t believe it’s the body that we should have”
But it is the body you -do- have. And that body is female, which is why people insist on it. That’s just truth, it’s not an insult or an attack on you or a declaration that you can’t wear or act or believe whatever you want. Having a female body is different from having a male body, and those different experiences are critical to your health and safety. Your beliefs do not change reality.
Amen.
What the fuckk lmao. We go behind our parents backs to chest bind because a lot of them are UNSUPPORTIVE and won’t help their child to feel valid and happy with themselves. It’s not unhealthy in the slightest unless you use bandages to binder wear the binder too long. And it’s not about the body we ‘do’ have. The body we do have is the incorrect one, and that’s why we change it. There’s many trans people who are completely healthy after years of binding and transition surgery. I’m aware this thread is old, but I’m still bringing the point up. They had every right to correct the person as well. They’re NOT daughters. They ARE sons, because that’s who they identify as. Bye 👋🏻
Reminds me of corsets used to constrict the female body to make it appear more “feminine.” Corsets and breast binding share similar horror stories of resultant broken ribs and deformed internal organs, and they share a similar motivation: making healthy female bodies conform to unhealthy and fundamentally misogynist ideas about gender.
How ironic is it that, roughly 100 years later, a similar device is now in vogue to do the opposite: make a female body appear more masculine.
Umm, not to detract from the message or anything, as I know firsthand how dangerous binding can be, but almost no girls or women bind. Trans guys do. I loved this article, but the mismatched pronouns kind of confused me the first time I read it.
Did you accidentally land on this website? I think you might have missed the point.
Why. Why do I follow comments here?
That’s because ‘transguys’ are actually girls and women. Sorry, but it’s true.
Sike, they’re men. I’m a boy, not a female. Female body does not equal female. Male brain = male, which is what transboys have.
Pronouns are wrong. Ftm means they are male. They are not females and girls getting binders. (Unless they are gender fluid.)
Well, maybe in some future galaxy, far away, and an incredibly long time from now, “female” won’t mean “female.” The vast majority of humans does not believe that one can change one’s sex. Full stop. No amount of pronoun correction or social justice policing will change that.
Yeah but science will, scientifically trans people’s brains match the brain they are transitioning to. Professionals advice that physically transitioning is the only way to treat gender dysphoria.