Binder pride

Apologies for reposting this from Facebook (thus boring anyone who’s already seen it) but I discovered it’s not unique so I wanted to share.

I took the bus to a park on another bit of Puget Sound, because today is the nicest the weather is going to be until the other side of the approaching heat wave. It was indeed a perfect day for it – bright, warm but not hot, a cool breeze, interesting clouds.

Across the aisle of the bus from me was a teenage girl or young woman wearing a binder as if it were an item of clothing, like a tube top – but it was a binder. It’s quite a disconcerting sight, especially if you’ve read a lot about how painful they are and the damage they do. At the top edge the tops of the breasts were visible – but then there was this vicious edge, and below it all was flat. Breasts? What breasts? No breasts here…except for those odd swellings up above.

That’s GOT to hurt, and do damage.

End of Facebook post. Comments on the post spurred me to see if wearing binders like tops is a thing and of course it is.

Endlessly versatile, the binder-as-shirt look can be deployed in many ways. … “Most people don’t notice a difference between a binder and a crop top,” explains Fallon. “But I’ll get nods or winks of approval from passing queer people from time to time.” Like any good flag, those who are meant to get it, get it.

Aug 29, 2019

Aw yeah. Wink wink nod nod – good on you, babe, crushing your breasts for the flag. So awesomely queer!

There’s an article. Of course there is.

TRANS PEOPLE ARE PROUDLY WEARING THEIR CHEST BINDERS AS STYLISH OUTERWEAR

Why proudly? What’s to be proud of? Smashing your own twits? Showing the world how stupid you are? Hating your own body so much that you torture it? Doesn’t that sound more like shame than pride?

Of course it does, but the ideology suppresses all awareness of that.

And while I’m choosing to frame my 24/7 white T-shirt policy as “A Style Choice” instead of “Being Lazy,” I’m also hyper-aware that there’s an undershirt-forward summer style much more powerful than my bum-ass James Dean impression: Binders as a shirt.

Powerful? Wearing a binder is powerful?

It isn’t you know.

I invite you to run a quick Twitter search for the phrase “binder as a shirt,” or its equally powerful relative, “binder as a crop top.” Both searches result in dozens and dozens of pictures of trans, non-binary or otherwise gender-expansive people sporting chest binders as the central part of their ensemble. And while this isn’t an exclusively warm-weather phenomenon, the summertime definitely increases the frequency with which folks who regularly bind opt to shed their topmost layers in favor of displaying the minimum-effective amount of clothing required to appear in public.

Like a bathing suit top or a bra but painful. Progress!

That binders are typically used to minimize unwanted contours, or feelings about said contours, makes people wearing them as a statement all the more wonderful. “Why yes, I am wearing this chest-concealing tank top” is a terrific, counterintuitive gesture, one that can transform something often done covertly into a symbol of pride — or at least an obvious marker of membership in the tribe of People Who Bind. In any case, it’s much cooler than my white T-shirt thing. 

Dear god these people are pathetic.

26 Responses to “Binder pride”