Chest Binding in Movies, Shows, Documentaries, and Other Media

What is Chest Binding, and Why Do People Bind?

Put simply, chest binding is the act of flattening your chest. A wide range of people flatten their chests. Here are some examples:

• Cis men with gynaecomastia (increased breast tissue).

• Trans men.

• Non-binary people.

• Gender non-conforming women.

• Lesbians and butches.

• Drag kings.

• Cosplayers and crossdressers.

Here are some motivations for binding:

• Reducing body dysphoria toward one's chest, and/or experiencing the gender euphoria of a flatter chest.

• Reducing social dysphoria which may result from being misgendered.

• Being safer in public, if being read as male will protect a person from harassment or violence. For example, see the documentary Transition (2023).

• Temporarily presenting in a masculine, male, or androgynous style, for identity or fandom or fashion purposes.

Is Binding Safe?

Binding comes with risks, even if a reputable, well-designed, properly-sized binder is used. In this study, 97% of respondents had experienced at least one negative symptom caused by binding, including minor symptoms like temporary skin irritation. This study found that most symptoms will become apparent quickly, with more serious symptoms (such as rib fractures, which are rare) taking many more years to develop. This emphasises the importance of taking symptoms seriously when they do appear, rather than pushing through pain or discomfort.

For many people, if they take minor symptoms seriously and proceed with caution, binding will be relatively safe. For me, however, binding was not sustainable or painless, even when I wore binders which were advertised to me as being absolutely safe. Ultimately, more research is needed into chest binding, so that we have a more robust body of research to be informed by. Binding is a huge part of many people's lives, especially those who bind for safety reasons, and those people deserve empirical evidence. You can learn more about chest binding here.

Some methods of binding are safer than others. Unfortunately, more dangerous methods dominate media depictions of trans men, non-binary people, and gender non-conforming individuals assigned female at birth. Disclosure (2020), a documentary purporting to thoroughly analyse trans representation in the media, failed to offer an in-depth critique of chest binding depictions, despite how widespread harmful binding depictions are, which is one of the reasons I created this site.

Safer binders are typically stiff/taut at the front, to flatten the chest, while being looser across the back. The safest binders also have shoulder straps, as that extra support helps take pressure of the ribcage and back, compared to wrap-around binders which apply consistent pressure around the entire torso, just like bandages.

Bandage Binding in Media

You might think bandaging your chest flat is an ideal, consequence-free way to alleviate your dysphoria and otherwise affirm your gender. Nobody could really blame you for having that belief; films and shows continue to reinforce this false, dangerous myth, despite resistance from our communities. The truth is that binding with bandages is unsafe, difficult, painful, and potentially injurious. That is why misrepresentations of bandage binding are so important to criticise.

Plus, not all trans men are slender, small-chested people who have someone to help us wind bandages around our ribcage. Bandage binding isn't just painful, it's impractical. In reality, a person binding with bandages is more likely to get this kind of outcome:

To my immense disappointment, genderfluid star Ruby Rose perpetuated the myth of easy bandage binding in her video Break Free, which has been watched over 55 million times. Her video, much like other media depictions of bandage binding, cuts from footage of her manually wrapping herself in bandages, to footage of bandages perfectly wrapped around her and neatly clipped down behind her back. Folks and fellas, believe me, she did not accomplish that by herself. She had a team of people to help wind the bandages around her, keep them straight and untwisted, and clip them down where she couldn't reach. I don't need to guess whether that was the case, because the behind-the-scenes footage proves as much:

Break Free gave, and is still giving, millions of people the impression that bandage binding is an easy, safe, and accessible way to flatten your chest. Trans men, questioning people, non-binary individuals, butch lesbians, cosplayers, and others are harmed by Rose's video, and by all media which depicts bandage binding in a similarly unrealistic way. Break Free is, therefore, a notable example of irresponsible media depicting chest binding unrealistically.

Ironically, the most accurate depiction of bandage binding (in terms of how much pain it can cause) comes from Titane, a 2021 body horror film where a woman assumes the identity of a missing man in order to escape arrest. While it is not a trans film, I consider it valuable because it does not glorify, idealise, or promote bandage binding as an easy method of chest flattening. In that department, though it's a gruesome movie, I consider it less harmful than idealised depictions like Break Free. Nobody walks away from Titane thinking that bandage binding is safe or comfortable.

Duct Tape Binding in Media

Duct tape binding is even more dangerous than bandage binding, with a higher risk of serious or lasting symptoms. One of the most dangerous depictions of this practice occurs in Venus Boyz (2002), when a drag king is shown being tightly bound by another drag performer. Clearly in pain, the king admits that the binding is hurting his body, but this is not taken seriously by himself or by anybody else, and his group proceeds with the plans they'd scheduled, this king accompanying the group while wrapped in duct tape beneath his clothes. The Aggressives (2005) also features a performer being bound in duct tape, with the documentary's promotional material featuring that same king with a duct-taped chest. Such documentaries are crucially important to illustrate what our communities have been through, and how we used to bind, but modern-day media needs to set a safer example for vulnerable and dysphoric viewers. Disclaimers are the bare minimum, if binding practices like this are being depicted.

Chevy, a trans man in the short documentary Girlz to MEN (2019), revealed to interviewers that he binds with duct tape, believing that this harmful practice makes him more "real" than trans men who opt for less dangerous methods of chest flattening, or who do not bind at all. I found this very concerning, especially because viewers are not informed how debilitating duct tape binding is, and his interview is shown with no disclaimers.

Trans men and gender-diverse people sharing their life experiences, and filmmakers not considering the safety of viewers when representing such experiences, is one thing. A whole other issue is the thoughtless misrepresentation of duct tape chest binding by cis-centric media.

金枝玉葉 (He's a Woman, She's a Man) features a woman being bound in duct tape in order to crossdress as a man for the majority of the film. This is egregious, certainly, but that film came out in 1994, when knowledge about chest binding was far more limited than in the modern-day. The Assignment, released more than two decades later, is another matter entirely.

While much of the trans community's backlash focused on the movie's forced transition plot, its depictions of duct tape chest binding were what I found truly alarming. The director Walter Hill defended his film and insisted that he "wouldn't make a movie that hurt transgender people", adding, "some of them have had a tough time of it, and the last thing I want to do is make anyone's road harder". I would say that depicting duct tape chest binding is just about as harmful as you can get, and romanticising that practice could indeed make viewers' lives harder... to the point of injury and illness, no less. If Hill couldn't depict duct tape chest binding realistically, perhaps showing how harmful it is (à la Titane), he shouldn't have introduced it into a pulp film where nothing is taken seriously.

Modern Binders in Media

Commercial chest binders are certainly a step up from bandages and duct tape, and I am always glad when a film, show, documentary, or another piece of media shows gender-diverse and gender non-conforming people flattening their chests in that safer way. That said, not all binders are made equal.

In the film Under My Skin, the non-binary protagonist stops using bandages to bind their chest, and switches to a chest binder instead. This choice is not presented in the context of bandage binding being potentially painful and dangerous, and a viewer who is inexperienced with binding may not grasp that at all from this movie, instead assuming that the switch is a mere preference motivated by convenience rather than safety. And the binder itself looks very similar to the cheap, poorly-designed binders which are, at the time of writing, widely available on sites like Amazon.

Many manufacturers who produce clasp binders offer, essentially, wrap-around binders which apply consistent pressure all around the ribcage (just like bandages or duct tape), with shoulder straps doing nothing to alleviate that pressure through structural support. The shoulder straps, in many clasp binders, are either for aesthetic purposes or intended to deceptively mimic the appearance of safer binders.

Now, if a binder is designed as safely as possible (taut across the front, looser across the back, with shoulder straps that actually provide structural support), and clasps are just taking the place of seams on the side... that would be a safer binder design. But most clasp binders are very unsafe, making their appearances in media dangerous, where such appearances do not equip viewers to understand that a clasp binder should be viewed with suspicion unless manufacturers specify the safety of its design. In the case of films like Under My Skin, the safest approach to binding (if considering the example being set for viewers) would be to promote a binder without clasps, or to somehow note that the protagonist's safe clasp binder is an exception rather than the rule.

Even "safe" binders can be worn unsafely. In TRANS (2012), for example, a trans man is shown putting on two chest binders in order to achieve a flatter chest. Double-binding effectively eliminates any safety measures by compressing the chest, back, and ribcage too much, meaning that there is no area of alleviated pressure.

Alternative Binding Methods in Media

While I disliked Fanfik (2023), chiefly for filmmaking and writing reasons as opposed to issues with representation, I appreciated its depiction of chest binding. Tosiek, a trans man who is newly exploring his gender identity and has seemingly never bound his chest before, watches educational videos about open chest binding and tries that method, rather than using bandages. Filmmakers easily could have followed a long, long history of newly-exploring trans men and gender-diverse people wrapping themselves in bandages. Fanfik avoided that trope. I didn't like the movie, but I was thankful for that.

Open chest binding is a method of chest flattening where people use tape to pull their chest flatter and to the side, with the tape (importantly) not being wrapped around the back. The goal is to not use too much tape, and not to compress the tissue too much, meaning that some experimentation is required before people can figure out whether it is sustainable or comfortable for them. If it works for people, it has the advantage of not compressing the ribcage (unlike binders) and restricting movement far less. This method tends to work better for people who are smaller-chested, it absolutely doesn't work for everyone, and it is not risk-free. It can come with skin irritation and other symptoms. That said, I felt it was depicted well in Fanfik. I also liked the fact that the educational video Tosiek is watching is partly shown, emphasising to viewers that such videos are available, and there are many community members who have discovered what is safe and unsafe for them personally, encouraging people to seek out those insights.

Exertion While Binding in Media

More research is needed to thoroughly explore the impacts of chest binding while exercising or exerting yourself. The research that does currently exist, however, shows that breathing is shallower while exercising in a binder, and that there is increased risk of other symptoms, such as pain. There is even research that improperly-sized sports bras can impact breathing; this is not just a binding issue, but binding is notably more unsafe. Looser support or compression of the chest may alleviate or lessen breathing difficulties, and reduce the risk of other symptoms. The advice typically given to community members is to wear an appropriately-sized sports bra or a looser binder (for example, one size larger) while exercising.

While, again, more research and evidence is needed, one thing is for certain; media which depicts people exercising while binding, without any caveats or warnings, is potentially harming community members who may follow that example without realising the dangers. I was particularly disappointed that Man Made, a 2018 trans-directed documentary, showed footage of a trans man weightlifting in a binder, without a warning to viewers that this is potentially dangerous.