Chest-Binding Practices for Trans and Nonbinary Individuals within Different Spatiotemporalities: Redefining the Meanings of Space, Place, and Time

Abstract

Styling-fashioning-dressing, which involves embodied and material articulations of style, is one way that trans and nonbinary individuals negotiate, produce, and perform their gender identities. Chest binding is a practice that involves compressing chest tissue to achieve a flattened esthetic. In this paper, we examined the spatiotemporal production of chest binding—that is, we considered bodies, space, and time as mutually constitutive and explored the when and where of why people choose to bind their chest. We created and administered a comprehensive 120-item cross-sectional questionnaire that included demographic, open-ended, closed-ended, Likert-type scale, and multiple-choice questions. In total, 61 usable survey responses were collected and analyzed. The participants’ nuanced experiences offered insight into new ways to conceptualize the public, private, and secret self-model, particularly for trans and nonbinary individuals who are assigned female at birth. We offer a new interpretative model, Dress Snarl, that incorporates different spaces and dress types. Of great importance is the inclusion of garments that continuously cross space, time, and place but remain intimate and typically invisible to the public. It is within this intimate space we theorize and interpret and binder and binding practices.

Keywords:

• binders
• fashion
• gender
• space
• trans

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 When describing participant demographics, we use the language provided by participants.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kelly L. Reddy-Best

Kelly L. Reddy-Best is an associate professor in apparel, merchandizing,  and design at Iowa State University (ISU) and the curator and director of ISU’s Textiles and Clothing Museum. In her research, she examines the interrelationships of dress, identity, consumption, regulation, and the fashion system. All of her work is rooted in social justice. She has taught courses across the apparel curriculum in design, product development, merchandizing, culture, and history. [email protected]

Andrew Reilly

Andrew (Andy) Reilly, PhD, is a professor in the Fashion Design and Merchandizing program at the University of Hawai’i, Mānoa. Dr. Reilly’s research areas concern appearance-related issues surrounding gender and sexuality identity as well as testing and developing new theories of fashion adoption and change. He is past president of the Textile and Apparel Programs Accrediting Commission, past vice-president for scholarship for the International Textile and Apparel Association, and president-elect for the International Textile and Apparel Association.

Kyra Streck

Kyra Streck completed her Bachelor’s of Science from Cornell University in 2020 in Fashion Design and Merchandising. She achieved her Master’s of Science from Iowa State University in Apparel, Merchandising, and Design in 2022. Her research examines the intersections of fashion, culture, and identity, namely how LGBTQIA+ individuals interact with their identities via clothing. Kyra is currently a Product Development Coordinator at Nike Swim, a division of Perry Ellis International and at times serves as an Adjunct Faculty in the Sociology Department at Post University. She hopes to continue her academic career by pursuing a doctorate.

Denise Green

Denise Nicole Green is an associate professor in the Department of Fiber Science and Apparel Design and Director of the Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection. Professor Green’s research uses ethnography, video production, archival methods, and curatorial practice to explore the production of fashion, textiles, identities, and visual design. She is also a faculty member in the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program, the Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies, and the American Studies Program, and is a graduate field member of the Department of Anthropology at Cornell.

Kristen Morris

Kristen Morris is an assistant professor in the Department of Design and Merchandizing at Colorado State University. She received her MSc and BSc in Design and Merchandizing from Colorado State University and her PhD in Apparel Design from Cornell University. In her research, she examines how to enhance underserved consumer groups’ ability, health, and well-being through user-centered design practices and applications of advanced design technologies to develop innovations in functional clothing design.

Kelsie Doty

Kelsie Doty is an Assistant Professor, Verna Sullivan-Marler Professor in the Fashion Studies Department at Kansas State University. She received her BSc and MSc in Apparel and Textiles from Kansas State University and her PhD in Apparel Design from Cornell University. Kelsie’s research program considers the intersections of sustainability, fashion supply chains, and communities, approached from a multidisciplinary perspective. She uses qualitative research methods alongside creative design practice to explore sustainable approaches to fashion and textile design.