Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Bound

A first reader of God's War argued that there must be a better term for the wraps/cloth one uses to bind one's breasts other than, "breast binding."

I finally sat down and did some research tonight, and I'm telling you: I still can't find a better term.

The closest I came to finding a less clunky term for it is a "binder."

Bra, sports bra, breast wrap, wrap, binding, kimono, corset... but no actual term for a piece of clothing or wrap meant exclusively for the binding of the breasts.

Considering how many thousands of years women have been dressing up like men in order to gain more freedom in the world, I find it funny that I can't find an actual term for this.

Anybody else know of one?

4 comments so far. What are your thoughts?

Jess said...

My girlfriend binds regularly, and she calls the wrap her "binding". "This binding isn't as tight as my normal stuff" "My friend from Thailand sent me some new binding" "Gah, I'm totally flopping out, did I leave any binding at your place?"

Jess said...

Actually, it would also be badass to call it "wraps" since the more common usage of that is wrist wraps, and your female characters TOTALLY ALL OWN WRIST WRAPS.

Anonymous said...

one reason there might be no publicly recognised word, is simply the patriarchal form of society -- the groups that use binding are female, so the word may not come into public awareness

anyhow -- I think binding is good -- the first time you use it you can just show it being used on breasts, from then on the word binding will be sufficient I think

that's a good first reader to catch that by the way!

CJ
PS sorry for being anonymous, but forgotten my google ID!

Anonymous said...

Bandeau?