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Tilke Wouters came out as nonbinary six years ago, but growing up in a conservative family in Belgium, it was hard to put a name to their feelings. “I always knew that I was annoyed about my breasts or something was not entirely right, even in primary school and secondary school,” they said. As they found nonbinary friends and came to understand that they were experiencing gender dysphoria — a feeling of intense incongruence between their gender identity and presentation — they wanted to try a binder, a fabric compression garment worn over breasts to create the feeling and look of a flat chest.
But there was a problem. They were larger chested, and the only people they knew who used binders were thin — and many binders they found were seemingly made for thin, smaller chested bodies. They are also autistic, and the prominent tags, seams, and scratchy fabric was a sensory nightmare. A survey published in 2016 found that more than 97% of respondents had experienced at least one negative symptom as a result of chest binding. For disabled people like Wouters, those symptoms can be magnified or more frequent; many disabled trans, nonbinary, and queer folx face similar challenges finding an accessible binder. Though it can be difficult to navigate, a small market offering accessible binders has popped up, and it’s being made by and for our own community.
Sky Cubacub, a nonbinary queer and disabled Filipinx artist from Chicago, encountered a similar problem when seeking out gender affirming binders and underwear. As they shared in their zine, “Radical Visibility: A QueerCrip Dress Reform Movement Manifesto,” there are rarely designers who create clothing for disabled trans and queer people. What is available, Cubacub said, often has a medical appearance. In their zine, Cubacub connects the medicalization of gender affirming care to how medical communities for decades believed and treated trans people as if they were sick. “Gender identity disorder” was only eliminated by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) in 2013, replaced with “gender dysphoria.” (Cubacub was unavailable for an interview but encourages quoting from their zine.)
To remedy the issue, Cubacub started making underwear for their friends after a class at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2014 and, shortly after, started their own clothing company called Rebirth Garments. The company creates custom clothes, which is important for people like disabled interdisciplinary artist Car Riegger. Riegger likes Rebirth Garments because Cubacub can create sensory friendly clothing, placing the seams on the outside so the stitches do not come in contact with the person’s skin.
This was a deciding factor for Wouters, who tried a binder from Amor Sensory, a gender affirming clothing line created by autistic trans person Andy Amor. “That’s the only one that I really discovered that focused on autism, sensory issues,” Wouters explained. Amor uses comfortable material, fully enclosed seams, and avoids labels to make binders comfortable for people with sensory sensitivities. Wouters also created a zine about binding with a section dedicated to binding and autism written by Amor. Amor shared in their writing how they negotiated sensory overstimulation with gender dysphoria, until they found a way to make a binder that met their specific needs. “Being able to comfortably bind my chest has been a real life changer for me, and has helped me to feel more confident in myself, and comfortable in my body, without needing to have chest surgery,” Amor wrote.
But accessible binders are also important to folx with other disabilities. They are critical for trans folx with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a group of connective tissue disorders that can result in pain. In these cases, binders may need to be looser than normal and specific to the person’s measurements to avoid pressure in the wrong spots. Cubacub’s garments, which use stretchy fabric, can be helpful here.
This kind of modification is also critical for people like queercrip dancer and violinist Saskia Horton, who has chronic fatigue syndrome. They came out as trans during the pandemic, right after barely recovering from the first wave of COVID 19. COVID 19 compressed their lungs, making it difficult to breathe, and as they shared, “my coming out coincided with not being able to wear bras at all, which as a nonbinary person with double D’s could’ve been really disorienting.” Horton has yet to purchase a binder, for a variety of reasons but “one of the main ones is fearing the inaccessibility of them.”
Binders made from stretchy fabric also ensure that wearers can use the same binders if they gain or lose weight. For some, weight fluctuation could contribute to gender dysphoria, which may be compounded by issues finding size inclusive binders. “It’s that balance of gender dysphoria and body dysmorphia,” Wouters, who wrote about the lack of size and ability inclusive binders for Vice in 2021, said. “[The long binders] made me very uncomfortable about my body and it really put accents on the things that I was uncomfortable with and was very insecure about, so it was a really difficult balance.”
In addition to Rebirth Garments and Amor Sensory, companies like For Them, Wonababi, gc2b, Transform Transwear, and TheFluxion are creating more accessible binders, offering front and back zip binders, stretchy binders, tagless or no seam binders, and other options.
Still, Wouters believes there needs to be more intersectionality in the design of many binders. “I feel brands need to have more of an intersectional perspective because, sadly enough from a marketing perspective, it’s just smart to reach more people," they said. "It is the disability part, but also like skin color binders, and more information on how to bind safely, which was something I was quite missing.”
Because resources around inclusive binders are somewhat few and far between, it can be difficult to even know where to start. Here are a few questions that might be helpful in your search. Remember that none of these questions apply to everyone, nor do they encompass everything to think about; instead, these questions are invitations to think about what to foreground when searching for a binder.
- What are you looking for in a binder? If you can, try on a friend’s binder or go into a store to try on different options to get a feel for what you like.
- What is the binder made from? What type of material does it use? Does it have Velcro, tags, visible seams, or seams that touch the skin? Does that matter to you?
- Does the binder have straps? How are the straps connected to the binder? Are they crossed in the back, a feature that Wouters said helped to alleviate pain from their shoulder?
- How does the binder work for different chest sizes and body types? Does the company provide all sizes?
- Is the binder customizable or can it be worn with other items? Can you use the binder with an insulin pump, brace, sling, etc?
- Do you feel comfortable wearing the binder without a shirt? Some people like to wear the binder by itself; is this a factor?
- How do you put on and take off the binder? Riegger liked the Wonababi binders because they have a zipper in front making it easier to put on/take off. What about clips on the sides or the front? In a flare up, is the binder easy to put on/take off? In a medical emergency, is the binder easy to take off?
- Is the binder long down to the mid-chest, waist, or hips, or is it a crop top? Which is most comfortable for you?
- Is a soft binder or binding tape a good fit? These options do not compress as tightly but are typically more breathable. What about a sports bra style? Remember to consider binding safety when exploring alternatives.
- Is the binder from a company founded by a trans, nonbinary, or queer disabled person? How are profits used, and whose labor creates the binders?
“We’re all too scared to dream of a world where our existence isn’t radical, and the idea of radical accessibility for us to even access our existence, like we don’t have to fight anymore,” Horton said, and that is what trans, nonbinary, and queer disabled folx imagine and are creating for the future.
