Feminism and Breastfeeding

[wildflower18]

Just thinking it would be interesting to hear your views on how Breastfeeding relates to Feminism (or doesn't if that's your view as well).

[MichelleAnnette]

What could be more feminine than breastfeeding?


I consider myself a feminist, but not the kind that believes women must try to make themselves more like men. I read somewhere recently that now we have birth control pills to stop us from menstruating, c-sections to stop us from using our vaginas to give birth, and formula to stop us from using our breasts to feed our babies. So since we are not using our vaginas and breasts for birthing and feeding babies, they are simply for men's enjoyment. What could be more opposite to feminism?

[honeybunch2k8]

Originally Posted by MichelleAnnette

What could be more feminine than breastfeeding?


I consider myself a feminist, but not the kind that believes women must try to make themselves more like men. I read somewhere recently that now we have birth control pills to stop us from menstruating, c-sections to stop us from using our vaginas to give birth, and formula to stop us from using our breasts to feed our babies. So since we are not using our vaginas and breasts for birthing and feeding babies, they are simply for men's enjoyment. What could be more opposite to feminism?

I've always felt like that.

I think this is yet another area in which *some* people consciously or not consider women's bodies less than capable. (I just wanted to say real fast I understand there are legitimate circumstances when women can't or have great difficulty bfing.) We can guess companies give the "breast is best" idea lipservice,but don't do much to promote breastfeeding.

I also think breastfeeding is the extension of birthing ideas and parenting ideas that seek to place man-made objects above women. Nowadays some people still consider heating lamps better at giving warmth to babies than their own mothers. Docs would rather cut so many women open than create an environment to work with birth a natural, healthy process.

IMO a good indicator of a patriarchal society is when women's natural processes (like birth and breastfeeding) are considered illnesses or plain nasty. Reading comments on the net, so many people seem to believe consciously or not that the milk of another species is better than milk from a human female.

There was one comment I read something to the effct of "Well, could you imagine how nasty it would be if she (a lactating woman) pumped her breasts and gave it to kids? Eeeew!" In fact, that's what we do with cows (whose milk unless organic has god knows what in it), and I wonder how much of a problem the poster has with that.

In my experience, there are definitely men out there who believe women exist for their sensory pleasure.

[amitymama]

Originally Posted by MichelleAnnette

What could be more feminine than breastfeeding?


I consider myself a feminist, but not the kind that believes women must try to make themselves more like men. I read somewhere recently that now we have birth control pills to stop us from menstruating, c-sections to stop us from using our vaginas to give birth, and formula to stop us from using our breasts to feed our babies. So since we are not using our vaginas and breasts for birthing and feeding babies, they are simply for men's enjoyment. What could be more opposite to feminism?

I agree with you there. But I would assert that the 'kind of feminists who want women to try to make themselves like men' are actually few. The majority of feminists and recognized feminist thought says that we should take back ownership of our bodies and embrace our biological functions while striving to get on more equal footing with men socioeconomically. Striving to be equal under the eyes of the law is not the same as expecting women and men to be completely alike.

[guestmama9904]

I have been a feminist since I was a young girl, though perhaps I did not know it was called that. I also grew up reading Mothering magazine, Spiritual midwifery, and Our Bodies, Ourselves because my mom had these all on the bookshelves. these books and mags to me are all feminist in different ways but one thing they all support wholeheartedly is normal birth and breastfeeding. I just feel like it is an act of resistance against the patriarchial political and social systems we have in place in much of the industrialized world, to breastfeed brazenly, show some skin if thats what youre comfortable with and refuse to feed our children substandard stuff from a can that costs money and makes people sick. obviously it is also feminist to feed your baby formula if you cannot breastfeed or adopted a child, ect. you can still be a feminist and not breastfeed but i think the core of feminism is believing in womens inate abilitys to nuture, birth, create and exhist as naturally and happily as possible. safe birth has always been a womans issue that some cultures have not supported due to fear, mistrust of womens bodies or dominance over womens bodies.

[aaronsmom]

Originally Posted by amitymama

I agree with you there. But I would assert that the 'kind of feminists who want women to try to make themselves like men' are actually few. The majority of feminists and recognized feminist thought says that we should take back ownership of our bodies and embrace our biological functions while striving to get on more equal footing with men socioeconomically. Striving to be equal under the eyes of the law is not the same as expecting women and men to be completely alike.

Some self-proclaimed feminists have a skewed view of what feminism is all about, though. My 70 year old grandmother for example thinks I am "setting the feminist movement back 100 years" by breastfeeding and being a SAHM. :

[MommytoTwo]

Ditto the pp. What could be more feminine than mothering and nurturing a child?

[amitymama]

Originally Posted by aaronsmom

Some self-proclaimed feminists have a skewed view of what feminism is all about, though. My 70 year old grandmother for example thinks I am "setting the feminist movement back 100 years" by breastfeeding and being a SAHM. :

I'd tell Grandma that she's setting the feminist movement back even further by being so blatantly uneducated on what the movement is all about.

Seriously though, I do know that there is a small group of people who are militantly anti-anything that makes women female and sets them apart from men. What those people are doing is practicing extremism. In our grandmothers' and mothers' days, there were women who were given no other choice but to birth naturally when they may have wanted pain relief; been refused formula even when they had tried valiantly but failed (for whatever reasons, many legitimate) to make breastfeeding work for them; refused a return to employment once they'd had children, etc..

Previous generations were railing against the idea that a women's sole purpose was to serve her children and husband. They had to fight to give women a choice in what they did with their bodies and their lives. So I can see how many women, in their anger towards the patriarchy in this fight, went too far and began shunning women who truly chose these things for themselves. Just like some of us can't understand a woman choosing to be submissive to her husband, some women from previous generations (and even now!) don't understand why any woman would willingly 'endure' something they see as uniquely female and also painful or detrimental (being a SAHM or breastfeeding on demand or NCB).

In my view, however, there is nothing more feminist than taking back our breasts for whom they belong -- us and our babies. For too long they have been the property of men, here only to titilate them and sell products. No more, I say, no more! Breasts, like women, are multi-functional and cannot be pigeonholed into one use, one purpose. That, to me, is what feminism and lactivism are all about.

[honolula]

Originally Posted by MichelleAnnette

So since we are not using our vaginas and breasts for birthing and feeding babies, they are simply for men's enjoyment. What could be more opposite to feminism?

I have to STRONGLY disagree with this sentiment.

I understand what you're trying to say. Physiologically, birthing and breastfeeding are the most feminine things a woman can do. But stating that NOT birthing and NOT breastfeeding are tantamount to turning our bodies into playthings for men entirely dismisses female sexuality outside of its reproductive function.
First of all, not all women have sex with men.
Secondly, no matter who a women is having sex with, there's a good chance she's enjoying it.
Women who are childfree by choice are no less feminine or feminist than women who have had ovariectomies/mastectomies to save their lives, or women who have been unable to carry a baby to viability, or women who have 5 children and are breastfeeding them all at once while menstruating under a statue of Gaia.

What makes birthing and breastfeeding feminist is choice.
You chose to have your children, you choose how to nurture them and help them reach their fullest potential whether or not you're complying with social norms. Your grandmother most likely did not feel that she had these liberties.
It's the same thing that makes it feminist to be childfree by choice. And the more we can demonstrate to eachother and ourselves that these choices do NOT add or take away any feminist/feminine gold star stickers, the more at peace women will be able to be with the choice to save their own lives at the expense of parts or sums of their reproductive systems.

[mamajake]

Originally Posted by honolula

What makes birthing and breastfeeding feminist is choice.
You chose to have your children, you choose how to nurture them and help them reach their fullest potential whether or not you're complying with social norms. Your grandmother most likely did not feel that she had these liberties.
It's the same thing that makes it feminist to be childfree by choice. And the more we can demonstrate to eachother and ourselves that these choices do NOT add or take away any feminist/feminine gold star stickers, the more at peace women will be able to be with the choice to save their own lives at the expense of parts or sums of their reproductive systems.

I agree. But I think there are probably breastfeeding activists who are either not feminists (because they support only some choices - being deliberately vague to avoid UA violations) or who fall into what I call the "I'm not a feminist but..." camp. In the second of these, one enjoys all the benefits the feminist movement has brought (the right to vote and own property, for example) but do not want to be associated with women perceived to be masculine or aggressive - those who see benefits in exploiting sterotypes of female and male behavior.

"Feminine" and "feminist" are very different things so I don't quite know why PPs have linked the two.

My "lactivism" (have I mentioned enough how much I hate that word?) is a natural and necessary outgrowth of my feminism. I am very disappointed in the feminist movement (second wave feminists in particular) for having either ignored or opposed breastfeeding as a political issue. But I could see other people's "lactivism" coming from an anti-feminist place.

[glendora]

Originally Posted by mamajake

"Feminine" and "feminist" are very different things so I don't quite know why PPs have linked the two.

Yeah, I'm sort of confused there.

But, I'm a feminist that breastfeeds.

I'd say that laws that support a woman's right to breastfeed where ever she needs to are feminist, whether they are intended to be by the folks that support them or not, as they ultimately support women's freedom of movement.

*shrugs*

[Dandy]

It was in Ms. magazine a long time ago that I first learned women could still deliver babies using midwives... they had a whole article on natural childbirth being empowering, etc.

I am also a feminist who breastfeeds. I don't see any conflict. My feminist friends are all over the board, though lol "Oh, you're going to do that here? In my living room?" "Oh, you're still doing that even though he's like walking and stuff?" "Oh that's so GREEEEAT for him!!! Can I watch?"

None of them have kids... I fully expect they'll be more crunchy than I am when the time comes

As far as how breastfeeding relates to feminism, I think a lot of the lactivist fight is a feminist fight. The word "objectify" is way overused by feminists, but objectification of the female body with the breasts-selling-beer and the breasts-selling-cars is something that harms women, and harms breastfeeding women in a very specific way.

[Mrs.Bufford]

I'm a feminist who breastfeeds. I think that the biggest issue to tie each of these things together is the right to breastfeed anywhere and everywhere. Its a right that women should have, and its sometimes denied for x,y,z reason. So that right there puts breastfeeding in the feminist domain, imo.


Waiting to read more as I am VERY conflicted about my feminist views vs. my parenting style (SAHM, breastfeeds, chose to keep baby when she really changed everything, etc).

[Meiri]

Some self-proclaimed feminists have a skewed view of what feminism is all about, though. My 70 year old grandmother for example thinks I am "setting the feminist movement back 100 years" by breastfeeding and being a SAHM.

Ask her how it's feminist to chose to depend upon strange men (farmers and formula company chemists--and yes, I know some of those are women, but I'm making a point here) for our babies' sustinence?

[the_lissa]

I think breastfeeding is very feminist. I think it is very feminist to tell corporations that we don't need to rely on their product, that our bodies work, etc.

[bri276]

ITA with the above. I think it's empowering to use our OWN bodies to grow, birth and nurture our children without any unnecessary help from outside sources.

[Herausgeber]

My feminism has heavily informed my choice to breastfeed. The way formula is marketed, the stigma against NIP, and the lack of support for breastfeeding mothers who work is rooted in a very deep misogyny.

[Ziggysmama]

I'm also a feminist who breastfeeds. I think they are copacetic. I agree with PPs that say the lactivist cause is a feminist cause. It runs along the same vien as "my body, my choice".

[captain optimism]

Two pieces link feminism and lactivism for me. The first is that breastfeeding is better for women's bodies than formula feeding. Breastfeeding has been linked with lower rates of breast cancer for the nursing mother, and of course it's better for babies, who stand at least a 50% chance being baby women.

Furthermore, the right of women to nurse in public is linked to the right of women to be in public. It's obvious that discrimination against nursing mothers impacts women disproportionate, since men who are able to nurse babies are rare enough that they make the newspaper. Lactivists campaigns to protect the right of women to nurse are therefore part of an overall feminist agenda.

We really shouldn't have to defend the idea that improving the status of mothers improves the status of women. Discrimination against women as mothers is similar to discrimination against women as workers, against women as students, against women in the professions. It's all sexism, it's all discrimination against women as a class of people. It's all a proper target for feminist analysis and political organization.

[guestmama9904]

Originally Posted by captain optimism

Two pieces link feminism and lactivism for me. The first is that breastfeeding is better for women's bodies than formula feeding. Breastfeeding has been linked with lower rates of breast cancer for the nursing mother, and of course it's better for babies, who stand at least a 50% chance being baby women.

Furthermore, the right of women to nurse in public is linked to the right of women to be in public. It's obvious that discrimination against nursing mothers impacts women disproportionate, since men who are able to nurse babies are rare enough that they make the newspaper. Lactivists campaigns to protect the right of women to nurse are therefore part of an overall feminist agenda.

We really shouldn't have to defend the idea that improving the status of mothers improves the status of women. Discrimination against women as mothers is similar to discrimination against women as workers, against women as students, against women in the professions. It's all sexism, it's all discrimination against women as a class of people. It's all a proper target for feminist analysis and political organization.

good point about cancer rates, this is an important issue that I wish was addressed when women were younger, before they already have made a chocie to not breastfeed, like say at their first pap exam at age 18. women are going out in roves to get the hpv vaccine to avoid cancer so maybe they would go out and breastfeed in roves if they were told by a medical professional that women who breastfeed are less likely to suffer from breast cancer.