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I am heavily pregnant and planning to breastfeed my little one, so my mother in law suggested that I watch a BBC documentary called Is Breast Best?, presented by Cherry Healey.
Cherry spoke about the agony of her own breastfeeding experience, and of her immense guilt thereafter. I agreed with her overall message, that breast is best, if you can do it, and that mothers like Cherry who have been unable to breastfeed should not feel pressure and guilt about it. But I was enraged by the final conclusion. Cherry’s idea of why young mothers choose not to breastfeed came down to her lamenting that ‘It needs to be on TV- teens have to see celebrities doing it’. Somehow though, I’m not sure that the sight of Victoria Beckham parading newborns on her size 34Bs would be that well received by her teenage fans. The fundamental fact that Cherry fails to grasp during the programme- as do many breastfeeding advocates- is that breasts serve two very different functions, which are as old as humanity and not in any way in opposition to each other.
Function one is the simple fact that breasts are sexy. Yes, they are. They are comforting, alluring, and designed to attract members of the opposite sex. This does not detract from the fact that they are also nourishing, nurturing, and life-sustaining (function two). These functions are ancient and natural, and there is no reason for them to be seen as opposites, or to suggest that women must choose one role for the breasts, or the other. But, as we see in Is Breast Best?, people seem unable to put the ‘breasts are for sex’/‘breasts are for babies’ debate to rest.
It is likely that the obsession our society has with sex and women’s bodies has obscured the former function of breasts from our minds to the extent that a law had to be passed in the UK to protect women from prejudice when breastfeeding in public places. A semi-naked orsexually-oriented picture of a woman plastered onto any available public space, billboard, telephone box, lamppost or newsagents magazine rack is barely blinked at as unacceptable in our society. We let our children see such images on TV and in films without considering the perceptions of women it may be enforcing. Any breastfeeding mother who uses Facebook can talk to you about the injustice of breastfeeding mothers having their photos taken down as ‘indecent’, while sexually provocative photography remains unchallenged.
So how did this start? Who’s to blame? Cherry wanted to point a finger, but she didn’t stretch her arm out too far. Not men, she says, after speaking to a gaggle of young footballers who were evidently meant to represent the mainstream male way of thinking. They seem perfectly accepting of breastfeeding, says Cherry – in words and on camera, at least – one of them even has a woman at home who breastfeeds their child.
But I beg to differ. The mainstream view of breasts is that they are sexual objects that can turn a very satisfactory profit. Lest you think I am rearing a Greer at you, I will state now that I am not blaming this fact on men. Women, too, have become keen to follow this trend, treating their own bodies as purely sexual objects, serving just the single function. Did anyone intend it to be this way? I doubt it. Will celebrities breastfeeding in public alter the root of the problem? Certainly not. To suggest that celebrities must show their breasts as milk-rendering artefacts to reinforce the ‘naturalness’ of breastfeeding, is an absurd notion, as it ignores the reason that the breasts are on display in the first place – to entice men.
We seem to have forgotten this in our eagerness to ‘portray’ breasts as baby feeders. We have been so keen to use sex to sell anything over the years, that we even think that we can use it to sell breastfeeding – though it is possible that Cherry’s naivety leaves her innocent here: perhaps she simply has not realised the extent of marketing women’s bodies as sexual objects.
Women who choose to breastfeed, however, are not doing it for a photo op – they wish instead to nourish their children, however painful, tiring, awkward and agonising it may (apparently) be. The fact that people find the sight of this simple and pure act repulsive and somehow ‘unnatural’ only demonstrates the massive social disconnection between women’s bodies sexual and other functions. It’s not just women’s rights that are at stake but a loss for the whole of mankind; newborn males and females are missing out on essential nutrients and antibodies that are found in their mother’s milk, due to social bias and the single function debate.
Is Breast Best? may have worked hard to open up the debate on breastfeeding to wider society, but I’m not sure that more debate is required. Breastfeeding is good for your baby and better than the formula milk that now serves as an alternative for many babies. But is it best for a mother who may suffer prejudice for breastfeeding her baby in public? Best for baby isn’t the real debate here: best for mum, is. The wearer of the breast, I might say in Greer-esq fashion, is the wearer of the burden. Their visibility is not acceptable unless it is intended to be sexually alluring, and it is this attitude which must change if we want teens in this country to consider breastfeeding
I’m not blaming Cherry, and I’m not blaming men, but this is a social problem that will not be solved just by women talking to each other about their feeding fears and issues. As James Brown said, ‘This is a man’s world, But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl’.
Zion’s Blog – Breastfeeding Matters
Photo: Judith Kuegler
Breastfeeding is a very emotive subject. Those that have enjoyed breastfeeding are often evangelical about it. Those who have not breastfed, say they are made to feel guilty. You almost feel nervous about raising the subject, because you know you will unintentionally offend someone.
Jane Woodley of Acorn Pack has written an excellent post about this dilemma, about how the “guilt” issue effectively closes down the debate – her solution; to change the language. Click here to read her post.
My breastfeeding journey started almost twelve years ago in Mexico, my home, and heart, country. Over the years with my three children, it has become an essential ingredient in my mothering.
Although the bottle-feeding infatuation has begun to take hold in parts of Latin America, breastfeeding is very much part of our culture, our roots and traditions.
My Mexican grandmother breastfed her eight children, and my mother breastfed her five children. In fact, every woman in my family, as far as I can recall, [Read more...]
