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Exploitation of breasts

Western society suffers from a major hang-up concerning breasts and breastfeeding:

• Many women are unwilling (or at least uncomfortable) to breastfeed in public
• Many men do not want their mates to breastfeed in public
• Many men do not want their mates to breastfeed at all, because they want the breasts to themselves
• Many people are uncomfortable in the presence of a woman breastfeeding a baby
• Many people who accept that breastfeeding is superior to bottle-feeding, and even approve of breastfeeding in public are still uncomfortable if a woman's areola or nipple is exposed during breastfeeding.

What's the reason for all this? Why are so many of us bothered by the sight of a woman doing what's best for her baby? No one is bothered by a woman (or man) giving a bottle to a baby. Most people smile when they see this. Knowing that breastfeeding is superior nutririonally, immunologically, and psychologically for the baby and for the mother, why don't people smile even more when they see a nursing mother?
    My claim is that this is mainly an issue of power. The arguments for this are a little subtle, but I think they have a lot of merit. Let's start with the idea of breasts being exclusively sexual in Western society. This is so obvious, it hardly needs to be said. But consider the following:

• There is no doubt that breasts have a sexual function in humans. In fact, a good case can be made for this based on evolutionary biology. That is, it is not a purely cultural phenomenon that breasts are seen to be sexually exciting.
• However, a lot of other body parts are sexually arousing to many people. For example:
  • Lips
  • Ankles
  • Knees
  • Shoulders
  • Waist
  • Hair
  • Eyes
  • Eyebrows
  • Ears
  • Hands
  • Toes
  • Neck
• But none of these body parts is seen to be primarily sexual. A woman (or man) who exposes these parts is not thought of as lewd.

Breasts then have the distinction of being the only body parts (besides genitals) that are seen to be exlusively sexual. This, of course, is culturally conditioned. Here are some examples of how this conditioning, which teaches us that breasts are sex objects, and it is embarrassing to expose them, takes place

• Little girls have to cover their breasts (which at their age look no different from little boys') at a ridiculously young age. Swimsuits for three year old girls cover the breasts. Even at that age girls are conditioned to the idea that exposing their breasts is shameful.
• Breasts are used to sell everything from beer to cars. In ads for such goods, women are used as baits, and breasts are featured prominently in such portrayal.
• Soft porn images of women promote breasts as sex object.

Is it surprising that we all have such a hard time reconciling the idea of a woman giving nourishment and love to a baby through breastfeeding with the image of the breast as a symbol of female sexuality and submission? In this society (for better or worse) we are obsessed with keeping sex and children apart. How do we then deal with breastfeeding?

• Western society sees a woman's breasts as her male companion's property--women's breasts are decorative objects whose purpose is to give pleasure to men.
• Many women don't even want to try breastfeeding, because they feel strange about giving their breasts (symbols of their sexuality) to their babies--breasts belong to men.

A woman breastfeeding in public is asserting power--she is saying that her breasts belong to her, and she uses them the way she sees fit: to raise a happy and healthy child. But society does not give women the right to exercise this power: the function of breasts is already determined in our culture--they are for men's pleasure. Men then attempt to regain the power snatched from them by breastfeeding mothers by telling them to go nurse their babies in a smelly restroom.
    What can be done about this strange cultural situation?

• Resist pornography. As this is a breastfeeding page, I will not say anything about violence or exploitation in general. However, there is no doubt pornography demotes breastfeeding by promoting the idea of the breast as an exclusively sexual organ.
• If someone tells you that soft porn (of the Playboy type) glorifies and does not demean women, don't believe them. Apart from declaring breasts to be decorative objects for men's pleasure, soft porn images also promote the idea that the only beautiful female body is a near-anorexic pre-pubescent one with little pert breasts. This inevitably leads many women to be unhappy about their bodies (besides leading many women to starve themselves on crash diets). Women who despise their own body assume a submissive position, and are therefore much less likely to stand up against the culture that tells them that their breasts are to be always hidden, and are only to be used for their mate's pleasure. Such women might find it distasteful to breastfeed even in private--they see their body as ugly and dirty; they can't accept that anything that comes out of it could be good for their baby (even though they know this rationally).
• Breastfeed tour baby everywhere you go. Don't let people discourage you. You have a right to use your body in the proper way--your baby has a right to get the best start in life, and you have a right to give your baby what she or he needs. No one has a right to interfere.