All I have to say is I am glad I went to Africa in an area where women ran the marketplace, were relatively sexually liberated, and ALSO enjoyed breastfeeding and childrearing.  Women have a variety of capabilities.  Before I went to Africa, I was convinced by what appeared to be the restricted roles for many mothers in the 1950s and 1960s and the feminism that arose in the late 1960s and 1970s that children were hindrances.  It was so terrific to walk into a culture where that was not the case. Erica Jong and Joan Wolff both have very restricted views of women that merely flip flops one set of acceptable activities  -- we can ONLY be mothers and ONLY be available sexually for husband (which was the case in my mother's day) for another --- we can ONLY focus on our own sexuality and our ability to earn an income.  Where is the balance?  As well as the recognition that women should be able to have their own PREFERENCES for which areas of life we may want to devote more attention to.  

I just returned from watching Project Nim.  It was a heartwrenching film from the start given what we now know about chimpanzee behavior and the fact that they do NOT make good models for testing drugs or vaccines for humans because they are still different from us even it if is only 2% of our DNA.  Interestingly, Nim's adoptive human mother (who ended up having him taken away from her just like his chimp mother) breastfed him.  I think I need to take a rest from primate research for a little while.  

Best regards, Susan Burger, MHS, PhD, IBCLC

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