I'm sorry Chauntelle, it is NOT just a USA thing!

It is part and parcel of the culture a lot of us grew up with, all
around the world.  Historically, bottle feeding as 'the thing to be
done' has taken sway of cultures even when the babies were dying in
droves.  (Well cow's milk in cow horns, to be exact, to the example I'm
thinking of, from 18th century Germany IIRC.)

This is a _female_ thing.  :-)  When woman's bodies are controlled and
proscribed in public, according to patriarchal views of what is and
isn't acceptable for woman to do - either in public, or in private.

That this is a feminist issue, unites us all.

And it's still a feminist issue for those allowed to breastfeed in
public spaces - for their bodies will be controlled in different ways -
such as the discussion that weaning must happen at X point, or sex can't
happen during lactation etc etc etc

The comments made about immigrants in the USA bottle feeding in response
to what happens in the USA, were mirrored by me saying they happened
like that in the UK.  And heaven help us if we discussed immigrants into
France, where a popular brand of _feminism_ likens breastfeeding to
being made into a cow, and 'breasts are for sexual partners' is part of
the feminist banner!  (One UK women in another list who birthed in
France recently, described the look of cold horror on the midwife's face
when she said she was going to breastfeed, and the midwife responded
"You don't want to be doing that.")

I'm sorry you feel so battled down in the trenches right now.  But I
assure you, what you describe is not a USA thing!  It's a people from
all over the world thing.

:-)

Morgan Gallagher



chauntelle parker wrote:
> even if we take the color words out my point was....it does not matter if she came from Africa or Asia or any where Else, not being able to breastfeed in public is an universal thing, and thinking that bottle feeding is better than breastfeeding is an American thing. the other part of my response was a Very personal thing. i will leave my personal hang ups out it.
>
>

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