In a recent digest, Philippa Thomson wrote:

>Today we [in Australia's NMAA] prefer to use the more direct word
>breastfeeding and see our ability to use that word as a giant step
>forward in bringing breastfeeding out of the closet.  To use nurse to
>mean breastfeed in the present day is to be coy...

I'm sure many on Lactnet are equally familiar with the story of how La
Leche League chose its somewhat cryptic (from the WASP perspective) name
back in 1956, as the word "breast" was taboo.  I agree that we all need
to be able to shout the word "breast" from the rooftops, but, at least in
the U.S., where "nursing" has a different connotation from that which it
has in Australia (see Kathleen Auerbach's story in a previous digest), I
don't necessary see the term as "coy."  I'm going to do a little more
etymological research on this for those interested, but from a more
political standpoint, I see using "nursing" rather than "breastfeeding"
as somewhat analogous to the use of "womb" over "uterus" in midwifery
circles.  The former terms are less clinical--not that clinical doesn't
have a place, namely in the clinic--and the latter terms seem to me to
convey the idea of woman-as-vessel, and are somewhat dehumanizing.


Thinking I should order LLL's T-shirt with the word "breastfeeding" in 18
languages,

Penny Piercy, LLLL, MOM (Patrick 2 1/2) from Bloomington, IN
(and B.A., M.A., and A.B.D. in English, *sigh*)