Many of you already know my thoughts about "sexualizing" breastfeeding, so I
won't belabor the point here except to remind people that in most of the
world a woman's breasts play no role at all in sexual behavior, either the
loving caring kind or the abusive kind.  So one wouldn't expect to find
breastfeeding aversion problems due to sexual abuse in most places.  Of
course, sexual abuse itself is extremely rare in most places, where life is
lived much more publically than it is in the U.S. nuclear family, so that
men have no opportunity to molest children in their families.  If we want to
change the broader culture of breastfeeding in the United States we need to
separate out the biological function of breasts (feeding babies) from the
culturally ascribed role (sexual) which is limited to the U.S. and a few
other Western cultures only.

My .02 worth on the spelling issue -- I know that I can go back and fix
things with my e-mail program, but many people cannot back up.
Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Texas A&M University
Specialist in infant feeding and child health
College Station, TX 77843-4352
e-mail to [log in to unmask]
(409) 845-5256
(409) 778-4513