I would say that in the past 6 weeks, I have evolved into a person who spouts
"our culture teaches...." in front of many of the mythologic statements that
we choose to accept as "true".  It works wonders.  (example:  Our culture
teaches that babies should sleep thought the night as soon as possible.  From
the baby's point of view and a survival standpoint, nothing could be more
dangerous...blah, blah, blah)

I had the good fortune of hearing Dr. Christiane Northrup (of "Women's
Bodies, Women's Wisdom" fame) in Indianapolis for 2 full days.  If you are
not familiar with her book, please find it.  She also has some wonderful
audio tapes available (from Sounds True tape catalog).  She said that
"women's breasts are for their own pleasure and for nourishing their babies".
Period.   It has come in handy to quote her when the time is right.  I tend
to say: "Women's breasts are for feeding babies and for their own pleasure.
 It is up to them if and with whom they choose to share them.".  WOW - what a
concept that the woman owns the breasts......  I would have to say that I
developed a deep sense of grounding in my feminity from attending this
conference.  It is not often that feminity is affirmed so strongly.  She also
does not advocate monthly breast exams.  She feels that turning your hands
into mine-sweepers looking for cancerous lumps is the same thing as calling
the energy of cancer to the breast.  INSTEAD, she recommends a monthly body
appreciation bath where you do a total body massage and thank and appreciate
every part of the body.  Same ultimate job done, but with a different
enphasis.  Cool, huh?

At lunch yesterday, I sat with a couple of women from "Risk Management" (our
legal dept) and they were discussing the possible upcoming dress code (which
miracle of miracles seems to only address female dress--what a surprise --
heavy sarcasm here....).  They were talking about people wearing underwear
that could be seen through whites.  Then they said "We didn't address that
 women should wear bras".  In my worst deadpan, I said "Well, you are aware
that there is a study that links wearing of bras to cancer, aren't you?  You
wouldn't want to be responsible for causing cancer in our employees....  How
about just banning nipples?"  tee hee. Never heard any more about it and it
was not brought up at today's meeting when the topic was discussed
hospital-wide..

Martha Brower RD LD IBCLC in Dayton OH (who never has a boring day)