RE>Breast exposure offensive ; )             5/28/96

Dear Lactnetters,

Whereas we call it culture, brainwashing, endoctrination, propaganda, it all
boils down to this: there is a knee-jurk reaction (or offense,  or repulsion
or whatever negative qualifier) in the brain of many Westerners at the sight
of an exposed breast. Some, such as our distinguished club of lactivists (I
really like this term; thanks to the LC who introduced to me through LACTNET)
welcome the exposure of the breast if it is done so for the "purpose for which
the breast was intended: breastfeeding." For other purposes, forget it: no
amount of reasoning about cow udders and ice cream and that we have to change
the way we see things and "in other countries, the sight of bare breasts is
normal" appears to successfully alter our synaptic pathway: the knee-jurk
reaction is still alive and healthy. Why?

We may have a lot to gain in understanding attitudes and their origins. I
think of attitudes as the marks left in our subconscious brain by the active
work of culture (or brainwashing, or whatever) during an impressionable or
permeable period in our life. It takes a great deal of control to shake these
beliefs off. Education on the spot, at the time of need (eg. "educating" a
mother who is embarassed to breastfeed in public, or "educating" her mate that
his wife's breasts exposed in public while breastfeeding is for a good cause"
will achieve very little to break down barriers installed years ago by
cultural programming.

This is a test: identify a personal hang-up and try to change your attitude
and behaviour after discussing it intelligently and rationally and reasonably
with colleagues and experts and professionals and... I have a good one: I feel
uncomfortable when I see a pair of unshaven female legs, whether mine or
others. No amount of biology (about sensory feelings and sweat and lubrication
and so on) or cultural education (leg shaving is a purely North American
phenomenon, Europeans don't do it, Chinese don't do it, and so on) will make
me change my attitude. Not because I do not want to, but because the
programming is engrained deep, very deep.

Viewed from this angle, it may be futile to try to change others' point of
view (in this case on breast exposure) through rational education without
studying the underlying programming of their attitudes. It may be that, just
like me, they will never change (I shrug at the idea that thousands of mothers
do not and will not breastfeed because of their attitude about breast
exposure). It may be that we will have to take a generation and to concentrate
on the young (to catch them in their receptive period) as as well as
positively comment on the naturalness of the breast at every opportunity.

It will take time. Just think of the cultural environment 40 years ago when La
Leche League started. Did these mothers think that breastfeeding would have
made such a come-back? Slowly but surely, we are changing our culture,
changing someone's attitude in the process. Attitudes, this is where the
success of breatfeeding lies.

Humorously and seriously yours,

Nicole Bernshaw