On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 09:23:48 +0200, Marit Olanders 
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>He quotes Oscar Wilde:
>A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is  
>exquisite, and leaves one unsatisfied.
>And this is why, states Nordlund, pornography may exist in public -  
>it makes us hungry, it urges us to consume more, increases our  
>desires and makes us commercially exploitable.
>A breastfeeding mother shows what satisfaction is and reminds us of  
>our own vulnerability. She demonstrates our exposedness and how  
>hopelessly lost we are in our striving for satisfaction of needs.
>Thereforethe breastfeeding woman is anti-commercial. That's what  
>makes her provocative and not that she brings someting private into  
>public space.


Very interesting.  She makes a good point.  My own theory on the subject lies 
with the sexualization of the breast.  Our culture sees the *primary* function 
of a breast as being sexual.  To nurse in public isn't just to "bring something 
private into public space".  It is (in their eyes, IMO) to bring SEX - a sexual 
act, the use a sexual object - into public space.  I believe that beneath all of 
this upset about nursing in public lies a visceral and somewhat unconscious 
reaction to incest.  Think about it: IF the breast IS primarily a sexual object, 
then what is breastfeeding?  What is it that we're doing every time we 
breastfeed  (in the eyes of someone who sees the breast exclusively or 
primarily in that way?)

I live in Miami Florida.  On any given Saturday you will see much more breast 
on our local beaches than you will during the average public nursing.  But no 
one gets upset about that.  Why?  My theory is that because when a breast 
is exposed at the beach, it is being exposed for its "proper" and "correct" 
purpose.  As long as breast exposure is sexual, it is accepted.  Our society is 
clinging tenaciously to its preferred definition of the function of a breast.

I agree with Nordlund that breast exposure is not our society's problem with 
nursing in public, no matter what those who object to NIP say.  Those same 
people are most decidedly NOT opposed to Miami Beach on a sweaty summer 
morning.  They are opposed to a sexual object being used in public.  They 
can't see that we aren't doing something lascivious right in front of their very 
eyes.  Just my $.02 of course....

Regina M. Roig-Romero
Senior Lactation Consultant
Miami-Dade County Health Dept WIC/Nutrition
Breastfeeding Program
7785 NW 48 ST, Suite 300
Miami FL 33166
(786) 336-1333 x162

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