Lactnetters, Some of you might know the widely serialized comic
strip, "For Better or for Worse,"  which is organized as a gentle,
tune-in-tomorrow kind of family soap opera with a continuous story
line.  It appears a all kinds of daily newspapers.

Currently, the strip focuses on the perils of the young married
couple Deanna and Michael, who are soon to have a baby.  The last few
installments have shown Deanna trying to cope with her wealthy,
overbearing mother as she purchases second-hand baby items and
converts the porch in her tiny apartment into a nursery.

Watching Deanna and Michael gain their independence from parents as
they begin their relationship together has been a big theme of the
comic strip for a least the last year.  (Okay, true confessions:  my
three year old and I read it together every morning.  It's one of the
few cartoons in the daily paper that's not mean-spirited, overly hip
and ironic, or dependent on knowledge of political events.)

I strongly suspect that future installments will focus on the comedy
of early parenthood, with conflicts between characters focused on how
to best raise the baby.  It's a very loving strip.   And I began
thinking this morning what a wonderful opportunity the cartoonist has
to showcase the loving bonds of breastfeeding...should he decide to
do so.   (I have no idea what his politics or beliefs on this topic
are.)

In anticipation of the birth of a new cartoon character, do you think
we could  begin a dialogue with the cartoonist on the topic of infant
feeding?  Anyone have any ideas how this could happen?  The strip is
set in Toronto...but don't know if this means the cartoonist himself
is Canadian.  Anyone have any connections to him?

Far better for us to begin a conversation now rather than send emails
and letters of complaint should we open our morning paper some future
day and find the sweet yet intrepid Deanna bottle-feeding her newborn!

Sandra
--
--

Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors
110 Rice Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY  14853
[log in to unmask]
www.steingraber.com

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