In a message dated 98-04-05 15:23:42 EDT, you write: << .SO, the simple politically correct action for all the Lactivists at the conference in Florida is to go topless on the beach! >> I must admit I am one "la troops" who would love to see this. I am of the opinion that Kathy D. is right when she says culture is not so much an overarching force with which we must conform or rebel: rather, it is something we make every day, in our actions. And as Cormac McCarthy says in his wonderful novel The Crossing, "Acts have their being in witness." A Wittgensteinien perception, and true to boot. The whole breast thing can be changed, and fairly quickly. What people see others do is what "writes to their hard drive", whether they have a negative impression or not, as part of the experiential stuff of "normal". Seeing me nurse my almost four year old on the playground today may make you physically ill, but, afterwards, it is still something.*you have seen done*. something *people do.* This is a great source of hope for me in my efforts at advocacy, personally and in my work. Breasts are beautiful and appealing, in that they do form part of the inherent "cues" for fertility and femininity that make reproduction so much fun and such a driven behavior. They have evolved, so to speak, to speak to our desires. But their beauty, like the beauty of the great character actors of films, lies not in how they conform to any presupposed ideal or form, but rather what they are. In other words, what is natural and well-used is often beautiful. Prosthetics or crutches are generally not considered as such. No problem here with bikinis, or anything else a woman wears to better suit her needs for comfort, flexibility, or even because she has worked hard to be fit. The concept, however, of working hard to be fit and healthy and doing so, only to desire further assistance from a cosmetically augmentating breast apparatus is a little schismatic to me. The idea here would be, If you are healthy, be proud--why scorn some parts for not being culturally enticing enough, though perfectly healthy and normal. I applaud those who take the lead in empowering, perhaps radical, advocacy. "There is at last no greater freedom than the integrity of our own minds. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world."--Ralph Waldo Emerson ________________________________ Joy Berry-Parks LLL, central AR Attachment Parenting Group of AR Anthropology apprentice ________________________________ "Childhood Decides." Jean Paul Sartre