Fiona’s Reply

Having now seen most of the discussion about my article, I just wanted to
clarify a few points, particularly in the light of Kathy Dettwyler’s
concerns. But this is also to say thank you to everyone who commented, and
thank you for posting the piece, as I’ve had an incredibly positive response,
and have spent the last two weeks answering over 250 emails from 12 countries
requesting the questionnaire.
 Kathy seems to think I’m dismissing the entirety of her work in one
paragraph, but the opposite is true. The article appeared in a weekend
newspaper, requiring brevity. I was paying homage to her research, albeit in
a shorthand way, while querying the idea that the treatment of the non-
Western breast is somehow more natural than its treatment in the West. At the
same time, I was drawing on work I’ve been doing, for my book, that looks at
all the bodily fluids, and placing milk within that context, so that we see
just how and why it has been regulated, and ask if that regulation makes
sense for us today. Unfortunately neither of these ideas could be developed
in such a small space.
 We have a tendency to romanticize non-western cultures as wiser or more
authentic, and this feeds into Dettwyler’s observation that the breast in
certain non-Western cultures, is not part of women’s erotic sensibility.
There is a tendency to imply then that the West’s eroticization of the female
breast is a perversion, or at best a peculiarity that can be “reformed” into
a more acceptable or perhaps “natural” code of sexual behaviour. But many of
the cultures Dettwyler has observed, that ignore the erotic potential of the
breast, are the same ones that force genital mutilation on girls when or
before they reach puberty. Doesn’t this imply that some of these cultures
might wish to deny women *any*  erotic pleasure from genital and breast
stimulation? It would be unwise to remove women’s breasts along with their
clitoris, since they’re required for breastfeeding, so perhaps breasts have
instead been denied their sexual responsiveness through mechanisms of
cultural repression.
 I readily acknowledge the risks of using pornography in my argument,
especially speaking to an American audience, where attitudes to this issue
are dramatically polarized. And I heartily condemn any material that
sexualizes inequality.  But pornography is not a single monolithic category.
It is vast and sprawling, and holds within it many genres, practices, and
audiences. Of course some lactation pornography is objectional in that it
demeans its participants, and I’m sure women could do a much better job of
representing the erotic lactating breast in video (as are, I believe, the San
Franciso group producing the Bend Over Boyfriend series). But lactation
pornography is one corner of the fetish market which is remarkable for the
sense of agency it instils in its female actors. As producers of milk, they
drive the show, are centre stage and,while in some ways mirroring the male
ejeculation, they also surpass it. Some of the so-called soft-porn images of
lactating women make you wonder wherein the porn lies, exactly. (And much of
this could more usefully be defined as erotica.) True, the milk is wasted in
that it’s not going to a baby, and there is a perversion of function, in this
sense. But to see these representations of a simple bodily function that
produces a food, with soft backlighting and colourful lingerie, is to wonder
why they should be regarded as subversive, *except to those* who have a
vested interest in the continued rarefication of this process and its
containment within the stereotype of the virgin mother, that is, those who
promote formula as just as good as breastmilk, and frown on long-term breast
feeding.
 More than a perversion, lactation erotica is a desecration of an
activity that has been treated with too much reverence. Just as ‘70s
feminists objected to women being put on a pedestal, so should we object to
breasts being unrealistically idolized -- and acknowledged as sexual only in
their prenatal state. Images from lactation erotica, when done well, can be
used as a playful  riposte to the virginal a-sexual mom, and come not a
moment too soon. (These same images are certainly greeted with hilarity in
gatherings of lactation consultants I’ve presented them to.)
 I am not advocating the use of sexually explicit material in state
funded breastfeeding promotion campaigns. I am merely wishing to show the
variety and extremes of visual representations of the lactating breast that
are possible, and that represent what is a real part of female sexuality to
many women. Creative alternatives to the current eunuchizing images of the
mother are neccesary, and my article is considering what already exists, as a
departure point for more democratic, realistic and humorous approaches.
 Sexuality has become synonymous with identity in our culture. It is not
just sexual intercourse that we are referring to, or gender preference, but
the various ways in which we act out our desires, both publically in our
broader culture, and privately with our partners. In this way, sex already is
broadened beyond orgasmic intercourse between adults. I’m not suggesting
mothers have sex w/ their children, but that we acknowledge the tactile
pleasures of parenthood more openly, and invite the father to participate in
parenting at this level, with both his partner and baby. We must acknowledge
the rational limits to sexual expression, to do with public health, safety
and social justice, not the irrational limits forced upon us by the religious
right who merely seek the curtailment of non-procreative pleasures.
 The breast is part of our sexual physiology, and our erotic performance
of that drive. The two exist in constant conversation with each other, hence
the variation between cultures, just as our innate and learned behaviours are
in constant dialetical relation. Let’s allow the lactating breast to be fully
acknowledged as part of this dialogue.
 ABOUT THE BOOK: Looking at lactation pornography, and the sexual breast,
is only one part of the book. My main interest is in gathering stories which
recontextualise the subject of breastfeeding. Other subjects touched on so
far are adoptive breastfeeding, men who use their breasts in parenting,
contemporary wet nursing and cross nursing practices and anxieties,
breastfeeding as performance, and all the many, unexpected ways that we
interact with human milk. The objective of the book, over all, is to extend
the subject from public health discourse and bring it into the cultural
mainstream, as an activity that extends beyond the immediately post-natal
bedroom, and the already overladen arms of new mothers. Obviously the public
health discourse is crucial -- I am not proposing to substitute the important
and wonderful research and advocacy work being done. I merely wish to
complement this with work that fits with my own training in literature and
cultural studies.
 I am still collecting monologues, and have a particular interest in
stories of state-enforced weaning. If anyone can help put me in touch with a
person who has been affected by this, and who would like to tell her own
story anonymously and in her own words, I’d be very glad to hear from them.
 The book is to be published next year by Simon and Schuster in America,
and Allen and Unwin in Australia. I’m grateful for all comments, criticisms,
suggestions (and stories!) while I continue to write.

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