I don't think is cultural paranoia Nikki, I think it's misogyny.

Breast milk comes from women.  And women have nasty icky fluids.  
Menstruation and childbirth have nasty icky fluids.  No one acts like 
this about semen, do they?  In the media, comical images of sperm 
collection for donor banks abound.  No one acts like they'll die from 
it!  Although it is refreshing to note that some progress has been made 
on milk - there is a couple of nice touches in old "Friends" episodes.

In horror movies, whenever a female alien threat appears, it's always 
covered in nasty icky fluids that drip everywhere and contanimate you, 
and she's always out to breed her children upon you as you drown in the 
icky sticky nastiness.  It's usually green!  (After all, blood-red is 
used as a powerful motif in action films and horror films, can't go 
diluting that iconography with icky female drippy stuff.  (There was a 
wonderul article on this in films studies many years ago, talking about 
film makers having "womb envy"!)

Breastmilk has been revered as life in many cultures.  The Roman's 
called it "white blood" as they saw it as vital to life as blood.  When 
the status of women is raised in our culture, so to will the status of 
our milk... 

Just musing...

Morgan

Nikki Lee wrote:
> Dear Friends:
>  
> Reading this discussion about storage of containers of human milk in  
> hospitals makes me sad. The attitudes manifest a deep belief that  human milk is some 
> horrible, dangerous fluid, full  of dreadful things that will crawl out of 
> plastic containers and  attack anyone that is nearby. 
>  
> Another example of cultural paranoia..............when will the public  
> appreciate the wonders and health benefits of human milk? How long will it  take?
>  
>   

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