I just had to share this with my LactNet colleagues.  Shows you just how far
we have to go in this country.  The student writing is from my "Women and
Culture" class, and is of Pakistani ancestry, though I think she was born
and raised in the U.S.


>  I found it interesting during lecture on Tuesday when Dr. D. mentioned
>  that story about the female who did not know that the purpose of a
>  females breasts was to nourish a baby but was merely something designed
>  by God to give a man pleasure.
>
>  In this class I feel that I am learning so much about issues I never
>  really gave that much thought to before and so it always amazes me that
>  there are so many females in the US with no clue about certain things.
>  Take for example my best friend's roommate, she comes from a small town
>  in Texas and we all love her to death. She was Prom Queen, Class
>  Valedictorian,and voted most likely to suceed.
>
>  I was talking to her a few days ago about how we were learning about
>  breast feeding in class and she was appalled that teachers were allowed
>  to discuss such things in class (I decided not to tell her about the
>  other things we talk about in there, I am sure she would faint dead away
>  if she knew we discuss PMS and childbirth too...)
>
>  I was telling her that it was good to breastfeed your child for longer
>  than just a few years and she was shocked. I told her that people in
>  other parts of the world did that and she asked if it wasn't a big pain
>  to have to undo your blouse every time you wanted to breast feed. I told
>  her that I was sure it wasn't and anyway certain places in the world
>  there wouldn't even be this problem because certain woman didn't wear
>  clothing to cover their breasts at all because in their culture breasts
>  were not considered a sexual object like they are here.
>
>  Now this was the amazing part. She refused to believe that I was telling
>  the truth. In the 20 years she has been alive she has never heard of
>  people anywhere in the world not being fully covered head to toe in
>  appropriate clothing. She had no idea that females anywhere exposed
>  their breasts on a daily basis.
>
>  I was shocked, I mean she has never watched a National Geographic
>  episode or read a Smithsonian and seen people not fully covered? I have
>  to say it worries me, there seem to be so many people at this school who
>  lead such shelted lives. She now has an idea that these are dirty people
>  who will go to hell because God is probably very upset at them. It is
>  interesing how many people learn things in their culture and refuse to
>  believe that other cultures could be even close to being right. I think
>  people like that are going to miss out on a great deal in their lives...

Kathy Dettwyler