A movement -- whether civil rights, gay rights, religious freedom, women's
rights, or even breastfeeding -- knows that it is making progress in getting
its message across and gaining real power when it generates a backlash from
those on the other side.  Salon's article is offensive and ludicrous (ha --
we *wish* hospitals and the medical establishment were pushing breastfeeding
as much as Salon seems to think) -- but it is also a sign that we are making
progress.  For an excellent discussion of this process of social change,
read the first chapter of Susan Faludi's book Backlash: The Undeclared War
Against America's Women (1992).  This book is about the feminist movement,
but the same principles apply to our work to change the culture of infant
feeding in the US to one that supports and values breastfeeding.

Kathy Dettwyler

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html