Heather wrote:
"I just ran across this and wanted to get the opinions of lactation
professionals.
http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CACA0.htm  "Is Bottle-
Feeding a Mark of Bad Motherhood?""


Several others have already pointed out that this is simply a slick 
move on the part of fomula manufacturers but what struck me the most is 
the common use of *outsider status* to define bottlefeeders. This is of 
course reversal since bottlefeeding is absolutey the norm, and only a 
small minority of babies are actually breastfed in the U.S. and 
Britain. Breastfeeding mothers are actually the ones under seige; with 
public debate over whether they should be *allowed* to even mother in 
public, and with arrests and citations not that uncommon. I have yet to 
see an msnbc.com poll asking readers whether anyone should be allowed 
to use formula. "Should public breastfeeding be allowed?" polls are 
common.  This is about the Status Quo. One thing that a majority, 
status quo group can do to help maintain their status is to make sure 
public opinion stays firmly in their favor - a common way of doing that 
these days is by claiming an "underdog" status. Positioning oneself as 
"under attack" by a bully often brings sympathy and attention, even 
when it is of course totally false to the point of ludicrousness. While 
breastfeeding mothers are told to go feed their babies where they go 
poo, even ticketed and charged with crime, bottlefeeding advocates (ABM 
companies and apologists, not usually bottlefeeding mothers) claim 
"poor me" status, claiming that a lacto-nazi cabal that in fact doesn't 
exist is victimizing them. The focus then is shifted away from the 
pitifully low breastfeeding rates and poor public health (and 
subsequent costs of health care) onto the "rights" of people to engage 
in an activity that is not even under threat (but that is in fact the 
norm, the status quo). Clever, no? I see this in other places too, when 
young women  are encouraged to get angry and assert their "rights" to 
get breast implant surgery whenever criticism of the extreme body 
fascism that encourages women to spend thousands to change their 
appearance for the benefit of... who? Do women benefit in either of 
these situations? No, but here some are, fighting for their rights to 
buy things that harm them. Brilliant strategy.

Also notable in the article is the introduction of the ideas of 
bottlefeeding mothers being "bad mothers" - does lactation literature 
say that anywhere? No. Also, note the plea that feeding be 
depoliticized, and removed as a moral issue - this leaves us confused 
because *we* know it is not politicized but rather *commercialized*. It 
has never been a moral issue, except in the opposite sense: that it is 
indecent to show a breast in public, and/or that a woman breastfeeds 
for her own perversion.  Reversal and recruiting ("me-too"ism) all 
around.


Michelle DePesa

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