I consider myself militant and passionate in my
thinking, open-minded and compassionate in my everyday
work with mothers. 

Rachel's comment on the lack of militant response to
the AIM industry attack on the Ad Council campaign is
apt.  At a bf coalition meeting over the weekend, a
visiting social anthropologist suggested we campaign
with messages about the "risks" of not breastfeeding
rather than the message that breastfeeding is
"natural."  I asked where she is hearing this passive
message that bf is "natural" & she pointed to the Ad
Council campaign with its slogan "Babies are born to
be breastfed."  I gave her a brief history of that
campaign, from its original shouts of risk down to the
whisper she heard, that bf was "the natural choice." 
She was surprised, to say the least.  The risks of not
breastfeeding are big guns.  The AIM industry in the
US effectively disarmed a campaign to encourage both
healthy behaviors and empowered choices for women.  

To steal a thought from Sun Tzu & THE ART OF WAR:
"Nothing is more difficult than the art of maneuver. 
What is difficult about the art of maneuver is to make
the devious route the most direct and to turn
misfortune to advantage."

If mothers listening to the industry-edited bf
campaign thought for a minute that bf was "the nice
thing to do" or simply "natural," then indeed a gun
was turned the other way in battle.  AIM giants
successfully and "deviously" turned a powerful
misfortune for the industry into an advantage by
plucking ammunition (risks stats) from the big guns of
advertising.

And yes, Rachel, "militant feminist" remains a
compliment, particularly for breastfeeding advocates. 
I cannot imagine a more feminist issue than
breastfeeding.

Susan Johnson, MFA IBCLC
Salt Lake City, Utah USA


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