I am a La Leche League Leader, on Reserve, who has a private practice as an
LC.  I live in Manhattan. For many years I have observed the negative views
ascribed to LLL, trying to reconcile this "PR" problem with the women I know
personally in League, and with my own self-image.   I think League functions
for many people as a target; we can be demonized and stereotyped because the
very idea that only women breastfeed is, in itself, threatening.  I've been
a feminist since I was 16, I studied women's history before it existed as a
specialty, and I see no contradiction, intellectually, in supporting women's
right to breastfeed.  But people seem to need enemies, and League, an
organization full of mild mannered, accepting, giving people, "needs" to be
militant, pushy lactation fascists, so that everyone else can be tolerant,
up to date "mothers who think."  And in an effort to get people to like us,
we bend over backwards to be "non-political" and offend a whole new group of
people!  I was told as a Leader not to mention the Nestle boycott, or
INFACT: people would be offended if you wave a petition at them.  But the
public perception is universally "breastfeeding fascists, waving their
banners at you", so all that happened is years of opportunity for activism
were missed, and League's image is as bad as ever.
Please read between the lines here; I love League, I believe in it and yet,
what a lot of contradictions we seem to embody!
Kate Sharp
LC in NYC
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