Breasts,baby-feeders,sexual,ob family Breasts - baby-feeders or sexual objects?

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Breasts in North America are a taboo: going topless on beaches isnot generally accepted, breastfeeding in public is often frownedon or seen as 'indecent exposure', women going topfree isconsidered shameful and immodest behavior.On the other hand, entertainment industry and the mediaconstantly show women wearing very scant clothing that barelycovers the nipples and just draws more attention to the breasts. Fashion swimwear covers less and less of the female body eachyear. Media and advertisements signal to people that breasts aresexual, and only beautiful when big and protruding. But we knowbig breasts is a fallacy since women in ads and movies use push-up bras and breast enlargement to artificially 'enhance' the waytheir breasts look like. Just think what young girls learn about breasts if theycontinually see this 'propaganda' without a balancing view of thereal purpose of breasts! Breasts are to be hidden, they aresexual, forbidden. Parents teach their children the same way,and many times children don't see a single pair of naturally nudebreasts apart from their own (if they are girls) while growingup. It is totally possible that a child grows up in NorthAmerica and never sees a baby breastfeeding!How many pairs of real breasts have you ever seen? For manyyoung women, most of their knowledge about breasts comes frommovies and magazines, so it is no wonder that even teenagers talkabout getting breast implants, and that most American women seemto be unhappy with their breasts.If women are obsessed about their breast size and shape to theextent of surgery, men aren't doing any better. For many menfemale breasts are a source of sexual inspiration, fascinationand fantasy. They get inspired from looking at pictures wherethey see some cleavage, where breasts are enticingly almostvisible, yet hidden. The pornographic industry gets much goodabout the taboo-ism of female breasts by letting men see thesetaboo items for good money. It is not so in Europe or in many other parts of the world.European women commonly go topless on beaches, and many Europeancountries also have nudist beaches where people sunbath naked,yet the atmosphere is decent and non-sexual and people are atease. The sauna culture in some European countries makes peopleused to seeing nakedness, and they don't view breasts as anyspecial thing or taboo. Primitive tribes in hot climates wearvery little clothing and it's no big deal to them. It seems thatNorth American culture is almost alone erotizicing the breasts tosuch an extreme. Carolyn Latteier, the author of Breasts, The Women's Perspectiveon an American Obsession, said in a TV program "All aboutbreasts, "In many cultures, breasts aren't sexual at all. Iinterviewed a young anthropologist working with women in Mali, ina country in Africa where women go around with bare breasts.They're always feeding their babies. And when she told them thatin our culture men are fascinated with breasts there was aninstant of shock. The women burst out laughing. They laughed sohard, they fell on the floor. They said, "You mean, men act likebabies?" She also said in the same program that of the women sheinterviewed, the ones that were happiest with their breasts werebreastfeeding women. They weren't thinking about, "Is it toosmall? Is it too big?" They were doing something wonderful -that which is the REAL purpose of breasts. [1]Breastfeeding in USA An infant formula industry study found that only 31 percent of USinfants are still being breastfed at 6 months, and even thoughexperts recommend exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months, one studyfound that only 13% of breastfeeding mothers at 3 months and aMERE 1% at 6 months were doing so. [2] Why do women fail to breastfeed or wean too early? There aremany reasons. Some mothers think breastfeeding is 'yucky'. Thehusband or partner might think woman's breasts are for sexualpurposes and become jealous over the nursing mom's breasts, orstart thinking that the baby is doing something indecent andpervert when it feeds.The numerous women who have negative experiences aboutbreastfeeding pass them on to their friends. Doctors know verylittle about breastfeeding and about the dangers ofbottlefeeding. Actually, a study found that the majority ofpediatricians believe breastfeeding and formula-feeding areequally acceptable methods for feeding infants. [3] Some women have problems in breastfeeding but don't receiveenough support and help to overcome the difficulties. Many havedifficulties with breastfeeding in public because of otherpeople's attitudes towards exposing their breasts. With some,going to work prevents them from breastfeeding and/or pumpingbreast milk. One major factor undermining breastfeeding in US is the wayinfant formula companies advertise their products. They sendfree samples to pregnant mothers and to hospitals, give freegifts to doctors and nurses, and leave the impression in theirpamphlets that formula is almost as good as breast milk. Nowonder the 'supplemental bottle' is often used when there is justa minor solvable problem with breastfeeding! Another reason why babies are weaned early is because people havemisconceptions about weaning. Most people in Northern Americaand in other western countries think that breastfeeding is onlyfor the first couple of months of an infant's life, or mostly upto year. However, in most other cultures worldwide children weanmuch later, and in most of the history children weaned muchlater. According to Katherine Dettwyler's studies, comparinghumans to our closest animal relatives shows that the natural ageof weaning in humans should be between 2.3 and 7 years. Childrenwho are allowed to wean themselves, usually do so between 2 and 5years of age. [4] It seems that everybody agrees that breast milk is better, butthat the whole society is negative about breastfeeding? Why isthat? In the course of history many different parts of thefemale body have been fetishes for men, for example ankles,necks, and tiny feet (in China), so why are North Americans soobsessed with breasts as sexual objects in our age? In my opinion the reason is because the whole society is about toforget what is the real purpose of female breasts. That is shownfor example in Katherine Dettwyler's experience in her 'Women andCulture' course in the fall of 1993. One of her undergraduatestudents was totally flabbergasted to discover that thebiological function of women’s breasts was for feeding children. With obvious shock and disgust evident in her voice she asked,'You mean women’s breasts are like a cow’s udder?' [5] If youcan see breasts as 'wonderful milk-making machines' meant forbabies, then you won't worry anymore what men think of yourbreasts or what they look like! We have a vicious cycle on our hands: the less women breastfeed,the less people get to see the real purpose of breasts. At thesame time media everywhere constantly touts the perverted view offemale breasts, which makes people view breasts as sexual. Thatin turn makes it harder for women to breastfeed, since many ofthe reasons for not breastfeeding are linked to the erroneousidea that woman's breasts are sexual organs.So the less women breastfeed, the harder it becomes for women tobreastfeed. This cycle self-promotes the view that femalebreasts are sexual and that women are mere sex objects, which canlead to more pornography, sexual crime and abuse of women - allthe while little children are robbed of their best nutrition.The cure?Women, breastfeed your babies! Men, understand the real functionof female breasts! Everybody, forget about breasts being sexual!-----------------------------------------------------------------References [1] Carolyn Latteier in the TV program"All about breasts" Transcript available athttp://www.newshe.com/allaboutbreasts1.shtml[2] Breastfeeding trends through 2000 Ross Products Divisionhttp://www.ross.com/aboutRoss/Survey.pdf[3] Pediatricians' Practices and Attitudes RegardingBreastfeeding Promotion PEDIATRICS Vol. 103 No. 3 March 1999, p.e35 http://www.pediatrics.org/[4] A Natural Age of weaning, Katherine Dettwylerhttp://www.prairienet.org/laleche/detwean.html[5] Katherine Dettwyler as quoted in Breastfeeding at MunicipalPools in Canada http://mediaworkswest.com/BACE/BMPC/BMPC-Part8.htm-------------------------------------------------------