BREAST HYSTERIA

The latest issue of Babytalk magazine, a free publication focusing on mothers of infants, has dared to break the Great American Breast Taboo.  On the cover of a recent issue is a picture of an infant actually breast-feeding.  The nipple is obviously not exposed, but it is clear exactly what is transpiring.  This cover has sparked a furor and outrage over the publication of a photo of an actual female breast fulfilling its natural function.  The full text of the article, and the offending cover can be viewed at the following link:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14065706/

Somehow I, a sixty-five year old male, married with two daughters, avoided being infected with the twin American cultural viruses of racism and love/hate of the female breast.  On the same day that I read this article about the uproar over the publication of a photo of a baby breast-feeding, I went to my local swimming pool for a swim and was surrounded by women of all ages exposing as much of their breasts and butts as humanly possible without being naked.  One lovely young teen-age girl of somewhere between the ages of 14 and 21, who can tell today, had the smallest Bikini swimsuit I had ever seen.  She was tall and well proportioned and seemed to be determined to expose as much flesh as possible.  When her suit was wet from swimming, the effect was even more dramatic, but no one seemed to even notice.   You could not see any nipples in the pool area, unless one of the women chose to bend over, which happens on a regular basis, but I guess that is acceptable because they did not intend to expose their nipples.

 With the exception of the United Kingdom, America is almost alone in the world with this obsession with the human breast and sex in general.  I have lived in Europe and it was refreshing to see a more rational cultural view of human sexuality.  My sister was having her kids when I was growing up and I regularly saw her take out her breast and nurse her babies.  I guess that is how I formed my attitude about breasts; they're for feeding infants the best, most nutritious, food.  I worked as CFO at a baby products retail chain for several years.  The stores all had areas where nursing mothers could sit and feed their infants.  The area was secluded, but not hidden.  The strange part about this is that the owner, a man, and the vice-president, a women, both found the process of breast-feeding disgusting, but they overcame their personal feelings to provide a important service for their customers.

 States are passing laws to allow public, discreet breast feeding because women were being arrested for public indecency and the like for breast feeding in a public area.  Some areas insisted that if a woman needed to breast feed her child, she go into the bathroom. The image of a women sitting on the toilet breast-feeding her baby is somehow disturbing to me. Our best friends have five children, all were breast-fed, and she nursed all of her kids in front of me and I never saw any portion of her breast.  Nursing blouses are available that allow a woman to breast-feed without exposing any of her breast, but some people even object to that. Even Seinfeld had an episode where a woman discreetly breast-feeding in a hospital offended Jerry and another man.  It's in the culture.

 For decades the medical and scientific community has been emphasizing the need for women to breast-feed their infants to ensure a healthy start to life.  In addition to the benefits to the child, nursing stimulates the women's uterus to return to its normal shape after childbirth and intensifies the mother/child bond.  The production and sale of baby formula is a major business today.  Even in the poverty stricken Third World, baby formula makers tried to get mothers to substitute their formula for breast-feeding. Some mother cannot breast-feed and some babies need special formula, but many mothers simply choose not to breast-feed.  Breast pumps that allow working mothers to express and store their breast milk for feeding are readily available. 

 What is the origin of our contradictory, and unhealthy attitudes about breast-feeding?  Why does our society frown on discreet public breast-feeding, but celebrate the exposure of the female breast, except for the nipple, in almost every other venue?  Why is millions of dollars expended every year for breast augmentation?  Why are we the primary consumers of child porn in the world? According to the FBI, more than 50,000 women, most from Eastern Europe, are held as sex slaves and prostitutes in the United States. Where did all of this come from and where are we going?  I look forward to your comments.