Breast Feeding and the Social Construction of Heterosexuality, or ‘What Breasts are Really for’

At the heart of the breast feeding ‘problem’ is a preoccupation with the failure of women to use their breasts in ways which are deemed natural, and attention is focused on working-class women who have lower rates of breast feeding.

Abstract

Breast feeding has been largely ignored by feminists. Critical analysis of infant feeding is linked to campaigns against the production and marketing of baby milk formula (Chetley, 1986; Lobstein, 1988; Palmer, 1988, 1993; Van Esterik, 1989; War on Want, 1982). Alongside these concerns, and influenced by them, runs considerable mainstream policy attention to declining breast feeding rates both nationally (DHSS, 1974, 1980, 1988) and internationally (WHO, 1974; WHO/UNICEF, 1981, 1990). The absence of sustained feminist analysis of breast feeding has meant a lack of attention to what is being said about women in these debates. Concern about breast feeding constitutes concern about women's behaviour. In particular, differential rates of breast feeding between different groups of women means that attention is focused on working-class women who have lower rates of breast feeding (White et al., 1992). At the heart of the breast feeding 'problem' is a preoccupation with the failure of women to use their breasts in ways which are deemed natural. Black women are viewed as suitably natural when they carry out their breast feeding function in Third World countries, but are subject to anxiety and suspicion when they fail to keep up the same rates of breast feeding in this country (Evans et al., 1976; Costello et al., 1992; Jivani, 1978; Goel et al., 1978; Shahjahan, 1991).