Gone too Far

>http://viv.id.au/blog/20090625.5497/gone-too-far/


Those who think that society has “gone too far” in supporting breastfeeding, that mothers who formula feed are demonised and breastfeeding mothers aren’t:

Show me the women who are losing their jobs for formula feeding.

Show me the women who are being kicked out of restaurants, swimming pools, gyms, childcare centres, and airplanes for formula feeding.

Show me the immigrant women whose babies are removed because, among other things, they planned to formula feed.

Show me the women who have been ordered to cease or interrupt formula feeding by family courts.

Show me the women who have been inappropriately ordered to stop formula feeding by doctors and child health care nurses because of concerns that the formula feeding is causing the baby to be too big, too small, too loud, too anything. Show me the Child Protection reports that ensue when mothers are sceptical and non-compliant with this uninformed “advice”.

Show me the people who, on seeing a bottle pulled out in a public place, will wrinkle their nose and say in disgust, “Are you going to do that here?”

Show me the people who won’t allow infant formula in an office fridge because it could be carrying disease.

Show me the people who insist that bottles of infant formula should be covered with a brown paper bag so as not to gross bystanders out.

Show me the people who insist that all bottle feeding should be covered with a blanket, you filthy sluts.

Show me the people who say that women who choose to bottle feed should just stay home until their child is drinking from a cup. They made their bed, so they should lie in it.

Show me the people who say that formula feeding shouldn’t be allowed in public because they don’t have time to explain such adult concepts to their children.

Show me the people who won’t allow formula feeding in an area because the area is designated “family friendly”.

Show me the women who have had a gun pointed at them for not stopping a bottle feed in a public building in which they’re entitled to bottle feed.

Show me the women who have been accused of formula feeding because they’re paedophiles.

Show me the mainstream media forums in which it’s just fine to call women “filthy”, “perverted”, “gross”, and “cow-like” because they formula feed.

Show me the women who have been followed back to their workplace and questioned by police for preparing a bottle of formula in a parenting room designated for that purpose.

Show me the shocked gasps and silences when a woman has a glass of wine, a second latte, or a painkiller while bottle feeding.

Show me the documentaries on “Extreme Formula Feeding”, followed by an outpouring of public outrage about how those kids will be psychologically and sexually fucked up for life.

Show me the explosion in unethical corporate advertising lies promoting non-formula-feeding on an unprecented scale. Show me the massive outpourings of free corporate-supplied breastfeeding support to developing countries and disaster zones. Show me the tens of millions of dollars donated by individuals and companies to urgently get breastfeeding support to women and children in need. Show me the giant hollow breasts used as money collection devices for children in need.

Show me the daycare centres who charge fifty dollars more per week for formula fed babies.

Show me all these things, and then we’ll talk.

This article was written by lauredhel
Lauredhel is a forty-something woman with a disability. She lives in her Western Australian family home where books, Lego, and soapmaking gear constantly compete for space. She blogs about feminism, reproductive justice, freedom from violence, the use and misuse of language, medical science, being disabled, her vegetable garden, and whatever else pops into her head. Lauredhel also blogs at FWD/Forward (feminists with disabilities), scribbles at her personal dreamwidth journal Selective and Arbitrary, and co-moderates Hollaback Australia. She joined Hoyden About Town in 2007.


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