Monday, April 28, 2008

The Breast Whisperer

I was reading the Sunday Post when I came across this troubling article about a "lactation consultant" who calls herself "The Breast Whisperer." The subheader was "Part Detective, Part Cheerleader, A Popular Lactation Consultant Aids Stressed-Out Moms." Detective? Like Cesar Millan, will the breast whisperer teach a breast not to jump on guests when they come over? Moreover, where was this major when I was in college? The whole "take women's studies to get dates" bit yielded mixed results. This seems like it would have been a sure thing.

This just strikes me as another example of the commodification of women's insecurities. There are way too many industries built on convincing women that something is wrong with them and that they have to pay exhorbitant amounts not necessarily to fix them, but to convince them they at least tried. So, baby will take to the breast if baby is hungry. If not, baby can drink out of a bottle. What? They say babies who breastfeed do better in school and are healthier? Well, it is never too early for kids to learn that their dopey choices can have lifelong implications.

1 comment:

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.