I am coming up with some new ideas for the blog. One of them is to have different themes on different days. This way my readers will get a sense of what to expect on the days my posts come out.
Monday Musings will be a day I plan to share some favorite quotes from a breastfeeding-relevant book and ask my readers to comment and muse with me.
Today I started reading A History of the Breast by Marilyn Yalom. I’m already completely absorbed in this work of original research that talks about how the breast has been perceived in the Western world from ancient days to present, and how it has been understood in religion, the arts, medicine, and society. If you want to read along with me I have added A History of the Breast to my Amazon recommendations to make it easy for you to find and order through my site.
This is the quote that I would like to share with you today:
“Who owns the breast? Does it belong to the suckling child, whose life is dependant on a mother’s milk or an effective substitute? Does it belong to the man or woman who fondles it? Does it belong to the artist who represents the female form, or the fashion arbiter who chooses small or large breasts according to the market’s continual demand for a new style? Does it belong to the clothing industry which promotes the “training bra” for pubescent girls, “the support bra” for older women, and the Wonderbra for women wanting more noticeable cleavage? Does it belong to religious and moral judges who insist that breasts be chastely covered? Does it belong to the law, which can order the arrest of “topless” women? Does it belong to the doctor who decides how often breasts should be mamogrammed and when they should be biopsied or removed? Does it belong to the plastic surgeon who restructures it for purely cosmetic reasons? Does it belong to the pornographer who buys the rights to expose some women’s breasts, often in settings demeaning and injurious to all women? Or does it belong to the woman for whom breasts are parts of her own body? (p. 4)
What do you think?
Related posts:
- Monday Musings: Breast Friends
- Monday Musings: Would You Nurse Another Woman’s Baby?
- Monday Musings: Getting Paid To Breastfeed
- Monday Musings: Cloned Breastmilk?
- Monday Musings: Changing Culture
Tags: Monday Musings
