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Empowerment: Women Now Choose Objectification Over ‘Creepy’ Breastfeeding

You’ve come a long way, baby. But make sure you keep babies off my “fun bags.” Or so says Kathryn Blundell, editor at the parenting magazine, Mother &  Baby.

Under the headline “I formula fed. So what?”, Kathryn Blundell says in this month’s Mother & Baby that she bottlefed her child from birth because “I wanted my body back. (And some wine)… I also wanted to give my boobs at least a chance to stay on my chest rather than dangling around my stomach.”

She goes on to say: “They’re part of my sexuality, too – not just breasts, but fun bags. And when you have that attitude (and I admit I made no attempt to change it), seeing your teeny, tiny, innocent baby latching on where only a lover has been before feels, well, a little creepy.”

She concedes that “there are all the studies that show [breastfeeding] reduces the risk of breast cancer for you, and stomach upsets and allergies for your baby. But even the convenience and supposed health benefits of breast milk couldn’t induce me to stick my nipple in a bawling baby’s mouth.”

Thanks bunches, ’sexual empowerment’! You’ve now made nurturing a child “creepy”. Many websites, like Lactivist, are upset over the negative, and misleading, message that the above article sends about breastfeeding and the benefits thereof. That is an issue; breastfeeding is frowned upon far too often and many women succumb to the pressures of family or work, and wean their babies earlier than they actually want to.

I breast fed my daughter for nearly two years. She weaned herself but, admittedly, I would have likely cut her off at age two regardless. Because, unfortunately, if one breast feeds older babies, they are often looked upon as if they should be wearing Birkenstocks, making tie dyes, and following around Lilith Fair in a volkswagen van.

But, there is another issue here that I find equally disturbing. What bothers me immensely is the fact that women now see their breasts as “fun bags” and as something meant for “lovers” only and not as a part of nurturing and motherhood. This concept epitomizes the very worst in female and motherhood degradation and it shows just how much damage the “sexual empowerment” fallacy, pushed by the Leftist Femisogynists, has caused. The thought that women should exist solely as sex objects is now rampant — even amongst women themselves.

The theory behind this whole article, in a woman’s parenting magazine, is that motherhood and nurturing a child is, as they always claim, a punishment. Something that results in the cramping of one’s “empowered” style. Sex is super fun! Motherhood? Not so much. Also, creepy. And anyone who says otherwise is a nutty wing nut liar!

They have ended up diminishing women and womanhood itself with these constant attempts to demonize motherhood and to try to turn it into a punishment and a detriment to one’s happiness. Instead of realizing that being a life bearing nurturer is one of the very best things about being a woman and is an attribute in and of itself, they constantly try to take that away, all in the name of some delusional perceived equality via sexual empowerment.

They’ve dehumanized women, as Kathryn Blundell’s article shows, by encouraging women to focus on sexual “equality”.  That has now removed any requirement that women be treated as something other than a sexual toy – even by themselves. And now, this has culminated in the idea that being a sex object is more important than nurturing a child.

But oh-how-wrong they are. Guess what? Those concepts aren’t mutually exclusive. A woman can be a mother and a sexy and sexual being. A woman can nurture and breast feed her child, bonding  in a way that brings so much joy that it honestly cannot be fully described, and still be sexually enticing. Considering yourself, and your body, as only a vehicle for sexual amusements is not empowering; it’s oppressive. Resenting the natural functions of your female body is not empowering; it’s enslaving.

Breast feeding isn’t creepy. What is truly creepy is when women dehumanize themselves and demean motherhood to the point where they see their breasts as nothing but “fun bags.” Not creepy, and actually empowering, is embracing all aspects of your feminity, including being a life bearing nurturer. That is sexy. Moms can multi-task, you know. We can be barefoot, in the kitchen and still practice getting pregnant.

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Cross-posted from NewsReal:

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COMMENTS

  • RedBeard

    I suppose, in the alternate universe in which leftists live, that makes some sort of sense to them. As for me, I think I’ll reserve my respect for people who don’t think that nature’s own perfect method of giving a child sustenence is creepy.

    This really is disturbing. That sound we hear is society swirling in the bowl.

    • Christine (Trelaina)

      I would definitely put her at the bottom of my “respected moms” list. I’m a serious breastfeeding advocate, but believe it should be an educated choice. “It’s not right for me” is fine…I wish I could convince them differently, I feel bad for the babies who miss out, but fine.

      Women who choose for SELFISH reasons (and these are as selfish as they come) are frankly embarassing. I feel bad for those children.

    • lizabtha

      “”This really is disturbing. That sound we hear is society swirling in the bowl.”"

      Could not agree more!

  • lineholder

    I have had three children, breast-fed each one of them and I wouldn’t trade that experience for all the objectification praise in this world!!!

    It is really sad, though. People used to look at the idea that a woman lives in small confined world of being barefoot and pregnant as so incredibly negative that all the feminists in our country rose up to “free” females from this “bondage. Now, they are enslaved to a totally different sort of bondage…one of being objects to serve a purpose where sex is concerned.

    That kind of mindset doesn’t exactly encourage a female to develop any self-respect or self-esteem. It’s demeaning, demoralizing, dehumanizing and degrading. And a lot of young females are being deceived by it hook, line and sinker. There is no simple preservation of dignity in it at all.

    This author sounds like someone who is actually very selfish as well. Her comments convey this idea of “who cares whether or not it is better for both me and my baby to breast-feed the child? Who cares about the bonding that takes place during those events? I don’t have the time for such nonsense…I want to get over-heated and turned on and have my “fun bags” played with”. What a ninnyhammer!!!!

  • gtchick

    I joke with my friends that “I am a breeder, not a feeder” I have 4 boys and formula fed everyone of them. Not because I was worried about my fun bags or because I thought it was creepy; it just wasn’t right for me. I think it is great for those who choose it. I was pressured beyond belief to breastfeed, and pretty much made to feel like an inferior mother because of my choice. Did I not care about allergies, or health problems? My boys have neither, all big, strong, healthy young men. Choosing bottle or breast without criticism from either side would be great. But articles like that sure don’t help. I doubt that many moms have the same attitude as the author…I sure hoe not anyway.

    • lineholder

      Breast-feeding is a personal choice that the mother has to make on her own. It isn’t for everyone and I agree with you on that point.

      It just really gets under my skin that young females are constantly encouraged to think of themselves in this really narrow, limited image of an object where sex is concerned these days. There are young ladies that I work with who don’t think of themselves beyond this scope. They are capable of so much!!! I look at them some times, see the inner strengths and talents that they possess. It is dazzling…like looking directly into the sun on a summer’s day.

      But they don’t see this in themselves. They see themselves through a reflection of what’s expected of them by the society in which we live. They become entrenched in this mindset that all they have to offer is associated with the gratification of sexual needs and desires. This kind of mindset becomes so much a part of who they are that they become bound to it. It starts to dictate and control their lives in a truly self-demeaning and self-depreciative way.

      The point is that it is LIE. They are capable of so many things…more than they give themselves credit for. Once upon a time, I bought into a similar lie. I know how a person can end up being misled or deceived by such things. I’ve gone down that path mentally and emotionally. I know the damage it can do. So every chance I get, I call the lie a lie. I tell young ladies that I come into contact with just how much potential they do have. I try to let them see what I see, hoping that they will look at themselves and their lives in a different context.

      When I read or hear about comments such as those the author of this magazine article is quoted as writing, I really resent it that someone could present themselves as being supposedly “knowledgeable” yet utter such inane comments that perpetuates such low standards for the young females of our country.

  • Michael Dugas

    such a natural and healthy practice like breastfeeding in such a negative manner, as if it’s some punishment she refuses to endure.
    She denigrates all women when she speaks so callously of her own body and sexuality.
    And it goes without saying that to deny your child the benefits of breast feeding just so she can drink wine and have perky breasts is idiotic.
    I suppose she believes she will also be able to overcome age and gravity also. Moron

  • streetwise

    Nag?

  • streetwise

    Nag?

    • 4life

      Who cares what the old hag says?

  • Christine (Trelaina)

    She’s carrying on myths to young mothers who might make better educated decisions otherwise.

    You are NOT restricted from alcohol while breastfeeding. You’re obviously not able to get drunk…but if you’re doing to do that you shouldn’t be caring for a baby anyway no matter what they are being fed (meaning, you should have someone care for the baby while you get drunk).

    CHILDBIRTH increases the risk of sagging breasts, not breastfeeding…and frankly, I hope hers DO sink to the floor.

    • lizabtha

      Yes indeed. And they will sag, as she ages, esp if she lets those ‘fun-bags’ hang loose upon her chest without support. A good bra, my friends, in season and out. As a mature woman, I have a fabulous bust, in spite of breast-feeding four youngin’s. It’s all in the support, Ms Blundell, whenever your lover isn’t ‘latching on’, that is, my dear. ;)

      And (much more importantly)I hope she has a decent, kindly care-giver for her children. She obviously isn’t up to the task of nurture, with her foul attitudes.

  • renny

    30 years ago feminism was against makeup, bras, and child bearing at all.
    Anyone who married or wanted children was a traitor to the “cause.”
    So, this is just another angle on how to control people.
    When so-called feminists found they couldn’t stop women from wanting relationships and even love and marriage, they capitlated, but only from their own superior agenda.
    They now giggle over “bad mother” websites and brag of “open” marriages and encourage women having children without lovers, let alone husbands.
    Whatever method, it all is to command and control, break down families and love among members, and create the sterile Brave New World image where “motherhood” is an obscene word and anything as natural as breastfeeding is culturally anti-social, while promiscuity and orgies with the drug soma are promoted by advertising and law.

  • cari

    if women are getting parental advice from a magazine, they’re lost causes in the first place. Home renovating magazines are the only ones I can stomach anymore. Most of the rest are brain-rotting trash.

    I wouldn’t trade by breast feeding days and their precious memories for anything. It was one of the few times when the world seemed to completely stand still as I pondered the tiny miracle before me.

    And as a side note, it was a HUGE turn-on for my husband. Not only did the sight of me nurturing our children endear me to him all the more…fun bags filled with milk are bigger. : )

    • 4life

      My thoughts exactly. ‘Fun bags?’ In 45 years I’ve never heard that one!

  • Darin_H
    • lineholder

      I put on a ghastly 65 pounds with my first child and lost all of it, every single ounce, within three weeks after he was born. He was bit of a glutton on being fed, the precious little bottomless-pit!

  • grandma

    childhood (ha!) by the “boob” in Woody Allen’s “Everything you…sex.”
    (Just trying to give the “woman” a way to save face.)

    TY for bringing the article to attention. Great article, passionately written.

    • grandma

      That’s your article Lori, not the funbags “woman’s article.”

  • throwback59

    male chauvinist here who sees this women’s point?
    -Apparently I am.

    I was bottle-fed and I turned out just fine. More or less.

    • Michael Dugas

      nt

      • throwback59

        Witty response, I like that.

    • Michael Dugas

      It’s her disparaging of the whole issue as if breastfeeding is the wrong choice for women and she uses myths to try an support her train of thoughtlessness.

    • Achance
  • sirithil

    …that even if she somehow thought it was creepy to have her baby latched onto her breast, that wouldn’t stop her from breastfeeding if she actually wanted what was best for her child. Relatively inexpensive pumps are available for filling bottles with breast milk.

    ….though what might be sadder is that, having clicked into this thread via the comment panel rather than the headline, my first thought was that breastfeeding had somehow come up at Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearing.

  • Flagstaff

    Kathryn Blundell, that is. Does she do porno flicks? That way we could enjoy her fun bags, too.

  • abeldred

    made it out of the womb. Sounds like she would have preferred to skip the whole motherhood thing. I breastfed both my kids and treasured the experience. While not all moms choose this, it is an experience unlike any other and produces a bond between mom and child that is inexplicable.

    I’m curious…if her breasts are the “fun bags”, what colorful term does she use for the rest of her reproductive anatomy. Maybe she’ll share in her next enlightening article.

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