Breast Feeding in a Capitalist Society Oct 22 '99 (Updated Nov 02 '99)    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet My friend Beth is about to have a baby. She recently complained to me about the advice she's being given by her "feminist" co-workers, who are telling her that breast-feeding is "a tool of the man to keep women down." She and I agree that if there is to be an argument made here, it would be bottle-feeding that would be a "tool of the man" putting, as it does, the nutrition of her child in the hands of corporate interests. Not that either of us has anything against bottle-feeding; it's the best choice for some people. It's just that if you're going to make an argument one way or the other, breast-feeding is obviously the self-reliant choice. I was trying to discern the logic that might have prompted such a leap, and the only argument I could think of was that a breast-feeding woman might find it inconvenient to go to work, tied as she would be to the nutrition of her infant. This theory is supported by the fact that these same "feminists" are taking issue with Beth's decision to be a stay-at-home or work-at-home mom. It set me to thinking. Since when is a job the pinnacle of human achievement? The fact that these women regard anything that might keep a woman out of the workplace as an oppressive force illustrates how thoroughly they've been brainwashed by our consumerism-based society. We've long since passed the point of providing for our needs--and if we haven't, we aspire to. We work in order to be able to purchase the never-ending stream of goods available to us. Once the money is spent, we need more of it in order to be able to buy some more things. Advertising, effectively done, transforms an item that we don't even want into something that we feel we need. I've seen myself succumb to this magic--and that's really what it's like--more than once. The difference seems to be that I can see it happening. Let me state at once that I enjoy living in the lap of an empire as much as anyone does...but I know I live there. Enjoy it or not, our system (down to our political process) is clearly based on money. The more money an individual makes, the more surplus she has; the trick of convincing her to spend it on the product I manufacture becomes a bit less tricky; and the money in my pocket enables me to buy some luxury items of my own. In this light, conspicuous consumption becomes an act of patriotism, enabling as it does, our system to produce increasingly wealthy citizens--or at least citizens who are increasingly laden with goods. After buying a piece of clothing I often joke with my friends that I'm being a Good American, and in the light of my country's economic interests, I really am. In this context, a high income really is the pinnacle of success. And one generally achieves a high income by working at a job. I'm not going to address the inequities between Americans and the rest of the world; I'm not even going to address the inequities of Americans and other Americans. But I do notice that Madison Avenue has very successfully dulled the average citizen's ability to differentiate between what they want and what they need. More importantly, we've become acculturated to the point that we can't discern what we really want and what we've been told to want. Self-sufficiency is very important. The freedom to work at any job for which they are qualified should be everyone's right. The opportunity to better oneself is priceless. But there are many ways to do that that involve no cash expenditure at all. I'm concerned that many of us so blindly accept the promise that going to work at a high-paying job will make us happy. I'm concerned that the struggle for women's self-determination can be reduced by corporate interests to a simple equation of working = free. I'm dismayed that any woman can be so brainwashed by the consumer ethic that she can consider the choice to breast-feed her child as a ploy to keep her in her place. Clearly this argument has no credence whatsoever. For various reasons, breast-feeding may not be the best choice for many women. But breast-milk from a healthy woman is clearly the thriftiest, healthiest, most self-sufficient substance to feed a newborn.

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