Men could breastfeed - let's encourage it!

What a great idea!

I would never again run out of cream for my coffee!

reply to post by kbriggss

Thanks for that beautiful and sane post.
The politics of gender and the overblown nature of eroticism seems to have overtaken Western thinking on this.
I just read Isaiah 66: 10-13.
Even the acceptable age of breastfeeding is constantly changing, and increasingly Western women are risking a taboo by going up to 8-years, which is not abnormal in some cultures or species.

There is even footage and pics on the web of proud, breastfeeding dads, and this same "shocked" culture sexualized female breasts, but I could link a male pic, but not female pic of breatfeeding on ATS, so they must ask themselves why.
A male breast is not considered "nudity". Nobody can deny that.

www.realmanmag.com...




[edit on 30-5-2010 by halfoldman]

It's a very rare phenomenon and I think we shouldn't encourage it. But we definitely shouldn't mock men with this condition!

reply to post by Submarines

Ahh - but here runs another resistance to the plausible concept.
Wouldn't you have to curb coffee, smoking, booze, all the unhealthy things that cause men less responsibility, but also a significantly shorter life-span?
Is the resistance to the idea a kind of "Madonna complex" about women. That is: men are too rough, or somehow too "impure" to breastfeed?
Isn't that just defending male privilege?

It is very common for Midwives in the UK to suggest that men put their babies on their nipple to calm them down and aid bonding.

All this gender role bigotry is insanity.

reply to post by Dookzor

Perhaps it's history for the "new man" kinda guy, but for most I think it is a very difficult concept - not only for men, but also women.
But what is "natural" or set about breastfeeding?
The following concerning age makes me wonder as well:
www.foxnews.com...

Originally posted by halfoldman
reply to post by Dookzor

 

Perhaps it's history for the "new man" kinda guy, but for most I think it is a very difficult concept - not only for men, but also women.
But what is "natural" or set about breastfeeding?
The following concerning age makes me wonder as well:
www.foxnews.com...

What is it about the whole thing that concerns you exactly?

I'm curious if anyone else who has extolled their disgust at this could give some reasons as to why, other than just "Yuck" etc.

I can understand how it might seem a little odd but some of the emotional responses in this thread have me pondering a little.

reply to post by Dookzor


The "Yuck" people just don't like the idea of men with proper breasts...me, I'm not fussy, I'll stare at boobies no-matter who they belong too!

Rev

[edit on 30/5/2010 by revmoofoo]

reply to post by Dookzor

I certainly agree with you.
On one hand I've heard about this for a while, on the other for most of society it is breaking a taboo. So I can understand the scientific or "neutral" position (where as you say, it's no big deal) and the massive sociological problem many people would still have with it.
What I find is that people are massively conditioned in their opinions.
And that conditioning points to gender dichotomies that are accepted willy-nilly in the wider conditioning of society.
So, some wider issues connected to this might be;
- Men don't bear babies or breastfeed, therefore they can live less responsible parental lives, and even harshly judge women (mothers) who do not.
- Since men don't make "nurturers", it is OK to use them as cannon-fodder and soldiers.
- Men are more likely to be considered pedophiles, and seeing infants on their breasts is therefore sexualized and abhorrent. This is connected to breasts themselves being sexualized - a Western kind of gender projection.
- Men should remain economically and sexually active, or unburdened by weaning - the connection to the child is indirect at first, and feeding happens through support for the mother due to sustained attraction (ideally).
That's just some of the cultural notions we live with, but once again, they may become weaker as people become more critical and educated.


[edit on 30-5-2010 by halfoldman]

reply to post by halfoldman

On the other hand, if male breastfeeding became widespread as a lifestyle, I could well forsee a reactionary backlash.
Current religious groups are big on "traditional families" and gender roles, and they would see this as another attack on the nuclear family (what's the point if every parent can be a one person show?) and the feminization of the Western male.

Man has been conditioned from Day 1 about the shape of a woman. Breasts and hips and proportions are animal or primal attractions. Not just some willy-nilly culture indoctrination.

Breasts didn't get sexualized by Westerners. Civilizations far more ancient than any Western one have texts on the art of sex, on the beauty of women. The covering of women's "parts" happened well before the rise of the British Empire or the founding of any western nation.

Prior to the 20th century, it was "Men work and war, women bear and raise children". Man didn't decide that women will be the ones to give birth and breast-feed. It was never a choice. Feasibly it could become a choice brought on artificially or freak-of-naturishily. It's just not nature's or God's intention.

Men are nuturers of their children. They just don't breast-feed. They clothe them, bathe them, feed them, teach them, protect them, love them.
That is nuturing in my book. Many men raise their children without the mother.

reply to post by primus2012

So women's bodies are just essentially attractive, to all men from all cultures, at the same time? Really? What percentage of Western men today would find the stone age "venus" statues attractive? I wonder. Our African men don't like Western skinny women at all, but with the pressure of Western media this is changing, and anorexia is claiming its first African victims. Largely - many Africans still find the thin look revolting.
So I cannot agree that women's attractiveness is only biologically determined without culture.

If we must make our choices today by what was possible a century ago, then we must also ban birth control pills.

In pre-colonial cultures there were local customs, but there was certainly no standard covering of "private parts" at all. Where was this custom? Australia, South America, the Sudan, Uganda, the Caribbean when Columbus got there, uncontacted tribes in the Amazon, or Pocahontas who was known for doing naked cartwheels before the Puritans? A clash of cultures indeed.

Of course I'm not saying that men cannot nurture, I'm referring to some cultural concepts that strain against the very idea of male breastfeeding. But to simply say that men cannot because they weren't born to is not correct - some men have naturally done so. Many women can not. So biologically the argument against it is still quite weak.


[edit on 30-5-2010 by halfoldman]

[edit on 30-5-2010 by halfoldman]

There's no way i'm giving up the bonding time of breastfeeding my child so my partner can take over. No way. One job i am not sharing!

reply to post by bkaust

Nice to hear a female position against it. Does it threaten something about "motherhood", and the uniqueness of that position?
It could even have legal ramifications in divorce settings and so forth, so I guess it does.

Originally posted by halfoldman
I used to wonder as a child, why do men have nipples

Nipples
by Alex Cabrera

I awoke this morning and noted that I had nipples.
Nipples.
Strange, I thought to myself, why would a man have nipples?
What use are they?
Then it occurred to me -- nipples are for smashing.
So I took off my shirt, stretched around a bit, then ran straight
into my door, nipples first.
My nipples hit the frame and shook it to its very core.
That door fears my nipples.
For my nipples are for smashing

Originally posted by halfoldman
reply to post by bkaust

 

Nice to hear a female position against it. Does it threaten something about "motherhood", and the uniqueness of that position?
It could even have legal ramifications in divorce settings and so forth, so I guess it does.

I can't speak on behalf of others, but it's something i look forward too very much, and to see my partner do it, would make me jealous in a way. I carried our baby, I want to be the one to nourish it in those first important months - you know what i mean?

I can also see the legal problems you mention, in case of divorce, who would get custody if it was the woman who carried it for 9 months and birthed it, but the male who breastfed it from birth? could get very dicey!

reply to post by bkaust

Yeah, in a conceptual sense for many that would equate a heterosexual relationship with a lesbian marriage?

Originally posted by Sinter Klaas
reply to post by Mikey Sly

 

A friend of mine had two nicely formed breast. Skinny as a rack.

He had them surgically removed and they just grew back again. After a lot of research they found out he produced a female hormone that caused him growing breast.

What if it is faith and he finds a wife unable to give milk...? What if it is supposed to be...?

I was making a joke, perhaps in bad taste.

And as for your friend, I'm almost a little jealous

And as for whether it is supposed to, then I would say if we were then you are talking about an evolutionary advancement. However it would still require overcoming huge social taboos that may be strong enough to leave this advancement extinct. Male seahorses are the ones who rear their young, so it's not unheard of in nature. But it's not likely humans are going to go from women nursing to men nursing.

[edit on 30-5-2010 by Mikey Sly]

reply to post by Mikey Sly


Well I think I would be jealous to.

However, I've seen his and they were covered with hair.
I can assure you... Not a pretty picture.

[edit on 5/30/2010 by Sinter Klaas]

*cough..Family Guy..cough*

How screwed up would ANY kid be if they grew up knowing that they fed on man teat ?

For the love of all that is good,ITS IN REVELATIONS PEOPLE !




[edit on 31-5-2010 by Cygnus_Hunter]