That's All They're For?

This post should perhaps be rated PG. Just thought you might like to know ahead of time. :-)

Yesterday, I received So that's what they're for! by Janet Tamaro in the mail, thanks to paperbackswap! It's supposed to be a humorous and helpful book on breastfeeding, and I've heard it highly recommended. As cute as the title is, however, John and I both bristled a little at it. Breastfeeding may be the long-underrated best way to give a baby complete nutrition and then some, but surely that's not the exclusive, or perhaps even the primary, purpose of breasts, right?

Last night after reading the prefacing remarks and getting almost through chapter 1, some of our early suspicions were confimed. Tamaro discusses how breastfeeding fell out of fashion in the middle of the last century when formula companies convinced America that their product was superior to God's product (hee hee). But she goes on to say that "they [breasts] were no longer needed to feed babies, so they went out and got jobs in commercials and Playboy. Now, we're so used to seeing breasts tap-dancing and lounging around, we have a hard time remembering what they were for in the first place! But the way we feel about breasts is simply our perception of their function" (p. 6).

Really? Were breasts really over-sexualized simply as a result of women no longer breastfeeding? Tamaro tries to support this assertion by recounting an incident where Muslim women covered up their heads but not their breasts in the presence of men. What she's assuming is that all cultures are equal, and I will venture to say, controversially perhaps, that this is simply not true.

As a side note, my mom traveled to Asia as a single young woman and learned a lot about breastfeeding there just by being around women who were doing it. She married my dad in the early 80's before all the research on the excellence of breastfeeding had taken place, but because of her visual experience in Asia (and because they had no other real financial choice!), she successfully gave my siblings and me that wonderful gift of mother's milk. I'm thankful for the role that the Asian women played in her life!

Still, I was reading a discussion board lately where one girl pointed out what the Bible has to say about breasts. Yes, there are beautiful references to mothers nursing their little ones, but there are also passages like Proverbs 5 and the entire Song of Solomon.

"Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice in the wife of your youth. As a loving hind and a graceful doe, Let her breasts satisfy you at all times; Be exhilarated always with her love." (Proverbs 5:18-19)

There's no way that breasts were merely over-sexualized in recent times by a culture which forgot what they were for. Breasts are inherently sexual. The Bible says so! And that's why I believe, as the same girl pointed out, that we ought to be concerned about modesty during breastfeeding. (I look forward to breastfeeding in public with the beautiful cover which my friend Debbie made me!) To be abundantly clear, I don't believe that women should concern themselves with modesty in breastfeeding simply because that's the way our culture has become, and we ought to be sensitive to others. I believe that all cultures at all times should practice this kind of modesty because of what the Bible clearly teaches.

Guys I've talked to would agree. One claimed that he had figured out that breasts were awesome on his own by about fourth grade. :-) I don't have too much more to say about cultures not being inherently equal, but let me just ask one question: would Tamaro wish for American women to be treated by men as strictly as Muslim women are treated by men in their countries? We have the freedom to vote, travel freely, speak our opinions in mixed company, and to show our faces, to name only a few. Undoubtedly Tamaro was not arguing that Americans should adopt Muslim culture, save in respect to its openness toward breastfeeding. But do we really want to be taking our cultural cues from a society where women are not allowed to show their faces? No, I believe that years of sin and false religion darken more than hearts; they can darken entire cultures.

Still, I am looking forward to finishing So that's what they're for! and expecting it to be truly helpful in practical ways. I'm thankful that the research on breastfeeding has been done, that our culture is growing more supportive of it, and I'm excited about learning how to bless our little girl with perfect nourishment just as my mother blessed me!