India Knight "Stop breast-beating, sisters" - comment on charities' complaints re OK! article

[SueW]

In today's Times

Why can't they understand it's about underhand advertising?

[beansprout]

What is the point of the article? To attack women? Well done India.

I am so sick of columnists who really don't have anything to say but just have a go at a group of people and make money out of it.

[fishie]

a wee pattern seems to be emerging wiht the times columnists. it makes me very unhappy that people find it acceptable to attack breastfeeding women in the guise of 'protecting' their own right to choose.

[liath]

Thought it was quite well balanced myself, though disagree with the NCT being "ghastly"!

[beansprout]

It's just another "how dare you suggest there are benefits to breastfeeding when I chose to ff my baby" attack.

It's not the NCT that are being "semi-hysterical" here India, it's you.

[fishie]

BALANCED?! " plenty are so indoctrinated that they try for far too long and end up harming their by now malnourished child" nice one india.

[belgo]

'she breast-feeds (and therefore will still be at it in five years? time, like some loony hippie).'

fail to see what's balanced about that comment.

[belgo]

'toxic, triumphantly judgmental people'

Where are those people? I have yet to meet one.

Gosh, there is so much I find annoying about this article.

[IsabelWatchingItRainInMacondo]

I think she was not attacking breasfeeding but the "sanctimonius" attitude of the NCT (her words not mine)

[fishie]

i bet she was sniggering to herself when she wrote it, 'ooh cutting edge, contentious, this'll get all the smug mummies who look down on me stirred up'

i didn't look down on her before but i bloody do now.

[MyTwopenceworth]

I thought this was interesting

"The point is that all this is fine. Breast-feeding is marvellous if you can and want to do it. Hats off to them: 10 Brownie points and another 10 for the health benefits. Bottle-feeding is fine, too, especially if you believe that a happy, relaxed mother makes for a happy, relaxed child."

The clear message there that you feel you must breast feed because of the heath benefits (use of brownie points is sneering at it, I feel) but to have a happy relaxed mother, you need to bottle feed.

Appauling message.

[belgo]

agree, mytwopenceworth

[FluffyMummy123]

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[JeremyVile]

Think its a great article, she speaks sense.

SueW, you can say that people are missing the point, that its about the advertising, but ....

A - Is it not understandable that a ff mother might feel her choices are being judged when people say that the very thing she is feeding her precious child is so questionable, so second rate that it should not be advertised, along with what? Harmful substances, things so dangerous we need protecting from them.

B - Even those who fully agree with the ban cant ignore (whether they personally do it themselves or not) that many of those leading the good battle against the advertising of formula also have some pretty harsh opinions of the stuff, the two are intertwined.
Just read some of the vitriol on the threads regarding the product placement thing - its harsh stuff, with some very thinly veiled disdain for Jordans choice. But as always alot of it is dressed up as concern or 'its not about her ff, its about x,y and z'.

As India Knight said
"And yet, as is so often the case, what an individual woman chooses to do with her own breasts has become yet another stick for us to beat each other with: ooh, she bottle-feeds (and therefore sticks pins in kittens? eyes in her spare time).

Ooh, she breast-feeds (and therefore will still be at it in five years? time, like some loony hippie)".

Ridiculous eh?

[fishie]

what fucks me off about this and similar articles is the inherent supposition that there is major support for breastfeeding and that anyone who feeds formula is a freak whereas in the real world the exact opposite is true.

[FluffyMummy123]

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[JeremyVile]

I dont know anyone who has found that to be the case Fishie.
We all have different experiences - sadly, by some fluke it seems we all end up with the wrong health professionals for our choices!

[WideWebWitch]

I know this is mn heresy but I can't get worked up about breast vs bottle and I don't really care what Jordan chooses to do. She is entitled to feel the way she does.

(Btw I don't feel remotely guilty about bottlefeeding mine either. I almost felt guilty for NOT feeling guilty to the extent that when someone asked me 'do you regret it?' I said yes but afterwards thought no I don't, not really, why did I say that?)

[FluffyMummy123]

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[beansprout]

It's not formula feeders who have people who come up and criticise them in public though is it? In our society, ff is the norm. To say that Jordan is being criticised for her decision to ff is just nonsense.

[SleeplessInTheStaceym11House]

Jremy vile, thats interestig (the comment from india) i didnt read the article yet but took the way belgo showed that comment (still being at bf in 5 years time) a serious comment and was but nowyou have posted the bit before it makes moe sense and does not seem to vindicate bf women but say that it is just anothe arguement we really dont need and rarely has justification behind!

[WideWebWitch]

I think Jordan has been roundly criticised for ff here hasn't she? I haven't read the thread about it but bet a random search would find posts slagging her off for ffing.

[JeremyVile]

WWW - it seems to me that the people who get truly worked up about ff are a small section of bfers.
Everyone else just gets on with it.

[IsabelWatchingItRainInMacondo]

Well fishie, without intention to offend, saying "i didn't look down on her before but i bloody do now." tends to prove India's point about some people looking down in other women's decisions on how to feed their own babies.

[FluffyMummy123]

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[FluffyMummy123]

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