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AIBU?

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Original poster

AIBU to want to throw up every time I come across the word "chestfeeding"?

88 replies

surrealpotato · 22/01/2026 16:38

Whenever I look for breastfeeding advice online, inevitably half the websites in the results, especially the top few, will use the term "chest feeding", sometimes avoiding he phrase "breastfeeding mother", or even the word "mother" completely. I find this language so dehumanising and gaslighting, but it seems that even some of the more otherwise respectable organisations, like La Leche League, are now adopting this language. I know I'm not being unreasonable. But AIBU?

OP posts:
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BillieWiper · 22/01/2026 20:10

surrealpotato · 22/01/2026 18:18

In reference to your second point about trans women not feeding babies.... I strongly advise you not to go down that rabbit hole... (See a PP on this thread)

Yes as to your first point, it's a pointless manipulation of language that doesn't even achieve what they want it to achieve anyway.

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Gawd yeah I thought that about men breastfeeding after I typed it. Someone will come along saying it's possible etc. I'll shut up on that one! X

Mozzereena · 22/01/2026 19:25

YANBU. Referring to breastfeeding as ‘chest feeding’ is as bad as calling it ‘Bitty’ YUK!

SecretSquirrelLoo · 22/01/2026 19:15

Why erase this particular word? If women who identify as men (‘trans men’) have babies and breastfeed, why does the word breast have to go? Why not pregnancy, vagina, foetus, umbilical cord, uterus, cervix? All those are utterly female. What is particularly unspeakable about breasts?

singthing · 22/01/2026 19:08

peacefulpeach · 22/01/2026 17:08

Some lovely men pretending to be women have started taking some sort of medication to help them ‘produce milk’ which then poor babies are ‘drinking’. Horrific.

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At least one man taking these drugs has also posted on public social media about how he got turned on by it as well. I am not going to search for him or the others who will surely have agreed.

It is sickening.

Glendaruel · 22/01/2026 18:46

I dont like the term, it makes it sound like men dont have breasts. Men can get breast cancer and pretending they dont have breasts does nothing to highlight this.

InSlovakiaTheCapitalOfCourseIsBratislava · 22/01/2026 18:36

I always think FFS it’s breast tissue that does the work of making the milk. BReast!!!! If you’re able to make milk it’s because there is BREAST tissue doing the work . Ergo, breast feeding .
chest feeding to my mind sounds something out of a horror film. SLurping zombie and body cavity vibes

Original poster
surrealpotato · 22/01/2026 18:18

BillieWiper · 22/01/2026 17:59

Yes of course. I meant that even if a trans man refuses to admit they have breasts, they still do even if the tissue has been cut off.
I'm presuming none of it could be aimed at trans women as they can never feed their kid?

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In reference to your second point about trans women not feeding babies.... I strongly advise you not to go down that rabbit hole... (See a PP on this thread)

Yes as to your first point, it's a pointless manipulation of language that doesn't even achieve what they want it to achieve anyway.

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Original poster
surrealpotato · 22/01/2026 18:02

Helleofabore · 22/01/2026 17:59

YANBU OP.

What is also now coming out in testimony from female detransitioners is that there is a significant problem when they have trapped milk when their bodies produce milk to feed their babies but there is no way that milk can be delivered due to their surgeries.

That is just another horrific aspect of what has been done to female people in the name of gender identities after very difficult pregnancies, not only for them themselves but with worry for their child. Then this milk production issue happens.

Horrendous.

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Helleofabore · 22/01/2026 18:01

People don't feed from their 'chest'. They feed their infants from breasts which is a specific part of the body with a specific purpose.

Helleofabore · 22/01/2026 17:59

YANBU OP.

What is also now coming out in testimony from female detransitioners is that there is a significant problem when they have trapped milk when their bodies produce milk to feed their babies but there is no way that milk can be delivered due to their surgeries.

That is just another horrific aspect of what has been done to female people in the name of gender identities after very difficult pregnancies, not only for them themselves but with worry for their child. Then this milk production issue happens.

BillieWiper · 22/01/2026 17:59

surrealpotato · 22/01/2026 16:52

This is true, but it's also true that only women/mothers can breastfeed.

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Yes of course. I meant that even if a trans man refuses to admit they have breasts, they still do even if the tissue has been cut off.
I'm presuming none of it could be aimed at trans women as they can never feed their kid?

Original poster
surrealpotato · 22/01/2026 17:55

YourBreezyBiscuit · 22/01/2026 17:45

You can disagree all you want but there is literally a definition for dehumanising language and using gender neutral terms for women is not it. You are being degendered at best.

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I disagree with your premise. I believe a person's gender (sex) is intrinsic to their experience of humanity. All humans are either male or female, with very few rare biological exceptions (intersex), where the lines may be less clear... But that's not relevant here.

The erasure of words like 'woman' and 'mother' is dehumanising to the half of humanity that is female.

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YourBreezyBiscuit · 22/01/2026 17:45

surrealpotato · 22/01/2026 17:40

I disagree.

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You can disagree all you want but there is literally a definition for dehumanising language and using gender neutral terms for women is not it. You are being degendered at best.

Oopsylazy · 22/01/2026 17:41

peacefulpeach · 22/01/2026 17:11

Yet more experimenting on babies / children.

Fucking disgusting. Really wish I hadn’t seen that…

It’s sick.

Original poster
surrealpotato · 22/01/2026 17:40

jbm16 · 22/01/2026 17:37

i think you need to look up the meaning of the words... it's completely ridiculous language and just stupid, but as per the other thread on MN these phrases are over used and out of context, hardly manipulating you...

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I disagree.

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FranticFrankie · 22/01/2026 17:38

Edit- That should be identifying! I did preview it 🙄

jbm16 · 22/01/2026 17:37

surrealpotato · 22/01/2026 17:31

It's gaslighting to insist that men can breastfeed, and dehumanising to erase the word "mother". This is by the logic that mothers are female, and females are human.

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i think you need to look up the meaning of the words... it's completely ridiculous language and just stupid, but as per the other thread on MN these phrases are over used and out of context, hardly manipulating you...

FranticFrankie · 22/01/2026 17:37

Trans identirying men do not produce the unique, living fluid that is breast milk- just a drugs stimulated discharge. As well as such a person getting a baby to suckle on them. All kinds of wrong

Original poster
surrealpotato · 22/01/2026 17:33

peacefulpeach · 22/01/2026 17:11

Yet more experimenting on babies / children.

Absolutely perverse. Yet it will be celebrated. Affirmation of delusion (at best) and/or fetish (at worst), at the expense of children.

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Original poster
surrealpotato · 22/01/2026 17:31

jbm16 · 22/01/2026 16:55

I'm not sure it's dehumanising and gaslighting, but pretty pointless language, both women and men have breasts, and unless you can produce milk are hardly going to breastfeed.

It's gaslighting to insist that men can breastfeed, and dehumanising to erase the word "mother". This is by the logic that mothers are female, and females are human.

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jbm16 · 22/01/2026 17:22

peacefulpeach · 22/01/2026 17:08

Some lovely men pretending to be women have started taking some sort of medication to help them ‘produce milk’ which then poor babies are ‘drinking’. Horrific.

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Wow, didn't realise this was possible! Surely if you have a breast, you are breastfeeding..

peacefulpeach · 22/01/2026 17:11

Yet more experimenting on babies / children.

AIBU to want to throw up every time I come across the word "chestfeeding"?
peacefulpeach · 22/01/2026 17:08

jbm16 · 22/01/2026 16:55

I'm not sure it's dehumanising and gaslighting, but pretty pointless language, both women and men have breasts, and unless you can produce milk are hardly going to breastfeed.

Some lovely men pretending to be women have started taking some sort of medication to help them ‘produce milk’ which then poor babies are ‘drinking’. Horrific.

susiedaisy1912 · 22/01/2026 17:06

Only women have the capacity to breast feed a baby breast milk. Ridiculous to think otherwise. I will be glad when this pathetic ‘chest feeding trend’ is done with.

ditalini · 22/01/2026 17:03

upstairsdownstairscardboardbox · 22/01/2026 16:57

And yet when a man gets breast cancer, it is just that. No chest cancer for men, so why chest feeding for trans men. Utter nonsense.

Exactly. Chest cancer would be a completely different thing e.g a chest wall tumour, or another name for a cancer in the thoracic space - lung cancer or mesothelioma.