I put my breast milk up for sale - and found the majority of interested buyers were men

I agree. I actually think it’s quite shocking that people can sell it in the first place . Anyone who decides to sell it can’t exactly have high morals themselves . There is a reason it’s a rigorous process.

Never under-estimate how much men are driven by their sexual motivation.

Or “I just wanted to share photos of normal vulval anatomy with other women, to counteract harmful porn stereotypes, and yet within moments of uploading photos of my minge I was getting sexualised comments from men! I was shocked, shocked by this unexpected turn of events”.

Ok, I’ll agree to disagree and I don’t think I’m missing the point. There was a documentary about it and the women selling milk knew exactly what they were doing and who they were selling it to. Those who donate to mothers don’t do it through these forums, and don’t get paid for it. They are no more exploiting people than buying or selling through Vinted.

I agree, it is not particularly shocking.

Maybe assuming correctly?

Blood born viruses.

The risk of them in breast milk is actually really low, bit not a risk many people would like to take.

Once you're in the milk sharing community, you realise wet nursing isn't as uncommon as we think! I think that people don't talk about it because people judge it was disgusting. I don't think it's the sexual element.

Maybe that’s behind the prudishness over breastfeeding? Some people assuming others are letching over the mums 😣

Are husbands secretly the same?

Are some men feeling this way when they see a woman feeding her baby in public?

I must be an outlier here. I don’t class men being attracted to women’s breasts, feet etc. as a particularly weird fetish in itself… which is exactly why this article is so bizarre. I think buying women’s used underwear, socks or breast milk online is another thing entirely, but we already know this happens. We’ve known for years. The internet isn’t new. Not remotely new or interesting. How can you list your own unregulated milk for sale and then pull a shocked pikachu face when these are the buyers you get.

Not surprised

I agree with the previous posters that this comes as no surprise but it got me thinking that given that in terms of biological construction men's brains are not fundamentally different to women's brains why is the vast vast majority of people with weird fetishes men?

Is it conditioning ( porn?), is it upbringing, is it biological? I just don't get it!

What are BBVs? I assumed wet nurses don’t exist because we’re squeamish and struggle to detach the sexualised element.

Goes back a long way. Remember the miraculous lactation of St Bernard of Clairvaux.
https://www.christianiconography.info/Wikimedia%20Commons/bernardLactCano.html

How surprising. Selling unreleased breast milk online attracts men and not mothers seeking nourishment for their new baby.

Also, I’m sure this article has been done several times already, crap journalism imo

Men are the lowest. What a shock. 🤮

Most direct donation services leave the screening to the discretion of the donee. Only the milk banks (attached to hospital) insist on screening and provide the equipment to do it.

I donated over 200 litres of milk through various different avenues. As well as selling a bit I couldn't donate.

Women don't need to buy breast milk, if they want breast milk for their babies then there are plenty of donation services available.

The only people who need to buy breast milk are men. For whatever reason (it was popular with body builders a few years ago).

I sold a fair bit of mine. Quite frankly didn't give two hours why they wanted it. Did get some odd requests though. I wasn't at all surprised and I think anyone who would be is an idiot.

Agreed... I don't know why anyone is surprised by this.

Donated breast milk is a godsend for many. But it's screened, done through official programs, and you don't get paid for donating it. It's a pain and there's no reward.

You want to make a quick buck in the unregulated wild west that is the internet marketplace, I don't judge but also I don't really know what you were expecting. Don't kid yourself that you're doing a kind thing helping women and children.

Why would women genuinely in need go onto the equivalent of Facebook marketplace for unscreened breast milk when they can organise safely donated milk through the official medical channels for free?

Maybe I'll try to sell my old hosiery on Vinted and complain that I'm not being contacted by desperate women who don't have two pairs of socks to rub together. Wonder if I could get an article out of that...

I have to admit I don’t think this is a ahocker. I think altruistic donation of breast milk (for babies) will be done through community groups and screened. Selling it online is also going to attract fetish driven men, plus the odd bodybuilder and possibly for health purposes. I read an article once about cancer patients consuming breast milk as it’s easy to digest and contains lots of good stuff when other food can’t be tolerated.

I’m surprised that she’s surprised

This article is so bad. She airily questions why wet nurses don't exist anymore when the reason is well known, the increased awareness of the risks of BBVs. Donated milk is screened whereas milk that is sold isn't. I'm actually surprised that selling milk isn't banned in the UK in the same way selling blood is banned.

I was just thinking “wow, this OP knows how to write a killer strap line” ha ha ha ha

There is a FB group called Human Milk for Human Babies where its quite clear that many many women will request donated milk acquired from someone on social media so im not so sure about your second sentence. I am not against donor milk at all - DD1 had it in NICU but through the hospital milk bank but im amazed at how many posts there are on this group given the women requesting have no idea about the true health of the women donating.