Chestfeeding

[holycheeseplant]

Shared by the Analytical Armadillo.

fullcreamweb.blog/2017/11/03/breastfeeding-is-not-a-neutral-act/

One paragraph I'm puzzled about - I don't choose to id as female - but otherwise good points.

Comment on fb page is interesting; why do TW want to bf so much if it's not part of being a woman according to TM? Why do they refer to breastfeeding and not chest feeding?

It's just all sex appropriation as far as I can tell.

I've been following the AA thread. Lots of people feeling like their language to talk about themselves is being taken away from them, a couple of particular commenters asking questions of the handmaidens that have popped up along the "but what is a man/woman"/"sex isn't gender tho" lines - no straight answers though, shockingly enough.

Honestly? I daren't post on it. At least not under my usual (hidden) name.

I suspect many women who really get it won't post.

You know, I don't really care if a transman refers to 'chestfeeding' if they don't think of their 'milky bits' as breasts or feminine. They can use whatever words they wish to express their experience.

And, to be quite honest, I don't care if a transwoman feels excluded because it's a part of the female experience they can't ever share, or it reminds them that they have a man's body or whatever.

But I have been a pregnant woman on more than one occasion; I am a mother to 2 children. I did take maternity leave for each of them and I did breastfeed them for 18 months each.

If some people don't feel that language describes their experience, then fine, but I believe that they do describe mine. And I shall continue to use them to do so.

Yep.

100% with you Golden.

Here's a question:

'Breast' just means 'chest' I thought (eg. Robin read breast, breastplate) - that's what I first learned it as, and fount the word 'Breasts' for my boobs to be a bit weird, this usage is a bit archaic, but not totally out of use.

It seems to me, that breastfeeding should be fine for everyone, although if transmen don't want to use it, that's fine because they're talking about their own bodies, but transwomen really don't have a leg to stand on regarding it - because the word 'breast' also means chest, and we all have those.

And yep.

And I'm sorry, the vast majority of breastfeeders are and will be Mothers.

Also, it's going to be a cold day in hell when I'm fine about being called my children's 'Gestational parent'

Fuck off with reducing me to one of my functions.

'Robin red breast'

No, breast means actual bits of breast tissue. Which men have too. Proper XY men. And when they get cancer in it, which rarely they do, for years they have been treated for breast cancer.

Which is really fucking hard for them. But at no point have any of the amazing men I have met with breast cancer asked for it to be called chest cancer because it was upsetting them. They were too busy with real issues, like being a man dying of breast cancer.

^Hyperion arose, and on the stars
Lifted his curved lids, and kept them wide
Until it ceas'd; and still he kept them wide:
And still they were the same bright, patient stars.
Then with a slow incline of his broad breast,
Like to a diver in the pearly seas,
Forward he stoop'd over the airy shore,
And plung'd all noiseless into the deep night. ^

Keats

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun Shakespeare

As from my soul, which in thy breast doth lie Shakespeare

a. The superior ventral surface of the human body, extending from the neck to the abdomen. A dictionary

It does both mean breast tissue, but also 'chest'

I've always thought of the chest as more like the container (like other uses of chest) for rib cage, lungs etc, and breast the external part. But agree language has shifted so that we tend to use chest and breast to distinguish m/f - so "bare-chested" for men to distinguish from the connotation of "bare-breasted". If it's actual breast tissue we're talking about, then as Anna had it, breast does make more sense....

How are so many young women not seeing the misogyny of this? It’s basically “Stop talking about anything your bodies do as being linked to your sex, do you think you’re SPECIAL or something.”

Beautiful swivel.

Yes I feel the chest is the rib cage.

I asked about skin to skin for a possible upcoming elcs and the mw described lying the baby 'on my chest' and that it can feel a bit like they're strangling you as there's not much room.

I think it's good the AA had she's it though. It's a good piece about the erasure of women.

I asked about skin to skin for a possible upcoming elcs and the mw described lying the baby 'on my chest' and that it can feel a bit like they're strangling you as there's not much room.

ROFL - yes. I had a reaction to the spinal, and was twitching and shaking so much that I couldn't risk my first coming close to me (I remember being scared witless when they brought him round the screen, and concentrating so hard on keeping my violently twitching arms outstretched to my sides and my head back so I didn't knock him) - but yes, I can imagine that if you're out flat, and a baby is put on your chest, that it's going to feel suffocating!

From The Merchant of Venice:
And you must cut this flesh from off his breast.
The law allows it, and the court awards it.

When you get mastitis do you have a "chest infection"?

no. you bloody dont. your breasts are inflamed and unless that turns septic it doesnt involve your chest at all!!

I'm glad this whole issue of 'inclusive language' is getting an airing.

Chest feeding gives me the rage. I also hate breastfeeding/chestfeeding.

As Golden says, individuals can call what they do chest feeding. Be my guest. Call it what hell you like. But don't ask me as a mother or as a breastfeeding supporter to accommodate you by calling it anything other than breastfeeding, unless I am actually speaking to you as an individual. I will then manage to pretend, out of courtesy and kindness, that the milk is made in your 'chest' and pretend I am just imagining those two large round protuberances you are offering your baby.

Thanks tiktok (my hero!)

I now want to ask you a bf specific question regarding upcoming baby but praps not the thread!

would you expect health professionals to refer to your UTI as a bowel infection?

its fucking crazy, HEALTH professionals should be anatomically correct and not use ajoining but inaccurate body parts to talk about breastfeefing.

Its like creationists complaining that science curriculums say evolution!!

I love that some idiot has kicked off over the poster of shoes not being inclusive because they all appear to be the type of shoes worn by women.

Whilst anyone can be a parent, if someone has given birth or are breastfeeding, they are a biological women however they identify.

The language relating to the biology of half the planets population is being changed to appease a tiny minority.

I kind of wish someone would come along and ask one of the people that talks about "chest feeding" whether they would also refer to "chest cancer".

Hiiii hello hiya!!
I think this is my peak trans moment and I have found my way over here so can I just say thank you for providing a lovely space where actual debate can take place.
So when I read the above liked article today and realised that I wouldn’t ever post on FB I had to stop lurking here and get involved.
I am a breastfeeding peer supporter. I am also the mother of 3 boys and I have had enough.
Breasts/breastmilk are terms rooted in female biology and anatomy. I work with women who ovulated, gestated and lactated and I have had enough of this batshit crazy trans ideology. Urgh.

I’ve been posting on the AA thread which is interesting as the majority are in our camp. I’ve had enough of hiding on this issue. We have to speak out so other women know what’s happening.

Zintox yes absolutely. I call it out at work and in with my friends (have actually fallen out with some over it ) but tend to stay out of social media debates (I just rage quietly at the screen). I’m currently composing a letter to my MP (happens to be Jeremy Corbyn) so i’m trying to speak up as much as I can.