Chest feeding?!

[Pickybrow]

I don’t think I’ve ever heard this phrase! Would this apply to a mtf or ftm? I’m so confused.

Doob- it isn’t fatty tissue that produces milk, milk is produced in the milk ducts, and all of the functional tissue is removed in a mastectomy. So even if someone did have some fat there later, they still wouldn’t be able to lactate.

Ok,
So chest feeding is something a trans man does.

It is all so odd.

I agree with mumsnut. Personally I find the term odd and silly (the biological reality of something isn’t changed in any way by giving it a different name). But I would only object to the term when there is suggestion that it should be forced on all women. If someone feels comfortable calling it ‘chestfeeding’ - for whatever reason - then that’s up to them and nothing to do with me.

Goodness knows how a midwife actually manages to monitor their language when helping a transman with breastfeeding. To remember to avoid all mentions of the word breast must be quite tricky and stressful.

Sandsnake that's understandable - people used to find it odd and silly when lesbian partners referred to each other as 'wife' but times gradually changed and it's quite normal now.

It's hard to know if HCPs are really being expected to use this language with everyone, or just with trans people. There are certainly some transactivists who would like everybody's language to change (see flowchart), but surely they won't make much headway with the general population.

A female breast feeds.

Simple.

It's a phrase that a female who identifies as a male would say after they get pregnant and give birth.

Born males cannot breast feed unless they take extra hormones.

The thing about "wife" though is that it refers to the female partner that you are married to. Which is the same definition as it ever was. Lesbian women having the legal right to marry doesn't require a new word for marriage or a new word for wife.

I have supported many female same sex couples with breastfeeding as well as lots of women with religious/faith based modesty concerns and breast is an anatomical term that is universally accepted as the thing that describes most adequately the lactating body part. I am all for tailoring support to meet the individual’s needs especially when it comes to language but I would find it very hard to call breastfeeding ‘chestfeeding’ out of courtesy. Female biology doesn’t change by giving it a male/gender neutral name. What would you call a uterus then?

chicklingpixies and that is your prerogative - nobody is forcing you to validate anyone's feelings.

In my opinion saying chestfeeding instead of breastfeeding to a trans man would be a simple, kind gesture to acknowledge his gender identity. It would take zero effort, be respectful and harm absolutely nobody. I don't see the big deal.

I agree that if you were talking to a transman about what they were doing then "chestfeeding" is harmless if that's what they prefer. I disagree that it would be zero effort though. I think it would take quite a lot of self-monitoring for a HCP looking after them to constantly remember not to use breastfeeding/breasts/breastmilk etc.

But the thing is RandomBird we are being asked to change what we say in public. Breastfeeding support organisation have been hounded for reference to breastfeeding. Group after group I’m in thst looks at breastfeeding advocacy decends into long tedious and often nasty conversation when some of us what to use breastfeeding as a term.

Last year there was a lib female mummy blogger from America whose post went viral throughout the baby wearing automatons.
She declared she would begin using chestfeeding as a term out of solidarity and to be inclusive. As far as I recall she got a lot of oh wow yes of course we must blindly follow this new idea of trans acceptance. Without any critical thought.
I chose to post it on my mainstream mother's network (in a polite, naive, oh gosh way) and got agreement it was silly but then a swarm of babywearers arrived demanding my transphobic post be taken down. I argued (in a polite bewildered way) for a little while but they were total nutters. It was good to expose other women to it.

So yes it is being pushed on us, by life's, again not at the behest of the vulnerable trans they purport to stand for. They're just creating antagonism.

*lib fems not life's. Bloody autocorrect.

*and libfem not lib female!

ICJump where do you live? This surprises me as I live in Brighton with one of the highest populations of trans people and I volunteer for a LGBTQ charity. I have also participated in breastfeeding support groups.

There has been no suggestion of referring to breastfeeding as 'chestfeeding'. The only time I have come across it was when it was specifically requested by my friend for his unique circumstances. I believe he is one of two trans men to have given birth in the UK so it is hardly an epidemic!

Of course women with breasts aren't going to chest feed!

I was a member of a Zero Waste group on facebook. We had a non-binary person recently come on and ask that all references to menstrual issues not include the word 'woman.' (People were discussing zero waste alternatives to sanitary pads and tampons) It's a group of thousands of people and we were told not to say 'hi ladies,' or 'women, can I ask you...' or anything similar, because not only women menstruate. It apparently triggered distress in her to see any reminder her body was female.

Luckily most of the responses said, er, thank you but only women do menstruate and this entire group isn't going to be tailored around one person's distress. The admins closed the thread to new comments and left it at that. It was a relief to see some sense.

As long as they're not trying to stop me using the word breastfeeding to describe how I feed my baby, I don't give a shit. They can refer to their breasts however they want - they just don't get to tell me how to.

somerandom I’m in Australia. However it is happening globally. Just look at LLL.

And I’ve been in a reusable menstrual products group and been told not refer to woman/female as it’s transphobic.

Hypothetically, if phrases like 'vagina owners' or 'penis owners' became fully adopted, how long would it be until these phrases became associated with their own stereotypes?

If that happens, would we get a new wave of trans rejecting that?

Would we then get shouts of "Not all vagina owners have vaginas"?

I kind of hope so...

Can anyone explain how it is that some trans men are perfectly happy using their female reproductive organs to reproduce but at the same time have dysphoria over words? How can a trans man gestate a foetus for nine months, give birth ... but then balk at using the technically correct term “breastfeeding”? I don’t mean to sound horrible, but if they really wanted to be seen as men surely they would be avoiding giving birth at all costs - after all, men don’t give birth. It’s the most gender incongruent thing you could possibly do. I don’t get how they can possibly expect the rest of society to genuinely regard them as men after they go through this.

I look forward to the day when Taylor’s make double and single chested jackets, that can have a chest pocket.
Or maybe trans men will not ware jackets ?