The Breast Book

[MilkSpill]

My oldest daughter is heading towards puberty so I'm stocking up on resources to discuss it with her. I'd heard great things about the new book by Emma Pickett called 'The Breast Book' and it arrived today. I was having a flick through and lots of positives - normalising breastfeeding, discussion of sexualised media, and then hit this.

EIGHT pages dedicated to advocating for elective mastectomy.

Totally glossing over the risks, no discussion of sexuality, just basically 'someone said Jack was a girl when he was born' and off into a story of how Jack did a lot of thinking and then had his breasts cut off. Presented positively and affirmingly and in child-appropriate language.

How am I supposed to use this resource with my daughter? I can't just cut 8 pages out of the book. I want my money back.

Thank you that.

Oh god I despair for our young girls. Including my own DD.

No, I do NOT want a book that normalises a double mastectomy on healthy tissue for cosmetic reasons. They make it sound like a fucking haircut.

*Neurotrash

Does it include a section on breast cancer*

There is one mention of breast cancer, in the context of a woman sharing her story of getting her first bra and mentioning that her mother had breast cancer and a mastectomy. That's also the only reference to breast cancer in the index.

Breast implants get more mentions, including a very carefully worded section which says no one is allowed to have breast implants until they 18 and even then "it's a big decision that has to be thought about very, very carefully". She briefly discusses the risks of implants including pain, degrading of the implants, difficulty breastfeeding, and surgical complications.

So basically if you want to have them removed, it's 'surgery to change your chest' (p90) but if you want implants 'some women feel its something they want to risk doing' (p53).

Thanks everyone, it's nice to know I'm not crazy in feeling this is wildly inappropriate content for this book!

I'm in Australia so am heading offline now. I emailed the publisher earlier and got "I am very sorry to hear that the book didn’t meet your expectations and thank you for your feedback. I am sure the Book Depository will be happy to refund it for you - but please let me know if you experience any problems."

From amazon

About the Author
Emma Pickett has spent her career talking to young people about puberty, listening to their stories, and immersed in the world of breastfeeding support. As a Deputy Head and Year 6 teacher in inner London, she taught sex and relationships education for over a decade before having her own children. When she realised how many new mums struggled with breastfeeding, it led to a career change and Emma qualified as a volunteer breastfeeding counsellor with the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers before going on to qualify as a lactation consultant. She has supported new families in North London for 10 years and answers calls on the National Breastfeeding Helpline. Her children are now 10 and 14. She is currently chair of the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers, a charity established in 1979 training breastfeeding support volunteers and health professionals. In 2016 she published You've Got it In You: A Positive Guide to Breastfeeding, followed in 2019 by The Breast Book. Her website is here Twitter: @makesmilk Instagram: @emmapickettibclc

Okay: from what I can see it's a small independent publisher so a few more emails may make them less glib about it.

Tomorrow morning please, please post this in one of the main sections of MN so that it gets some traction. We can head this thing off by doing small things — just ten minutes of your time and my time and together we get things moving.

It's a shame as Pinter and Martin are an otherwise brilliant publishing company.

It is so sad that a breasfeeding proponent is pushing this abuse onto young children. What has happened to people?

Take me back to a world where we discuss whether girls should start removing body hair at puberty not whether they should be removing body parts.

VodkaRevelation I'm sure I've read on here about posters whose own children are "woke" and have swallowed the boys can be girls and girls can be boys message whole despite being brought up with the clear message that there are no such thing as boy's toys/ clothes/ hobbies/ jobs etc etc.

Children and teens are utterly comfortable with cognitive dissonance (sometimes they're exposed to trans ideology before they've fully stopped believing in father Christmas, sometimes one influence is telling them god/ Jesus/ heaven and hell are real and an equally trusted one telling them the opposite...) and sometimes swallow to utterly contradictory realities (home reality and worldview v school or a youtubers reality and worldview) without questioning or registering the clash.

I don't think you can rely on gender critical home environment and no gender stereotypes at home, and waiting til they're mid teens to debate complex and controversial topics means they have already been indoctrinated sometimes, and take another decade to think critically about what they've accepted as a priori because peers/ school/ social media are all drip feeding a world view.

*two

Either way thank you for replying to me VodkaRevelation - just blanking posters who don't post much is very off putting and why a lot of people hide this board!

It's such a shame that an opportunity to inform girls about the dangers of breast binding was ignored.

Please look at the twitter thread on this.

Just a quick response to Blue. I don't understand why you think that people not replying to you is blanking you. None of us is here to validate each other. I'm relatively new to this board. It moves quickly and it's never occurred to me that I wasn't getting a response because I was new. I assume that if there's no response to anything I write it's because my position or thoughts weren't clear or relevant or the conversation had moved on elsewhere. It's not all about you!

Just had a response from Martin Wagner at the publisher:

I am so sorry that you are disappointed in the extract you read, and thank you for sharing your thoughts - it is always useful to receive feedback on our books.

Standard brush-off there and probably what I'd do in the circumstances. Would like to be a fly on the wall in his office this afternoon.

Does nobody else think picking this apart thoughtfully as part of reading the book together could be a countermeasure?

No, I think the right approach is to end this brutality in the first place.

What are we saying to kids? Some children want parts of ther body chopped off, because they believe in myths about these body parts stopping them living their lives. The NHS will do this for them if they really cry a lot and threaten to kill theirselves.
Countermeasure: But really it's not necessay as yanno, you can do man stuff with tits.

Fucking hell.

Hes a woke Wagner.

it's a pinned tweet on her Twitter, so could those on Twitter go and challenge her about it?

twitter.com/makesmilk/status/1048946085228683265

She's replied here though it's muddled

twitter.com/Elfie41767774/status/1095626988369469441

Hi there all,

The publisher has been in touch and asked us to remove the photographs of the several pages of content of this book, as it isn't published till mid March.

can the publisher come onto the thread and explain why the hell they thought this content was in any way, shape or form appropriate?

It's very depressing to receive a "sorry you were disappointed" email rather than one that acknowledges your concerns that the content is dangerous. Pinter and Martin presumably wouldn't publish a book that advocated for eating disorders, self-harm or suicide, so why are they publishing a book that advocates for a double mastectomy in a perfectly healthy young woman?

it's on a par with self harm images om Instagram, as far as I'm concerned.

I hope you're still reading, Pincher & Martin.

If it isn't published, how did OP buy a copy and receive it already?