"Gross, reductive naturalising maternal industrial complex"

[SunsetBeetch]

Here's some TRA word salad for your Saturday night. Perhaps is will make sense if you've had a few drinks?

"Cis women confusing "erasure" with not being at the center of a discourse is fast becoming one of my pet peeves. Why not be inclusive of everyone who menstruates? There is no good reason. Obviously."

twitter.com/kate_manne/status/1187481570996830208?s=19

"Same when it comes to pregnancy and breast/chestfeeding. The truth is, we all gain when these activities aren't essentialized and made into part of some gross, reductive, naturalizing MIC (maternal industrial complex)."

twitter.com/kate_manne/status/1187483964677734400?s=19

"Being inclusive around all procreative activities is better for trans men and non-binary folks who participate in them; it's better for cis women who don't or can't; it's better for trans women who typically can't; and it's better for cis women who do, absent bad ideology."

twitter.com/kate_manne/status/1187483966137348096?s=19

"And, finally, it's surely better for adoptive parents, who are often genuinely erased in discourses of this kind."

twitter.com/kate_manne/status/1187484921142697985?s=19

Someone sounds very uncomfortable about normal female bodily functions.

I don't know how to.express this, I'm tired and a little drunk. But these people and the language they use, it's so...robotic? clinical? cold? Do you get what I mean?

I read the “gross, reductive” comment about pregnancy and breastfeeding and concluded whoever wrote it despises women.

Same old, same old.

Yes the "gross" is a dead giveaway. Breastfeeding is in my opinion a really beautiful part of nature and it's something that only biological women do. That, like it or not, is the reality.

Maternal industrial complex sounds like something out of Gilead.

It's always 'folks' isn't it?

I picture them in little felted waistcoats and clogs, capering around with penny whistles. And pointing to the field of unicorns in the distance to distract attention from mean old reality.

A bunch of words stuck together hoping she’ll sound like she’s done some analysis. ‘Gross’ gives away the misogyny and ‘industrial complex’ is idiotic given that breastfeeding is as far from industry as its possible to be, as mothers literally make their babies’ food in their own bodies, no factories or industry required.

Yes, making milk for my babies was as close to feeling I have superhero magic powers as I'm ever going to get. It's completely amazing, natural and definitely as far from industry as it is possible to be.

Somebody please tell me where the objection to the word 'breast' comes from? We all have breast tissue. Men, women, trans people and people of all or no gender. We can all get breast cancer. Am I being thick here? 'Chestfeeding' sounds like something medical to me.

Lots of words that don't make sense to try and cover up the general sentiment of 'we don't like women doing things with their own bodies and we certainly don't want them talking about it in their own words'.

...confusing "erasure" with not being at the center of a discourse is fast becoming one of my pet peeves

Ha! That's fucking hilarious. I really do love a bit of TRA hypocrisy.

The term ‘chestfeeding’ was invented to ensure women know our place. No special terms for us. Our breasts are no longer to be spoken of. It’s chests all the way.

No-one's making them use the terms breastfeeding etc if they don't want to. Why take to twitter to moan that the nasty wims won't do what they're told and are determined to self-identify and self-describe? I find it faintly amusing.

This woman wrote a book on misogyny. Obviously from self-examination and first hand experience.

I always confuse Erasure with the Pet Shop Boys
I think that proves I have had more than my fair share of

We best not mention how the TRAs are taking the idea of an LGB alliance which doesn't center trans people.

Seriously though, my body making milk all by itself is one of the only times I've felt anything that could be described as feeling 'womanly'.

Yes, my body making milk felt womanly to me too (I was very aware I was a biologically female mammal while doing it) and I almost certainly didn't have shaved legs or armpits, any makeup, or 'feminine' clothing whilst doing so. Also no nail polish. Also quite possibly not even brushed hair or showered a lot of the time. But definitely a woman.

Her grammar is terrible! Won't be rushing to read her book...

in needof

brilliantly put, exactly my experience. and when not actually feeding, just communicating without words as only a mother and baby can

Maternal industrial complex

So tell me about nestle and baby milk in the developing world... And how there are some fundamental problems with marketing baby milk.

So tell me about breastfeeding and how it can help with bonding mother and child... And tell me why some men might have an issue with this.

So tell me the purpose of breasts if not for feeding babies... Do they become a purely sexualised body part? How does this benefit women?

So tell me, if women aren't willing to have babies as part of a maternal industrial complex, how IS the human race supposed to reproduce?

Or is that just work for lower class women who submit their bodies to that whilst upper class women are free from this?

I could carry on... But I'll stop there...

The weird thing is this is written by a woman who seems to have studied and be an associate professor in several Ivy league universities. It's taken me a while, since I've been on twitter, to grasp how thoroughly dim some people are, but when it turns out that they teach in the most prestigious universities to be found, I give up.

How dare she speak of a “maternal industrial complex” from within a country that has the highest maternal mortality rate in the Western world, where access to abortion is only available in 1/3 of American counties and under constant legal assault, where there there is very little aid to impoverished families, where single mothers with children are the biggest demographic living in poverty and hunger, where there is no paid maternity leave —

and from within a third wave feminist movement that prioritizes gender politics and prostitution-as-work rather over addressing the single biggest reason women lose put economically in the workforce, especially in the precariat labor force: the lack of affordable childcare.

I breastfed my babies with my breasts. I did not chest feed them with my chest because my chest does not produce milk. Chests and breasts are different body parts.

Only women have babies. Only women breastfeed their babies. The word women already includes every single human being that ever has or ever will gestate a baby and breastfeed. It is fully inclusive of all relevant human beings.

And that tweeter needs to learn some basic anatomy. Primary school level would suffice.

Being inclusive around all procreative activities is better for trans men and non-binary folks who participate in them; it's better for cis women who don't or can't; it's better for trans women who typically can't; and it's better for cis women who do, absent bad ideology.

How is pretending that not only women breastfeed going to help women who can't breastfeed? TRAs will use anyone as their shield.

What is it with the word 'gross' being used as if it were a term of meaningful political criticism?
It speaks volumes about the disgust these people have for women and their messy female bodies. Just old fashioned misogyny.

This is so vile