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

[IwantToRetire]

... when Scott listed her own milk for sale, she was even more surprised to discover that a majority of the men buying it were doing so because it turns them on: either the breast milk itself, or the bodies of breastfeeding mothers. And there were also sellers leaning into this – the listings on OnlyTheBreast.com with pictures of faces and cleavage, and descriptions emphasising sellers’ (young) age, received far more interest she says.

Until 2022, there were categories called “Willing to Sell to Men” among sellers and “Men seeking breast milk” among buyers, though after Scott contacted the site these categories disappeared. Male buyers still flourish but with willingness to sell to men now being folded more subtly into listings.

Scott’s own listing was carefully clinical, and as asexual as she could make it. And yet, she writes, “of the many requests I received within hours of posting the ad, all but one were from men, and most were overtly sexual.” She was asked to wet nurse, or provide videos of her hand expressing milk. Others requested the same but with an electric pump. There were men who were explicit about their erotic fixation, and others who pretended it was for body building, before admitting it was also a turn on. ...

Full article https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/sold-breast-milk-found-adults-drinking-wellness-4264463

Honestly I’m not surprised at all about the men.

I donated breast milk and did it through a type of community org run by a group of mothers. This was pre-smart phones and I didn't get any men, but probably because it was mostly word of mouth or midwives sharing the org's phone number. I can only imagine what it's like now.

Men's fetishes are vile.

Eww.

Why would this even be a surprise? Women who have birthed a baby and actually want their baby to thrive aren’t buying some other women’s milk off a sketchy site to feed their baby, particular when a) donors exist and b) failing that, formula that is regulated exists.

It’s been a sitcom trope with men drinking their wives milk ‘by mistake’ for so long it’s practically normalised. For the fetishists, its same old - normalise first and then act out fetish in plain site.

Of course that's going to attract all the vile men with a woman fetish.
Only a hermit could be surprised.

Forgot to add archive link https://archive.is/A6imh

I think what is so suprising is how many women, in at a time when there is mass media, social media, terrible news stories about men, are apparently genuinely unaware of male behaviour.

Its almost like the emporers news clothes, or rather the reverse.

However many times there are stories about men's behaviour and degrading attitudes towards women, some women continue to believe they are the exception.

How is this a shock? There are all sorts of fetishes, and this is a pretty well established one. Women don’t go onto these sites to get milk for their babies, I’ve no idea why the writer would think they did? I’m not really why this is a story?!

Okay, that’s enough internet for today.

Interesting headline by the subeditor. Even putting wellness in inverted commas doesn't actually explain that most of the buyers are men with fetishes.

I don’t agree at all. It sounds like fake naivety, trying to sell a story.

Next week it will be, ‘I tried to sell some well used shoes to other fellow nurses on a generic website, but instead I got bombarded with messages from people with a foot fetish’!!

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.

I think you are missing the point.

One of the reasons men continue to get away with their behaviour is the vast number of women who believe their partner, their son, their father would never behave like that towards women.

And all to often we see women end up being if not killed seriously hurt because a man they think is "nice" turns out to be anything but nice.

And I suspect a fair few readers of the article would be shocked that men would try and exploit what is meant to be a way of helping other women.

Cant say I have seen many articles about men buying breast milk, so there are probably many, many women who had never thought this.

Whether turning her personal story into a news paper article is the right or wrong thing to do, is another issue.

I dont care what the motive is. We all know the MSM goes for shock horror headlines, but that doesn't negate the significance of making fetishes like this public.

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

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’m surprised that she’s surprised

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.

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...

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.

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.

Men are the lowest. What a shock. 🤮

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

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

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

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!