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

Not surprised

I must be an outlier here. I don’t class men being attracted to women’s breasts, feet etc. as a particularly weird fetish in itself… which is exactly why this article is so bizarre. I think buying women’s used underwear, socks or breast milk online is another thing entirely, but we already know this happens. We’ve known for years. The internet isn’t new. Not remotely new or interesting. How can you list your own unregulated milk for sale and then pull a shocked pikachu face when these are the buyers you get.

Are husbands secretly the same?

Are some men feeling this way when they see a woman feeding her baby in public?

Maybe that’s behind the prudishness over breastfeeding? Some people assuming others are letching over the mums 😣

Blood born viruses.

The risk of them in breast milk is actually really low, bit not a risk many people would like to take.

Once you're in the milk sharing community, you realise wet nursing isn't as uncommon as we think! I think that people don't talk about it because people judge it was disgusting. I don't think it's the sexual element.

Maybe assuming correctly?

I agree, it is not particularly shocking.

Ok, I’ll agree to disagree and I don’t think I’m missing the point. There was a documentary about it and the women selling milk knew exactly what they were doing and who they were selling it to. Those who donate to mothers don’t do it through these forums, and don’t get paid for it. They are no more exploiting people than buying or selling through Vinted.

Or “I just wanted to share photos of normal vulval anatomy with other women, to counteract harmful porn stereotypes, and yet within moments of uploading photos of my minge I was getting sexualised comments from men! I was shocked, shocked by this unexpected turn of events”.

Never under-estimate how much men are driven by their sexual motivation.

I agree. I actually think it’s quite shocking that people can sell it in the first place . Anyone who decides to sell it can’t exactly have high morals themselves . There is a reason it’s a rigorous process.

Many years ago I attended a physiology course. At the start of the lecture that covered lactation the male lecturer displayed an enormous classical painting of some goddess or other squirting breast milk across the sky and went on for a few minutes about what an amazing natural process breastfeeding is. He never showed us any artworks in any other lecture and I remember in my naivety thinking it was a bit weird 🧐

To add, I think the sale of breastmilk should absolutely be made illegal, as is semen, blood and organs.

But it's only illegal to sell semen for profit. It would be very difficult to sell breast milk for profit - it's a labour intensive product!

I'm not sure of the going rate of either but I'd assume breast milk would fetch a higher price than semen. I'm guessing there are much more men willing to sell semen than women selling milk. Sorry if I've misunderstood you.

I agree that it should be illegal like other fluids. In the rare case that it's being bought for a baby there could be issues of quality.

wet nursing isn't as uncommon as we think! I think that people don't talk about it because people judge it was disgusting.

It used to be routine on maternity wards when some women had excess milk and others had too little.

I am intrigued: when did people start to judge this as "disgusting"? As opposed to a potential health risk to babies.

I could write pages and pages on the reduction of social acceptance of milk sharing but it boils down to;

• early formula companies significantly over played the risks of milk sharing to increase formula usage.

• the huge reduction in milk sharing removed the normalcy of it, making it something people didn't encounter much which generally makes things "weird".

• the increased fetishization of breasts by the media have made breasts a primarily sexual object makes people view milk sharing differently these days.

• my personal experience of milk sharing has been responses of disgust more so than concern.

Breast milk has virtually no market, especially as plenty of milk sharing sites and groups exist for free donations. Id be very worried that any legal involvement would prevent those groups from continuing. The reality is that breast milk carries far fewer risks than blood and semen.

This is all interesting. I'm sure I read somewhere that one of the reasons why breastfeeding rates are so high in Japan is because it increases a baby's survival because sharing BM in a survival situation is easier than getting access to clean bottles for formula. Not sure how true that is and (from my viewpoint) the balance of risk of not feeding a baby at all vs them catching a BBV obviously changes.

Of course the balance of risk changes. Similar to how it changed in the 1960s when "proper" formula became readily available. The fact that formula companies also did a huge amount to dissuade breastfeeding is another topic entirely (for the record I am not anti formula but I am anti misinformation sharing which formula companies of yore had a large history of doing to the extent much of their misinformation pervades today).

As a mother I’d never buy breastmilk for my baby from anywhere other than a hospital, a breastmilk donation centre (or someone I know extremely well).

Hospitals and milk banks have very stringent criteria for who gets breast milk (because they have limited supplies) and so most people don't qualify which is why mothers turn to breast milk sharing services like eats on feets and others. Unfortunately because most milk banks are either NHS funded or charities, they won't extend their services.

In an ideal world I'd love to set up a milk bank which was more inclusive of donations it revived and therefore able to give to more babies.

I don’t see how making the sale of it illegal would interfere with community donation groups. I don’t think it’s a major issue so it’s not something that should be prioritised. I imagine most mothers would go through community groups or hospitals to get donated breast milk rather than buy off some unregulated online site!

Well online community donation groups ARE an unregulated online site.

God some people are fucking vile.