Study: Describing Breastfeeding as ‘Natural’ Is Unethical Because It Reinforces Gender Roles – IOTW Report

Study: Describing Breastfeeding as ‘Natural’ Is Unethical Because It Reinforces Gender Roles

IWF-

It’s “ethically inappropriate” for government and medical organizations to describe breastfeeding as “natural” because the term enforces rigid notions about gender roles, claims a new study in Pediatrics.

“Coupling nature with motherhood… can inadvertently support biologically deterministic arguments about the roles of men and women in the family (for example, that women should be the primary caretaker,” the study says.

The study notes that in recent years, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the World Health Organization, and several state departments of health have all promoted breastfeeding over bottle-feeding, using the term “natural.”

“Referencing the ‘natural’ in breastfeeding promotion… may inadvertently endorse a set of values about family life and gender roles, which would be ethically inappropriate,” the study says.

Unless such public-service announcements “make transparent the ‘values and beliefs that underlie them,’” they should quit describing breastfeeding as “natural.”

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ht/ h/t Gender Neutral Breastfeeding 101

28 Comments on Study: Describing Breastfeeding as ‘Natural’ Is Unethical Because It Reinforces Gender Roles

  1. I can’t believe the assholes that are out there trying to get us into conversations that are so far removed from reality that to engage them in the discussion only makes us dumber for the attempt. And we sometimes fall for it.

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  2. That article links to a study about “natural” and “bottle fed” and somehow twists it into an absolute ridiculous headline that is anti-science ludicrousness.

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  3. “Tony R APRIL 29, 2018 AT 11:31 PM
    Meanwhile, the pop-up ad directly below this story has a picture of a young woman with impossible, disproportionately large boobs!”

    Where damn it! Not on my computer…

    6
  4. What pisses me off is the fact that some asshole with authority to spend Tax money, said to another asshole; “Can I have money to study whether or not breastfeeding enforces gender normative roles?” and this asshole goes: “Here’s some taxpayer money, knock yourself out”
    Shit like this is what is ruining this country

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  5. 9 out of 10 pediatricians agree: The most “ethically appropriate” way for government and medical organizations to break down rigid notions about “natural” gender roles, is abortion.

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