[lbo-talk] Breast milk ice cream...

123hop at comcast.net 123hop at comcast.net
Sat Feb 26 11:32:09 PST 2011


Use your imagination: in what context do you think a woman will sell her breast milk for ice cream?

Let's remember that any such woman will be a lactating mother with at least one infant to feed. It is possible that she will have some extra milk or that she will increase her liquid consumption to produce extra milk. As Chuck mentioned, La Leche (a great organization) makes it possible for women to share milk to provide human breast milk for other infants. All kinds of women volunteer to do this.

What kind of women do you think would be interested in providing breast milk for ice cream? Very likely poor women.

I'm guessing it takes about a cup of milk to make enough ice cream for an ice cream cone. A cup of milk is about what a two-month old needs for one feeding. So, a poor woman would need to produce enough milk for her child, and then extra for ice cream. So, you are taking milk away from a poor lactating mother who is already stressed by poverty and strained by the physical work required to care for and feed a baby. This makes it more likely that she will be vulnerable to illness, to fatigue, and that her child will have a more precarious and unhealthy life. Needing to produce more milk also means that the mother has to eat more -- where will she get the money? Perhaps by selling milk from the baby's stock?

That's why I mention Swift. She is not selling her baby for baby chops; she's just selling the food that her baby needs to live, and she is selling her work and energy that might otherwise be used to help her baby thrive.

This, in real terms, is what "getting hold of another option" means. I know you're a guy and that "breast feeding" is an abstraction rather than a conscious experience. That's why I'm asking you to use your intelligent imagination.

One other thing: at best, breast feeding is a near ecstatic experience combining the pleasures of sleep, food, and sex. Something tells me that pumping breast milk for money stops short of that. Of course, there is the consumer's thrill of getting a little Baby Gaga cone, but I suspect it's a pale reflection of the real experience.

Joanna

----- Original Message ----- From: "Joseph Catron" <jncatron at gmail.com> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2011 11:05:35 AM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Breast milk ice cream...

On Sat, Feb 26, 2011 at 1:37 PM, <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:

Cows = women?
>

Well, no. Among the many other differences, the milk of women is far, far healthier for humans, as any number of studies have established among infants. I have no reason to assume the results would be different for adults.

Of course, for adults to drink the milk of any species is rather silly. But in a society where the consumption of cow milk is taken for granted, shock about some getting ahold of another option that's at least species-, if not age-appropriate, rings a little hollow.

-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað." ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk



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