Going viral: A study in Pediatrics claims, it’s “ethically inappropriate” for government and medical organizations to describe breastfeeding as “natural” because the term reinforces rigid gender roles.
The study says, “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.”
According to the Independent Women’s Form, “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.'”
The study concludes, “referencing the ‘natural’ in breastfeeding promotion… may inadvertently endorse a set of values about family life and gender roles which would be ethically inappropriate.”
Once again we note, men (including transgender men) and women are inherently different, and women will continue to pay an especially high price if we continue to pretend otherwise.
