The romance and science of ‘breast is best’: Discursive contradictions and contexts of breast‐feeding choices
- 1 July 1998
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Informa UK Limited in Text and Performance Quarterly
- Vol. 18 (3), 217-232
- https://doi.org/10.1080/10462939809366225
Abstract
We argue that a woman's decision to breast‐feed or not is overdetermined by two discursive complexes we label “the romance of the natural mother” and “the science of breast‐feeding.” These complexes incorporate socio‐historical articulations of motherhood, female sexuality, medicine, science, and advertising. Taken together, they dictate the performative possibilities of “normal” and “moral” breast‐feeding. In problematizing normal, moral articulations, we offer alternative possibilities for conceiving and performing breast‐feeding.Keywords
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