Holly McNish Breast feeding

Natural v Sexual

                                                              Holly McNish

October is national breast cancer awareness month and I want to blog about the nature of the breast function as opposed to it being only an object of sexual gratification. On national poetry day poet Holly McNish waxed lyrical on the topic of breastfeeding on a spoken word piece entitled Embarrassed. Her poem was written from her experience of wanting to breast feed her baby daughter in an open space but had to resort to the ladies toilets, so not to annoy the public. She rants about the way “tits” are displayed in billboards all over the country, yet when she needs to fulfill her natural responsibility society shuns it, therefore encouraging more formula milk.

There is no denial that the breast has aesthetic purposes; however it is fundamentally an organ for sustaining life, as they say breast milk is best and naturally feeding can happen at any time without prepared expressed breast milk in bottles.  The ignorance of society frowning upon women who publicly display breast feeding when nature calls is another example to conclude that we are still living in a man’s world, who want the breast to be sexualised.

I have no objection to fashionable feminine figure hugging wears, but it is concerning when our bodies are denied natural functions but are encouraged to be exposed for the sexual occupations of men. Society puts increasing pressures on women to appear sexually appealing and can result against naturalism, for example a colleague in the NHS working on health promotion breast feeding explained to me the complexities of promoting breast feeding among new mothers of African and Caribbean heritage that want to retain their breast shape and have hence developed fears of breast feeding.

We ought to remind ourselves that beauty starts from inside and if we are healthy by internally feeding our mind and body with the wisdom and nutrients necessary, it is a great beauty regime that can also aid us to prevent or become aware of potential ailments sooner than later.