Description
Book SynopsisMother''s Milk examines why nursing a baby is an ideologically charged experience in contemporary culture. Drawing upon medical studies, feminist scholarship, anthropological literature, and an intimate knowledge of breastfeeding itself, Bernice Hausman demonstrates what is at stake in mothers'' infant feeding choices--economically, socially, and in terms of women''s rights. Breastfeeding controversies, she argues, reveal social tensions around the meaning of women''s bodies, the authority of science, and the value of maternity in American culture. A provocative and multi-faceted work,
Mother''s Milk will be of interest to anyone concerned with the politics of women''s embodiment.
Trade Review"Hausman's book is in the best tradition of cultural studies, readings of different sorts of cultural texts to make a series of important points about the issue of breastfeeding in the current American cultural climate." -- Lillian S. Robinson, Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University
Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Dead Babies 2. Rational Management 3. Breast Is Best 4. Stone Age Mothering 5. Womanly Arts 6. Breastfeeding, Feminism, Activism Epilogue: Lactation and Sexual Difference Notes Works Cited Index
