[Kobi]

Originally Posted by Miss Tick

I would like to talk about another aspect of this issue. Breastfeeding dolls and breastfeeding in general. A little girl picking up her doll and putting it to her breast is one thing. And a little kid who wants to breast feed her/his doll certainly has that option. However designing a doll whose main purpose is to make sucking noises while attached to flowers on a halter top your kid is wearing feels like a whole other ball game. It harkens back to the day when people believed a woman’s real job was as a baby factory and just naturally assumed she would get with a guy and drop some babies. It’s like training for little girls to assume their proper societal roles. It is not only gendered but biologically deterministic. Of course all toy dolls further perpetuate gender roles. That can’t be helped. And to a certain degree is fine. However a milking doll takes biology to a whole other level. With all the subtly of a train wreck it reinforces societal beliefs that little girls and women are biologically inclined towards child rearing and nurturing behaviors. According to proponents of these dolls, they teach nurturing skills to little girls. I think we have always focused on teaching nurturing skills, often confused with passivity and compliance, to our female offspring. How about a little nurturing skills for our boy children? I mean since when is nurturing behavior only a good thing when done by a woman?

Another problem I see with breastfeeding dolls is how it helps to reinforce the established belief that breast feeding is the normal way to feed a baby. I understand that it is the accepted best way to feed one’s child. The benefits of breast feeding make it the good choice. It’s just that it ends up sounding like breast feeding is the only choice for good mothers. And to chose convenience instead makes you a bad mother or at the least a selfish mother who puts her own needs over the needs of her child. WIC, a program that gives assistance to women in need, has decided it can cut back on infant formula making it only supplemental because women should just breast feed. Again others are controlling women’s bodies and telling them what they should be doing with them.

I believe breast feeding should be a socially accepted act. Currently it is seen as impolite at best in the western world. Maybe it’s because women’s bodies are too much viewed as sexual rather than functioning. Women’s breasts are seen as sex objects that need to be hidden away. So while I agree breast feeding needs to become more publicly acceptable, I am talking about women breast feeding not little girls breast feeding. Little girls strapping on flower nipples to breast feed their sucking dolls just seems fraught with biological determinism and a healthy degree of ickyness.

This makes a lot of sense to me. Especially seeing the web site for these dolls says this:

Why Little Girls Need to Learn to Breastfeed

Little girls need to learn to breastfeed. Berjuan Toys, the company that has always supported the development of small children by producing interesting, engaging dolls, continues its tradition with the release of this innovative baby doll, The Breast Milk Baby.

The Breast Milk Baby lets young girls express their love and affection in the most natural way possible, just like mommy! The Breast Milk Baby represents a revolution in design by teaching children the nurturing skills they’ll need to raise their own healthy babies. Just put on the fashionable top included with each Breast Milk Baby, bring the baby’s mouth up to the pretty flower, and enjoy the closeness, the loving bond between mother and child.

The United States Health Resources and Services Administration has made it a national goal to have at least 75% of all mothers breastfeeding for at least six months by 2010. The Breast Milk Baby will help to reach that goal by helping to accept and promote breastfeeding as the most loving, healthy practice for a mother and her infant1.

Breastfeeding isn’t just a wonderful practice for the health of the infant. Mothers who breastfeed are more likely to return to their former weight before childbirth, and have a reduced risk of breast cancer and osteoporosis for the rest of their lives2. The Breast Milk Baby helps mothers and children get the most out of life, while spending less time and money at the doctor’s office!

Thanks for this. It is bringing my concerns into a better focus.