Lactivists have rushed to Jamie Oliver’s defense.
As I wrote on Friday, in his efforts to promote it Oliver ignited a firestorm by claiming that breastfeeding is easy and convenient.
Charlotte Gill, writing in the Independent, is typical of Oliver’s defenders. The title of her piece Jamie Oliver was right to comment on breastfeeding – we can’t silence debate for the sake of oversensitive mums is dripping with judgmentalism. Apparently lactivists just can’t help being Sanctimommies.
Gill says:
[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”#F61014″ class=”” size=””]Opposition to women’s bodily autonomy is sexism.[/pullquote]
Unfortunately for Oliver, women are feeling more sensitive than ever about any claim ‘breast is best’. Over the last decade, the non-breastfeeding community has developed a faux-sense that society is ganging up on them; judging them for choosing alternative methods of feeding their babies. On learning of Oliver’s interview, many told him promptly to get back in the kitchen.
Way to miss the point Ms. Gill!
Let me see if I can explain the issue in a way you might understand:
Imagine if Jamie Oliver had said pregnancy is easy and convenient and therefore women’s shouldn’t use birth control; they should simply give birth to as many children as nature intended.
Would you be surprised at the ensuing outcry? Would you claim that women objecting to a man telling them not to use contraception were “oversensitive”? I doubt it. I suspect that you would be outraged right along with the rest of us at the idea that a man should tell a woman how she should feel about pregnancy and whether she should control her own fertility. You’d probably insist that such a view is profoundly sexist.
I wouldn’t be surprised if your outrage stemmed from your belief that a claim that pregnancy is easy and convenient is absurd. You’d probably insist (just as I would) that no one has a right to control a woman’s ovaries and uterus except the woman who owns them. They are parts of her body and how she uses them is protected by the principle of bodily autonomy. Opposition to her bodily autonomy is sexism.
Guess what? Breasts are also body parts and how a woman uses them is up to her and no one else, protected by the very same principle of bodily autonomy.
Ms. Gill laments:
… But any sort of advocation of breastfeeding is now seen as oppressive to those who can’t do it. I understand that it’s difficult and painful for many women – but when it has some many positive health outcomes, it’s for the greater good that we promote it.
It is a myth to think that the non-breastfeeding community is the silenced one; for years they have made known their difficulties. And they are wrong to assume that most people judge them for this.
But we must not be so sensitive to them as to whitewash the benefits of breastfeeding. It’s important – and if it takes a man to remind everyone of that fact, than so be it.
Would she insist that opponents of contraception aren’t oppressive to women? Would she claim that opponents of contraception have been silenced? Would she bewail listening to women whitewash the benefits of pregnancy?
I doubt it.
She would (hopefully) recognize that the issue is not the purported benefits of pregnancy to babies or to society as a whole, the issue is a woman’s right to control her own body. Similarly she should recognized that the issue at stake with Oliver’s comments is not the purported benefits of breastfeeding to babies or society, the issue is a woman’s right to control her own body.
It is sexist to oppose women’s right to control their own breasts, and no amount of hiding behind the purported benefits of breastfeeding for babies mitigates that sexism.
Meanwhile, the outcry has led Oliver to walk back his statements.
…I understand that breastfeeding is often not easy and in some cases not even possible but just wanted to support women who DO want to breastfeed and make it easier for them to do so… As a father … I would never wish to offend women or mums …
As a father of daughters, he should be deeply concerned about their right to bodily autonomy. His comments weren’t offensive merely because he ignored the very real difficulties of breastfeeding. They were offensive because he presumed to tell women how they should use their own breasts. That’s sexist and that’s why an apology was necessary.
